Nerve-wracking suspense over 247 minutes

2022 was a very exciting series year. New stories from Middle-earth and Westeros tested the medium’s blockbuster boundaries, while Better Call Saul ended one of the last great drama series à la The Sopranos and Mad Men. That these titles in numerous end-of-year lists I’m not surprised if it’s mentioned. On the other hand, I didn’t expect another series: The Bear.

No matter how carefully I study the monthly start lists: it has become impossible to keep an eye on all the streamers’ and broadcasters’ series. There are always projects that come out of nowhere and take me by surprise To be honest, surprises like The Bear are the best in a series year. Suddenly you can sink into an unfamiliar world for several hours.

Forget ratatouille, this is the ultimate stress test of kitchen movies

In the case of The Bear, it was actually 247 minutes that catapulted me into the hectic everyday life of a restaurant. Forget the comfort by Ratatouille: This is the kitchen version of Adam Sandler’s restless gambling odyssey in The Black Diamond – a sweaty experience.

You can watch the trailer for The Bear here:

The Bear revolves around talented chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), who is actually based in the world of fine dining in New York. After the death of his brother, he returns home to Chicago to take over his restaurant. What follows is – and I’m not exaggerating – a merciless struggle for survival. Already in the first episode everything is at stake.

Series creator Christopher Storer, who recently directed individual episodes of the award-winning Apple TV+ series Dickinson and Little Voice, has created a series that takes its characters into the world without warning worst possible situations maneuvered. For every problem Carmy solves, two new ones are added. He can’t afford to take a deep breath, because the whole restaurant might be burning down at that moment.

The Bear at Disney +: Every day in the restaurant a new end of the world

Missing guests, wrong deliveries, stress in the family: personal and professional conflicts rob Carmy of his sleep, not to mention the debts left by the deceased. The biggest challenge, however, is: Carmy, as the new boss of the old,
bereaved
teams
find a way to run the store. Fundamentally different philosophies meet here.

The disagreements range from food to work ethic. Each of the eight half-hour episodes is packed with frantic dialogue and movement that whole life stories include. One careless step in the kitchen can spell the end of the world. Storer shows us a world where there really is no time for nuances and yet every single one counts.

The camera whirls dizzyingly through steaming surroundings while new orders come in every second. Carmy should urgently press the stop button. Stop everything, turn it off – and then turn it upside down and check. He’s stuck, but the world keeps spinning so fastthat he can’t even think about how to get out of the impasse.

Amidst all the restlessness of The Bear, the raw emerges

The vibrant staging of The Bear captures that feeling perfectly. Despite their brevity, the episodes pack a mountain of information that tells us more about the infrastructure of the kitchen, the Chicago dining scene, and the family relationships Carmy struggles to survive within. But The Bear isn’t just incredibly good at cornering its protagonist.

The series always becomes masterful when it emotional worlds of the other characters confronts Carmy. He moves through the kitchen furiously and with blinders on. The realization that he has to engage with the people around him just as much as they have with him hits him completely unexpectedly. In extreme situations, Storer not only looks for nervous breakdowns, but above all encounters.

Between the stovetop, refrigerator and counter, there is hardly any way to avoid each other anyway. So Storer crashes the characters right into each other and stays with them until they calm down. Even in the most hopeless situations we can in these scenes observe something sincere, which takes the series one step further without being formulaic. Very raw, very close.

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Have you checked out The Bear yet? thrown?