The Bear review: Season 2 cracks the characters wide open, with remarkable results
- TV Show
Minority opinion alert: Season one of The Bear was beautiful but aloof, a work of art that was easier to appreciate than enjoy. The acclaimed dramedy from Christopher Storer — starring Jeremy Allen White as Carmen Berzatto, a brilliant, tortured chef who returns to Chicago to run his family's struggling sandwich shop after his brother's suicide — delivered salty tension, sour regret, and bitter black humor. But it lacked the sweetness of emotional connection, as the meaning behind all the well-acted misery remained just out of reach.
How is it, then, that in the new season of The Bear, the presentation of a savory cannoli — mortadella mouse, parmesan shell — reduced me to tears? This time around, there are no missing ingredients: In the stirring sophomore season, Storer folds in layers of insight about his kitchen characters, linking the brokenness of their past with the anxiety and ambition of their present. As Carmy and Co. venture outside of their dysfunctional Beef family bubble, The Bear serves up 10 new episodes that are reliably intense and watchable, but even more tender.
Renovations are just underway when we pick up in the season 2 premiere. (All episodes drop today on Hulu, though The Bear is technically an FX show. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) Even with Natalie (Abby Elliott), Carmy's uptight but organized sister, helping with the endless avalanche of paperwork and permits and approvals and inspections, transforming The Beef into a fine dining establishment called The Bear is almost immediately overwhelming. (Sample dialogue about the Byzantine bureaucracy: "Now, we have to file to do business as The Bear and pay a fine for not doing business as The Beef originally, because according to the IRS, we're assholes.")
Even the $300k Carmy's late brother, Mikey (Jon Bernthal), stashed in the tomato cans isn't going to be enough, so the Berzatto siblings and their newly minted chef, Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), bring a proposal to the source of said cash: Mobbed up Uncle Jimmy Cicero (Oliver Platt). Tasked with turning a profit in 18 months or less, the crew is launched into a desperate scramble for glory — or disaster.
"I have to remind myself to breathe sometimes," Carmy admits to his Al-Anon support group. This season, The Bear makes a similar effort to find calm amid the ever-whirling cyclone of chaos and suspense. Unsure of his place in Carmy's new fine-dining vision, cousin Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) embarks somewhat reluctantly on a journey to find his purpose.
All the core characters are pushed outside of their discomfort zones into the territory of personal growth. Sydney, who can't shake the feeling that her father (guest star Robert Townsend) thinks her latest culinary venture will fail, finds an unlikely source of comfort in a famous basketball coach. Nat, facing a major development in her personal life on top of the financial gamble of The Bear, is forced to confront her fear of change. And Carmy, the guy who literally had to Google "fun," begins to toy with the idea that allowing himself a little happiness — perhaps with his childhood crush, Claire (Molly Gordon) — might actually make him even better at what he does.
This theme runs throughout the season. The Bear's amiable pastry chef, Marcus (Lionel Boyce), seeks menu inspiration overseas. He trains with Carmy's former colleague Luca (Will Poulter), a kind but exacting pastry chef who believes true culinary excellence comes from a life well lived. "You can spend all the time in the world in here," says Luca, as he and Marcus work to divvy up a giant mound of dough into 25-gram rounds. "But if you don't spend enough time out there…" He trails off, but the meaning is clear. It's one of several poignant scenes that highlight cooking as meditation, where the repetitive act of preparing food — or polishing glassware, or fixing a wobbly table — facilitates quiet bonding between characters.
That peace stands in jarring contrast to a pivotal flashback episode, featuring a dizzying detour through the Berzatto family's Christmas dinner. A night that begins in festive, crowded-house pandemonium ultimately collapses into catastrophe, and the extended episode — packed with a variety of guest stars too thrilling to spoil — offers an invaluable window into The Bear's core characters. It's all there, the origins of Carmy's introversion, Natalie's fretful resentment, Richie's simmering self-loathing, and Michael's dogged efforts to hide his demons from those who love him most.
It's an electrifying showcase for the ensemble cast, who are almost certainly about to experience an Emmy-nomination windfall for their work in season 1. White, whose forlorn stare and chiseled biceps propelled him to Internet-boyfriend status last year, gets to smile more this season, and the actor brings a sweet awkwardness to Carmy's tentative emotional expansion. (His eyes, however, remain a wellspring of angst and longing.) After giving one of the best TV performances of 2022, Moss-Bachrach continues to dazzle as The Bear's beating (broken) heart; the actor can communicate volumes with just a shift in gaze or a deliberate pause. Edebiri is a master of comedic understatement, while Platt is hilariously intimidating as Jimmy, whose gentle murmur is somehow more terrifying than a full-throated yell.
"EVERY SECOND COUNTS" reads a sign in Luca's kitchen. It is an order, a motto, a warning, a critique. For Carmy and the show itself, the lesson is the same: letting the outside world in can transform something beautiful into something completely breathtaking. Grade: A
All 10 episodes of The Bear season 2 are streaming now on Hulu.
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