Sorry for the bump but noticed this story going round.

Demand for Italian Beef Is Booming. Thank ‘The Bear.’

That is cool to hear and now I will need to see this.

It’s very good. It moves so fast it almost feels like they had 40 minutes of story packed into a 30-minute show.

BUT it will have a second season, so you may not want to watch it.

IF I know ahead of time I don't get frustrated with them having one when I expect it to be wrapped up. Knowing going in really helps with all the content out there.

Wasn't interested at all and completely missed the information.

Took two nights to binge this.

Watched with the fam, the wife wanted to quit like 20 minutes in, the kids and I were intrigued by the pace and "randomness" of the pilot.

We all got into it, found a lot of the little hints along the way. Loved the change of pace in the middle three eps. Then BAM, EPISODE 7.

And certainly one to watch again to find all of the nuances.

Now just finished the thread, and thanks. We also wanted to know wtf the ending meant.

And yah, I want me a sammich.

I'm up to episode 6 and enjoying the show although I don't know why it's in top 10 lists. It's a sandwich shop, why isn't it open 11AM to 2PM. It's great that the pastry chef is making delicious cakes but I've never gotten dessert from a sandwich shop. The so-called amazing sandwich is only seen in passing. And then it looked awful only filling half the bun.

What I didn't quite get was why there was so high a standard in their cooking and the incredible amount of pressure they put on themselves. This is something I would expect from a high end restaurant with wealthy customers with discerning taste, etc.... but they're doing all this for a sandwich shop that caters to what seems like average joe-shmoe customers.

^ well, the lead used to work at the high end places and probably took his system to the sandwich shop. He had very high standards at the high end places, why not his deceased brother’s sandwich shop?

From The Ringer’s article on The Best Performances of 2022 :

Ayo Edebiri as Sydney Adamu in The Bear

Seemingly out of nowhere, The Bear practically smashed through our TV screens this summer. The show’s frenetic energy mirrored that of its lead character, Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), who earned much of the initial attention as the series’ resident chef de bad boy. But in the end, as viewers would come to realize, it was Sydney, played expertly by Ayo Edebiri, who grounded the series, serving as an understated foil to Carmy’s masculine bravado. Sydney and Carmy are two sides of the same coin: Both are highly intelligent, ambitious, and passionate about their work. But only Sydney has to contend with the verbal abuse dished out by restaurant manager Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), line cook Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas), and Carmy himself. Edebiri effectively channels the complicated struggle of working for someone you admire but also kind of hate. It’s a special, if confusing, dynamic that takes real skill to sell on the screen. Sydney’s arc throughout The Bear was a real thrill to watch, and after the satisfying conclusion of the first season, we all can’t wait to see how she takes the new namesake restaurant to the next level. —Aric Jenkins

I watched all eight episodes... twice... in the last week. First by myself, then again with my wife. We both really enjoyed it a lot. Damn near perfect, IMO. I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do with season 2.

I am only on episode 3, so I am not going to review the thread in case of spoilers, but already I am pissed off at the way the show depicts restaurant management. Maybe things have changed now that we live in a world where people refuse to take service industry jobs, but how does Carmy (and I hate that, just call him by his fucking name) expect to change the way the business runs if he has employees who refuse the slightest changes.

There's this new thing called firing old people and hiring new people. Presumably, if he is a big enough deal in the food world, there would be people in Chicago that would want the opportunity to work with/for him, and do things his way. And it's not like the veteran employees are so good at their jobs anyways. Isn't Carmy complaining that the food they have been serving sucks?

Shut down. Clean house. Start up again.

not a spoiler

Season 2 airs early this summer, it will be ten episodes. https://deadline.com/2023/01/the-bea...es-1235220620/

We finished it this evening after starting it a few days ago.

Might be my favorite series over the past year or so

Yup one of the few TV shows that's lauded by critics and still lives up to all of the hype.

For a great show that’s not terribly appealing upon first glance, what a horrible teaser for Season 2.

They haven't even been filming for a month yet. It was just Disney using the Oscars as a platform to advertise that it's coming.

Woah. Awesome.

Holy shit that's huge.

All s2 episodes will be available June 22nd, know what I'll be doing that evening: https://deadline.com/2023/05/the-bea...lu-1235359053/

Seems like a weird choice to drop all episodes at once. They could own the conversation (or "Hold the Belt" as the podcasters on The Watch like today) all Summer if they drop new episodes weekly for 2 months. Don't know why they wouldn't want to dole them out a little more slowly like HBO does with great success.

Edit : Are we sure that's what they're saying? That they're all available 6/22? It's not entirely clear to me. It could be all episodes steaming on Hulu.

Yeah, there's nothing here that says all 10 episodes will be available in one shot. Just that all 10 episodes will be streamed exclusively to Hulu... however they dish them out (pardon the pun).

It's all 10 at once: http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2.../20230508fx01/

The first season was all at once too. I think it played better being able to watch it all at once and not weekly. But I agree, for the hit that the show became, it's surprising they aren't stretching it out.

They definitely NEED to air them all at once. This just ain’t that show to keep people coming back over and over.

it is a great show, though.