YMMV / The Bear (2022)

• Awesome Moments:
  • Carmy's monologue in episode 8, which runs an impressive 7 minutes, also doubling as a Tear Jerker. Carmy lays all his problems bare in only 7 minutes and over the course of them, understands what his problem is, but also realizes he's more vulnerable than he thinks he is.
  • Richie stepping in to do expo in the Season 2 finale "The Bear" when Sydney has to get on the line after Josh disappears and Carmy gets stuck in the walk-in fridge. Doubles as Catharsis Factor for reasons stated below.
• Awesome Music: The show's soundtrack is absolutely killer. From the moment you hear "Old Engine Oil" by The Budos Band over the opening montage in episode 1, you know you're in for a wild ride.
  • The recurring use of "New Noise" by Refused. Used in the series premiere as an intro that somehow effortlessly blends into the aforementioned "Old Engine Oil", in season 2 it's used twice as a build-up tune that takes little to no effort to get the viewer pumped up to see what's next.
  • The first real Wham Episode of the show, "Review" of Season 1, offers the audience some temporary comfort by opening up with Sufjan Stevens' "Chicago."
  • Of all things, "Love Story" by Taylor Swift. Richie belts it after nailing his new role as front-of-house.
  • Richie taking over for Carmy and actually kicking ass is made much more cathartic once "Animal" by Pearl Jam starts blasting out. That's when you know: things can actually work in their favor again.
• Base-Breaking Character: Claire. One part of the fandom thinks she is a bland Manic Pixie Dream Girl, the other thinks she is a well flashed-out character and brings contrast from outside the restaurant. A small third part is amused she isn't too busy being an emergency medical resident to teach Carmy about work-life-balance.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: At one point in "Braciole," Fak has a conversation with a character in the "Ballbreakers" arcade game. Although the show often features dream sequences and hallucinations, nothing like this moment happens anywhere else in the episode, and it's never referred to again or explained.
• Catharsis Factor: Richie finally finding his purpose as a front-of-house talent in "Forks" and subsequently getting his life together, culminating with him successfully leading The Bear's first night of service after things go haywire with Carmy being locked inside the freezer.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Xanax bottle in the kids' punch, anyone? Cicero's extremely chill reaction - mostly due to the fact that he hates the kids' behavior - really sells it.
  • Marcus finding the missing line cook, Josh, smoking crack. Marcus is actually fairly unfazed by it.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • Carmen suffers from flashbacks about his former boss and dead brother, which has made many believe that he has undiagnosed PTSD. He also says, "Who doesn't?" when Richie tells him he has panic attacks.
  • It's unclear exactly what's wrong with Donna. While it's clear that she has a drinking problem, multiple people have speculated whether she also has bipolar disorder or BPD.
  • Some fans speculate that Richie hated polishing the forks and forgot to buy new ones as a result of Mikey throwing them at Lee during "Fishes", as this fight was likely pushing Mikey further into his drug habit and suicidal ideation.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Carmy and Sydney are a hugely popular ship on social media, regardless of the show's lack of explicit direction about whether their dynamic will ever be anything more than platonic, causing ire when the show instead shilled the much less popular Claire as a love interest in Season 2 at the expense of Carmy and Sydney having more scenes together.
• Fandom Rivalry: Has one with the Ted Lasso fandom, particularly after The Bear won several awards at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards while Ted Lasso went home empty handed for what was the show's final season. This led to many Lasso fans accusing the show of being a case of Award Category Fraud that "stole" their show's awards, while The Bears fans accused the other side of being sore losers who ignore the fact the show is a Dramedy with several comedic moments and that Lasso suffered from Seasonal Rot in its final season.
• Friendly Fandoms: There's a good deal of overlap with the Community fandom - a picture of Danny Pudi can be seen on The Beef's celebrity wall, Richie uses Pierce’s catchphrase "streets ahead", and there are cameos from Joel McHale and Gillian Jacobs, the latter being the long-term partner of creator Christopher Storer.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Carmy's romantic arc with Claire in Season 2 and its rather heartbreaking conclusion hits harder when you consider that Jeremy Allen White's wife filed for divorce about a month before the season's release.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Marcus making the first of his desserts for The Bear in "Honeydew" and his satisfied smile as he recognizes his own progress. Double-so when Carmy and Sydney try his work in "Bolognese" and are vocally impressed.
  • When Sydney offers to cook for Sugar and makes the titular dish in "Omelette". Particularly for the care she puts into making a quick snack for Sugar, and a reminder for her that she is still a good cook after losing some of her confidence in the chaos of coming up with the menu.
  • During the fire suppression test, when the employees worry that failure will mean the end of their culinary journey together, they all flash back to the good times they've had together, underscoring how much they care of each other.
  • Carmy gets out of a panic attack by grounding himself by thinking of Sydney, and later tells her that she makes him better at his job.
  • In "The Bear", Donna shows up to the friends and family meal, but can't bring herself to go inside the restaurant, as she is torn between wanting to congratulate her children on their success, and scared that she might hurt it in some way. Pete speaks with her, and ends up telling her (at her insistence) that it's ok for her to walk away and attempt to reconnect with Carmy and Sugar later. He then goes back inside and speaks to Natalie, on the verge of tears himself, explaining that Donna won't be able to make it. He tells Nat how this one shouldn't count against Donna, saying that the night is simply a lot for anyone to handle, emotionally. Natalie is struck by this, and it serves as an indicator of why Sugar married Pete, because for all his blandness and off-putting attempts at friendliness, he is a caring, stable person who brings balance to someone like Sugar who so desperately needs that. It's extra heart-warming because his character is usually a punchline.
  • Richie serving Cicero a chocolate-covered banana for dessert in the finale.
  • Though he starts out hostile because he doesn't have the full story, once Richie realizes that Carmy's having a panic attack, he repeatedly tells him that he loves him, even as Carmy starts heaping vicious personal attacks on him.
• Jerkass Woobie: Richie is a crude, rude, self-righteous and overall obnoxious man-child whose devotion to tradition drives much of the show's tension. He's also a man grieving the death of his best friend, a father who doesn't get to spend as much time with his daughter as he wants (and has to deal with his ex bad-mouthing him to her), and a man who's losing his role in the restaurant, the one place where he feels he belongs. As much as you want to punch him in the face, it's hard not to feel bad for the guy. The latter part of Season 2 sees Richie pull himself out of a dark place and shed a number of the Jerkass tendencies.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • If you're a survivor of workplace abuse, Carmy's flashbacks are uncomfortably accurate.
  • The show's depiction of deadlines in general is terrifyingly accurate. The staff are shown constantly on tight deadlines, and the constant use of the word "fuck" only makes things ten times more intense. Episode 7, "Review", in particular is too much for those who have ever been too close to a deadline.
  • Donna's meltdown in "Fishes" is a chilling, self-destructive spiral that ends with her driving into the living room. As Mikey bashes on the door trying to get her out, she is seen chuckling, all the while Carmy and Nat look on in stunned shock.
• One-Scene Wonder: Both seasons feature a slew of recognizable actors in very brief but very acclaimed guest starring roles.
  • Joel McHale as the abusive head chef in Carmy's flashback in episode two. Many viewers with a restaurant kitchen background noted it was sadly very true to reality.
  • Molly Ringwald as the moderator of Carmy's Al-Anon meeting in episode 3, who gives a very emotional speech on how she enabled her dead husband's alcoholism and imparts a lesson about steering clear of a toxic environment, a lesson that would eventually become key to Carm's Character Development.
  • Will Poulter as Luca, the gentle and humble chef Marcus works with in Copenhagen who works not only as one hell of a Foil to Carmy but even worked under him long ago.
  • "Fishes" offers not one, but four insanely memorable one-episode wonders:
    • Jamie Lee Curtis as Donna, the matriarch of the Berzatto family and the number one source of Carmy and Natalie's present-day trauma. Her presence single-handedly transforms the episode into the most stressful episode in the show since "Review." It should also be noted, however, that she does briefly reappear in the Season 2 finale showing remorse for what she put her children through.
    • Bob Odenkirk as Uncle Lee, Donna's jerky new boyfriend who is more than likely the one who drove Michael past the Despair Event Horizon.
    • Sarah Paulson as Michelle, Carmy's cousin who not only sympathizes with him, but offers him a way out of his stressful home life via temporarily residing in New York where she lives.
    • John Mulaney as Michelle's boyfriend Stevie, the Only Sane Man and closest thing to Plucky Comic Relief amidst all the chaos.
  • Olivia Colman as Chef Terry, who runs a restaurant in Chicago where Carmy used to work and where Richie stages in season 2, with the latter bonding with Terry about their military fathers.
  • Sarah Ramos as Jessica, the extremely competent manager of said restaurant who effortlessly gathers information on customers to give them the best dining experience possible and warms to Richie, helping him learn to think in a similar manner.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Richie's role through the first season and a half basically consisted of making fun of Carmy for being into fancy food, responding to every reasonable point Carmy made about food or the restaurant with a string of profanities and getting into trouble, much to the annoyance of many viewers. The episode "Forks" is where he finally finds a purpose, discovers something he cares about and begins truly turning his life around. Afterward, he's a much more reasonable person and productive contributor to the restaurant.
• Spiritual Successor: Most often compared to the movie Uncut Gems, another incredibly stressful drama known for rampant profanity and loud, angry characters living in a big city.
  • Admit it, at a casual glance one would almost think this was a spinoff of Shameless (US) starring Lip. Even the character's cynicism, his chosen profession and the Chicago setting is starkly in evidence.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • Carmy is given a hard time for prioritizing his relationship with Claire over working on The Bear. However, if without him, no one can perceive things like a shelf should be on the right side of the wall for easy access, or simply going ahead and placing a single call to replace a door handle, they come off as useless employees who like to shift the blame instead of actually working together towards the goal. Sydney is the worst offender.
  • Related, while not hostile in any way, shape or form, Claire gets the blame for distracting Carmy from his duties to The Bear. Even though she is shown to be extremely understanding, supportive and a healthy influence on him, which improves his mental health considerably. What she gets for this is being dumped at the season 2 finale, for he chooses his career over her.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Sydney is subject to this in light of her walking out in "Review". The intention was likely to show that Sydney had reached her breaking point: she had felt repeatedly disrespected by Carmy (taking her for granted, not approving her short rib dish, and frequently failing to communicate) and him losing his cool and going full Angry Chef from the to-go debacle pushed her over the edge. However, the fact remains that Sydney caused the crisis in the first place by leaving pre-order on, went behind Carmy's back and served a customer (who just happened to be a food critic) a dish she had explicitly been told wasn't ready, and left in the middle of the mess she caused. In addition, while Richie had treated her like crap throughout the first season, many feel she crossed a line by attacking his parenting skills in her "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  • Marcus is hit with this to a lesser extent. Like Sydney, he made a bad situation worse by neglecting his responsibilities and walking out during a crisis. His decision to return on his own partly alleviates this, but he still nags on Carmy like he is blameless.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: There are several health code violations in every episode. Some of it is Truth in Television, as not everybody would follow them.
  • Carmy, Sydney, and Tina should wear hair nets.
  • Aprons need to be taken off if not in the kitchen, but Carmy and Sydney go everywhere with theirs, even on the toilet or outside to smoke.

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