FX’s unexpected hit, ‘The Bear’, immediately hurls us into a typical fast-paced, loud, chaotic kitchen.
How does Alice, from Alice in Wonderland, fall down the rabbit hole to come out unchanged? She doesn’t. And neither does, Carmy, a tormented culinary genius who returns home to help transform his family’s Chicago sandwich shop after his brothers sudden and unexpected death.
“What I find attractive in people is a determination. If you're truly good at something, that's incredibly attractive," White says. "I understand people having a crush on Carmy. I think I have a bit of a crush on Carmy."
Leading the cast is Jeremy White as Carmy, who is as new to The Beef as we are. We get to know the restaurant's ins and outs alongside him, as well as feel the rest of the staff's initial resistance to his new system.
Creator of The Bear, Christopher Storer, chose Jeremy White for his "warmth and intelligence" and because "there’s something a little dangerous to him."
White plays a tattooed, tousle-haired chef who, when he’s not shouting orders in a frantic kitchen, is dexterously chopping vegetables, manhandling slabs of meat, or staring mournfully with heavy-lidded blue eyes.
The Bear could easily have fallen into the trap of making Carmy a jerk to everyone around him. Instead, White embodies Carmy's frustration and grief with a heaping amount of sensitivity. Carmy is introspective and closed-off to a fault, and even when he does snap, he's determined to make amends.
It’s what he asks for from his staff as he implements the brigade system for maximum efficiency and urges them to communicate more clearly — “Thank you, chef” becomes the catchphrase of the kitchen.
Some members of the staff are intrigued by the idea — particularly baker Marcus (Lionel Boyce), whose imagination has been ignited by Carmy’s arrival — but others are confused, and Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) is so annoyed with all these attempts to change the place that she briefly pretends she doesn’t speak English.
The kitchen staff is a melting pot of gigantic personalities that clash just as much as they spend cooking: Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), the ambitious sous chef, Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), the dirtbag pain-in-the-ass “cousin”, and Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas), the old hand who’s sick of everyone’s shit.
Every character is integral as they contribute to bring about a very real and lived-in feel of a typical kitchen workplace. As the season progressed, it was encouraging to see these characters let their barriers drop, build trust amongst each other, and begin to motivate each other to push beyond their limits.
The inside jokes and clip-bits of the stories mentioned between characters’ dialogue, makes you instantly feel like a part of the Beef’s “family”. We become emotionally invested in these passionate, loud-mouthed, fast-talking characters with bigger than life personalities. It’s also what animates all of the principal characters, who are flawed, lovable, and fully, blessedly human.
THE BEAR is a must watch!
