MIDNIGHT REVIEWS The Bear Season 4 Episode 2 Review
Midnight Reviews features reviews and thought pieces written and edited by a parent, at night, after bedtime.
The Bear Season 3 Episode 2: ‘Next’
Series created by: Christopher Storer
Featuring: Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri
Synopsis: Carmen (White) hands out some non-negotiables that are then of course negotiated. Marcus (Lionel Boyce) makes his return.
Review: If the season premiere traded in people’s love of season 2 and used it for more flexibility in its risky half-hour long montage, episode 2 brings us back to Earth with a terrific bang, and several bangs to follow. After the jumping back and forth in time we now have a bottle episode.
Bottle episodes have a history and the phrase is almost as well-known as phrases like ‘jump the shark’ or ‘cliffhanger.’ It’s an episode based mostly in one location, usually featuring only the main cast, with characters either confined or free to come and go as they choose. Whether it’s to save money (some shows would feature a bottle episode immediately after an expensive, perhaps effects-heavy episode) or simply because that’s where the creators want to go, a bottle episode’s focus, and its success or failure, is usually down to the writing. The Bear’s bottle episode is if the bottle has been left attached to a paint mixer.
It could be said that this is The Bear bringing itself back to normal service, but this is patently not the case. Carmen pushes a list of non-negotiables on the rest of the staff, including a different menu every night, and somehow seems surprised when any of them have something to say back to him.
It’s in the quieter interludes where The Bear really shines.
If this episode featured nothing more than each character’s reaction to this list, that would be enough, but fortunately it doesn’t rest on its laurels. That the show is not a comedy, despite descriptions to the contrary, doesn’t mean there aren’t laughs to be had. Some of the greatest dramas feature hilarious characters and sequences; drama does not equal dour.
And The Bear proves this, seemingly conscious in pushing its ‘fuck’ average up after episode one’s more sedate tone, and leaving Richie’s (Moss-Bachrach) reaction late, but not too late. These are just two examples of how The Bear builds up tension to produce equal amounts of shock and laughter.
These loud sequences make me think that it only needs for the characters to drop their self-respect for the show to become It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There’s the shouting over each other, yes, but there’s also the feeling that this is a dysfunctional family, all of them with some vague shared agenda (getting success) but their own methods of getting there (an evening with Fak, though, is a lot more promising than an evening with Charlie Kelly).
It’s in the quieter interludes where The Bear really shines, however. There is a moment, the smallest of twitches in a cheek that looks like it can’t possibly be faked, a micro expression that says it all about a character that is running desperately from feeling anything, but who needs to open up the tiniest bit, even if it’s just for a split-second, and it’s this exchange that proves Jeremy Allen White really is very good.
The restaurant is aiming for stars. The show has already achieved this aim and strides confidently through its next chapter. The promise of more Faks, and more of The Bear, enthrals.
The Bear is available to stream on Disney+.
Matthew D. Smith likes to overshare his views on movies and TV shows whenever and wherever he can. Indulge him, and follow him on Twitter or listen to the podcast he co-hosts with Leslie Wai.
