The Bear

I enjoyed most of season 3 of The Bear, it was perfectly fine. Instead of blathering on in one long post wrap-up, I'm just gonna drip/drab a thought or two out there over the next few days or so.

The writers put WAAAAAAAAAY much more stock into Claire as a character than I ever did. I took her seriously for about zero seconds last season, assuming of course Carmy would blow it with her and she wouldn't matter so I didn't let myself get too emotionally invested in her, which apparently is the exact opposite of whatever the writers/produces et al thought about her.

Why does the very existence of the restaurant hinge on one review? Wouldn't that be something a restaurant struggling to get customers would think? But getting butts in the seats doesn't seem to be the restaurant's problem - see their effort to flip over another entire seating because there's so much demand, for instance - so why would this one review be the be-all end-all for the restaurant?

I’m still waiting for someone to mention Carmy’s big showdown with Joel McHale, as in…that’s it? That’s what’s turned Carmy into whatever monster he hates inside of himself, an asshole chef? Really? Isn’t that a big part of the narrative of the great chef story, that one can only become a great chef when put through the ringer by an asshole chef? And yet here we are, supposed to be all wrapped up in the idea that OMG!! Joel McHale was mean to Carmy? And that’s what the basis of so much of Camry’s trauma is? What?

"Yeah...you know, I wasn't this much of a pussy back when I was Lip fuckin' Gallagher..."