Isaac Choi
Editor-in-Chief
Cover photo from Fx’s The Bear. Image from FX Networks
Beginning in 2022, the FX original series The Bear ended after five seasons in mid June of this year.
The premise for this show is that an award-winning chef, Carmen Bearzatto (Jermey Allen White), returns home to Chicago to help rebuild and keep afloat his brother Micheal’s(Jon Bernthal) sandwich shop, known as The Original Beef of Chicagoland. This simple premise quickly evolves into a deep story full of family trauma anyone can get lost in.
The main cast of characters featured Carmy, Richie Jerimovich(Ebon Moss Bacharach) Sydney Adamu(Ayo Edebri) Tina Marreo(Liza Colon Zayas) Marcus Brooks (Lionel Boyce) Ebraheim(Edwin Lee Gibson) and Sugar Bearzatto(Abby Elliot).
This cast each features their own personal development over the course of the series. Most importantly, Richie starts off being closed off, aggressive and without purpose. But the episode “Forks” in Season 2 changes him into a caring, and charismatic person who learns what it’s really like to work in the kitchen.
The show features a wide variety of guest stars, such as Will Poutler who played Luca in Season 2. He was essentially to Marcus’ development as a pastry chef, delivering a monologue on not pressuring yourself to always be the best.
“You can spend all the time in the world here, but if you don’t spend enough time out there…” said Luca during his monlouge.
Most importantly, in the season 2 episode “Fishes,” in a flashback to a Bearzatto Christmas family dinner, guest stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Jon Bernthal both delivered Emmy-winning performances in the episode. During the scene at the dinner table there is an intense argument between Uncle Lee(Bob Odernik) and Micheal, where Micheal continues to throw forks at Lee. This scene was known to give viewers chills. Guest stars such as Jamie Lee Curtis continued to appear throughout the series, appearing in six more episodes.
The show went on short run of dominating the Emmys receiving 10 in season 1 and 11 in season 2 but receiving its last till recently on Sept 14.
The final season takes place mostly over the course of one day. On this day there is a storm that halts traffic and makes service for the restaurant tough, leading to a packed service that night, this leads to a high pressure night, where they have to serve special guests such as a weatherman and Marcus’ estranged father. In the final episode in the recovery of the hard service, it is revealed that the restaurant “The Bear” has received two Michelin stars ending the series on the goal the chefs had from the beginning.
