I am up to S1 E7. Waiting for Ritchie to get some comeuppance like he’s Carter Burke.
My wife often talks about the tension in the show and my standard reply is the The Bear does tension better than anybody. That’s what it’s like working in a restaurant, at least in my experience.
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I liked season 2 ep 7 just as much. Season 2 in general is fantastic.
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It’s an incredibly accurate portrayal of kitchen culture, both in the 5* scenes and in their neighborhood joint.
Had to look up which one that was, and I agree. So is Ep7
It had Leonard’s novel City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit to draw off of, I think they just replaced the protagonist with Raylan, among other changes I assume.
Finished S1. The finale was not at all what I expected (although Ritchie got his comeuppance and now I am sad for him). Looking forward to S2 though.
Just remember: there’s money in the ice cream stand.
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And the way you know it’s accurate is that very famous, high end chefs that own top end restaurants are bitching about it scaring away potential employees.
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Without giving away anything, you’re going to be surprised and pleased at Ritchie’s development in Season 2.
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It started in industry circles before “The Menu”, with widespread reports out of NYC regarding sexual harassment and such, but that movie really got the ball rolling in popular circles. The “best restaurant in the world”, Noma in Copenhagen, had to close because of the horrific working environment and staff abuse by the chefs. Same with The Willows Inn on an island north of Seattle, one of the 10 or so best restaurants in the US.
The Bear has certainly not helped that situation. It’s an incredibly tough industry, but it doesn’t need to be run like a military boot camp.
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I don’t think those two things are in this show. Yes, it is a brigade kitchen which to me is just kinda showing off because a small kitchen and half the staff in support roles (dishwasher) doesn’t scream inflexible chain of command/station ownership to me but dramatically I get it. That sort of setup and indeed the tension seen throughout service in the episodes isn’t abusive, at least not in the same way that ‘horrific working environment and staff abuse’ is in those shit-for-brains establishments. It’s kinda the way Billy Martin used to run his teams, yelling and driving and breaking them down vs. just the native emotion and tension that occurs during a service rush. I don’t see that much in The Bear of abuse of others, there’s respect amid the inevitable conflict and the conflict generally gets acknowledged as a weakness with a pledge to do better.
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I kind of thought Lefty’s (or was it Texifornia’s?) comment about the 5-star restaurants was specifically directed at the scene where Bear was working in the white kitchen and the head chef was whispering horrible things in his ear over his shoulder.
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Pretty much that exact thing was a common occurrence in the kitchen while my brother was working for [famous chef redacted]
And no, Ron, I was talking about the industry in general, which is currently having a massive “come to Jesus” moment wrt the treatment of workers, not the tv show.
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Here’s a thought: maybe if the head chefs weren’t abusive to their staff, they would be able to hire good people. Or is it just the age-old issue of the abused becoming abusers?
Sorry, I thought that by saying ‘The Bear has certainly not helped that situation’ you meant it was showing the same abusive behavior in their kitchen. And I agree the industry is finally waking up to those shitheads and trying to stop their behavior. Discipline and strict adherence to technique under duress is a breeding ground for these little Napoleons and juvenile assholes to serially abuse and that has to stop.
Getting into S2, and Ritchie is still a cockwomble. Just more comedic than malevolent.
So now just a womble.
Give him a chance…
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Richie became my favorite character.
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I wear suits now!
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I love character development!
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