Why I Love The Bear

If you have never seen an episode of The Bear, it’s worth getting a trial subscription to Hulu just to watch 3 seasons of this show.

The Bear is about a highly dysfunctional yet somehow loving family in Chicago who runs a small Italian beef sandwich shop. When tragedy strikes, the son who is training to be a gourmet chef in New York City comes home to manage the restaurant. Without giving too much away, chaos ensues.

Yes, this show is filled with the F word and there’s lots of yelling and screaming. Critics say the scenes of back of the house restaurant life are spot on. But there is also a connection among the characters, a fierce love and support of each other that transcends all the craziness. There are lines that make you laugh out loud along with tenderness that brings tears to your eyes without being the least bit melodramatic or Hallmark channel-ish.

The episode I watched last night was the backstory of one of the employees. 46-year-old Tina is laid off from a job she held for years and cannot find another job. We watch painful scenes where, time and again, she is blithely dismissed by young hipsters when she shyly hands them her hard copy resume. (“Haven’t you ever heard of Indeed?”) Utterly discouraged, she wanders into the sandwich shop to get a cup of coffee and Richie, one of the most profane and lovable characters on the show, hands her a free beef sandwich in the midst of the lunch rush. She takes it to a table, starts to cry, and one of the other characters, (after an expletive-filled shouting match with his cohorts about who is going to fix the exploding toilet) sits down and talks to her, eventually offering her a job as a line cook. The final scene shows her at home, proudly holding the restaurant tee-shirt she will wear to work the next day.

At a time when the news makes me want to curl into a fetal position in a dark corner, this show gives me hope. Everyone is loaded with baggage, they fight and argue and hurt each other and yet, somehow, find a way to make things work.  Time and again, when the chips are down, whether it’s Carmie, the lead character, locking himself in the walk-in freezer or the pastry chef losing his beloved mother, the characters eventually do the right thing although they stumble and fall and often make terrible mistakes getting there. Like the rest of us.  

Past all that bubbles on the surface of this show—the swearing, the kitchen madness, the volatile personalities--lies a deep and powerful story of humanity. A story of handing someone a free sandwich and offering a listening ear when they least expect it and need it most.