The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘The Bear’ Season 3, Episodes 1-2: Yes, Chef!

Episode Date: June 28, 2024

Charles Holmes and Van Lathan step back into the kitchen to recap the first two episodes of ‘The Bear’ Season 3. They start by discussing why the opening moments of the season felt like a visual poem, how long Carmy and Syd can coexist in the restaurant’s new world order, and the competing ideologies that pit the characters against one another (2:59). Along the way, they debate whether Carmy is too demanding of everyone (31:27). And later, they parse if the FX series can still be funny as it expands its storytelling approach (39:55). Hosts: Charles Holmes and Van Lathan Producer: Kai Grady Additional Production Support: Justin Sayles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, my name is Dave Gonzalez, and I haven't read any of the books in George R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. I'm Joanna Robinson and I've read every book in Georgia R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. And I'm Neil Miller and I have also read those very heavy books. Years ago, we hosted a Game of Thrones podcast called A Storm Spoilers, and we're thrilled to head back to Westrose to cover the second season of House of the Dragon on the Trial by Content feed. We'll be using our book knowledge to dive deep into each episode and answer your lingering questions. So send us a raven every week to Trial by Content at Gene. email.com. Follow and subscribe to trial by content on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast to

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I'm Charles Holmes. He's Van Lathen. Together we're known as the Midnight Boys. And we're back to discuss season three of the Bear Cousin, how are we feeling? I'm feeling good. I'm ready to get back to it, man. I'm ready to get back to the beef. So I have to introduce one more person

Probably the most important part of this equation Okay The Sydney to our Carmen and Richie Oh wow Kai Turn your fucking mic on What's up Charles? What's up, Ben?

How are you doing? All right, we were talking, I was talking before the pod. Kai, Kai is blown up a little bit. Like since we last did this, Kai's been everywhere. Yeah, Kai is, it's almost, it's bothering me a little bit.

Kyes has sent through the ringer is he's a little bit meteoric. Yeah. Right? He's taken over. And I don't understand how it's happening. He's on Stephen Jones's neck, bro. He's hungry.

It's tough for my guys, man. How are you feeling like I? I'm just hyped to be back in the kitchen. It's hectic, it's chaotic, it's scary. But I'm excited. Well, you know what else I'm excited about, guys? It's the summer of midnight. I'm realizing the midnight boys are taken over the ringer verse.

Like, they can't stop us, the entire ringer. All right. We will be breaking down all 10 episodes of the bear. The next show will drop. We're breaking down episodes three and four. But even more importantly, we're fucking on YouTube now. What? YouTube.com slash ringerverse.

All right. Go like and subscribe. Even Kai was surprised. Kai, have you been locking in? Have you been watching the videos? The graphics are insane. Oh, hell yeah. We had some Carmen and Richie.

We're happy to say that, Kai. And last minute. not least, the Ringerverse, Midnight Boys, Talk the Thrones, button mash, min edition, live at the fucking L. Ray Theater this summer in LA. We're going to be there on July 17th. Check out ringer.com slash events for more information now that we're done with all the programming bullshit. Let's break down these episodes. Let's do it. Episode one, two, tomorrow and next. Directed by Story by Teleplay by Christopher Storer,

Maddie Matheson also jumps in with a story by credit on episode one and Courtney Storer, Christopher Storer's sister, also has a story by credit on episode two. First episode back, almost a little bit like a tone poem of different timelines. We have one in the present

where we get the immediate aftermath of Karmie after he gets out of the walk-in. He apologizes to Sydney, Richie as Marcus deals with the death of his mother. And then in the past, we see what Karmie's time working at restaurants like Noma, Daniel, and the French Laundry was like and his toxic relationship with David Field,

aka played by Joe McHale. Then next, the employees of the bear struggle with Carmi's list of non-negotiables as Carmi and Richie are at each other's next. Sydney struggles with signing Carmi's partnership agreement and Marcus asked Carmi to take the bear all the way then. Let's start with episode one, initial thoughts. I thought it was fantastic.

I thought it was one of the most moving and stirring episodes of television. ever seen. Also, the episode to me was interesting because of what it was saying about what the creatives behind the bear think of the show. They think, in my opinion, that this is the season that everybody will watch. Because if there was no season one or season two, you could have started the show with this episode. Yes. and been completely caught up. This is almost Karmie's origin story.

Like, we've heard these stories before, but this is the first time we are seeing it from Karmie's perspective, where I was like, that's a risky play. Like, this entire first episode is very risky because there's not much dialogue. It is almost just Christopher Storer putting his fucking foot through this episode being like,

just through the way it's shot, the cinematography, the music, everything, trusting that we're so locked in that you will go on honestly a very, claustrophobic episode. This episode made me, like, I was like, ugh. Well, I think

the second episode speaks to a little bit more of the claustrophobia of the show for me. The first one was insanely liberating. Yeah, the first episode was almost like a poem. Yeah.

It was lyrical in its execution. It was kind of like previously on the bear for like 36 minutes. Yeah. But done in such a moving way. It's so choreographed that every single scene of him plating, every single word said, every single emotion hit so hard. And there was, you know, there's some criticisms of the bear that they don't, these characters don't necessarily change or grow in any way.

A lot of people have said that. There was a scathing review written by Slate. Oh, I already saw the opening the Hendry Kissinger line. And I'm like, I will get back to this after we record. This episode clearly shows so much development from Karmie. And he hasn't even really talked. They develop him through his reactions to his situations, through how other people perceive him,

through how he perceives them, and the station that he's at at the end of the episode. It's fantastic, man. I mean, the first episode and honestly, even the second, was so tragic for me because you are seeing Karmie in the past timeline falling in love with food, falling in love with fine dining, and you see the different chefs

that see something in him. The Olivia Coleman character, she's like, have you ever been to Copenhagen? Like, she sees something when she's like really, really getting at him and how fast he gets and how he's taking in the information. And you realize, like,

oh, this is how we got to know him in all these other places where he's talking to all these chefs. And then you see the moment with Mikhail where you're like, oh, this is where it goes wrong for karma. And we had seen that all the way through, but it's done in such a way where it's like, oh, now we see the moment where Sydney falls in love

with Karmie's food for the first time. When he changes up the menu for her because she has allergies, and it's like, oh, this is the moment where like Sydney becomes a little Karmie and Karmie starts to become like Joe McHale. Yeah. You know, and it was almost true. tragic because you knew it happened this entire time, but this is the first episode where they're, like, visually showing you the timeline of him digressing. Yeah, there was one line that it kind of, I felt like, encapsulated everything that was happening with his character in this episode.

He's getting ready to leave, and she goes, do you have everything? Yeah. And he said, New York's got everything. New York has everything. Everything good and everything bad. it's a wondrous place full of opportunity and self-discovery

but it's also a place that when you fail you fail it's bad magnificently right it's like it's crazy crazy crazy crash and burn you put your little put the little stick with the little

handkerchief into your stuffing in you take your ass back to your podunk hometown and you're like forever humbled by your experience in the big city when I moved to New York when I was Carmi's age. It was just like flash. I was like horror flashback because I'm like, you know New York, you get there.

It stinks. Muffercus is moving fast. It's so much like, and you're like, dog, I'm not going back. I can't fail. I can't fail. And I was like, it did such a good job of also what I think moving to a city like a New York or in L.A. At that young age does to you where it's like you're grieving.

And all you have is the work. All you have is your dreams. He stinks. Like fucking, what's his face? It's like, dog, you smell. And it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is I'm here. Everything is here for me.

And I felt for his sister because she's like, are you coming back? Yeah. And I was like, oh, Karmie never planned to come back. She could tell. The determination that was on his face was a mixture of him wanting to push past what he saw around him, but also a desperation, something that could probably never be filled. Yeah. He's got this insatiable hunger.

pardon the pun, to be great at this. And that's what Olivia Coleman's character sees in him. Yeah. Because at first, he's making the same mistakes that somebody else would have made. She's telling them, she's asking them in the very passive-aggressive, hey, you need me to step in. But he gets it, and then she sees him. Everywhere she sees him, his mind is on art.

His mind is on creation. His mind is on cooking. His mind is on excellence and mastery. And it's almost like the show is about Karmie battling himself in which side of him is going to work. win. Yeah, because what's so interesting about the beginning of this season is Carmie and Sydney make a promise that Michelin stars don't matter. We're going to do the kitchen different from the way it is run, from the type of food we're making, making this a place

of love and creativity. And the minute Carby gets out of that walk-in, he's like, no, it's Michelin time. He's Joe McKeel. He's just like perfection, perfection, perfection. And even, like, as we see, as the season progresses, I'm like, I'm starting to one day. Can Carmi and Sydney co-exist just based on the fact that to one of them, this world of Michelin stars of excellence, of time being of no mistakes, time being important? Can that person co-exist with someone who is so in touch with their emotions and what they want to do? They're not chasing perfection. They're chasing the love of the craft. I don't.

Because already, I'm just like, it's not even that there's a dysfunctional kitchen. It's like these two people that love each other so much fundamentally do not see the world and cooking the same what? Cover bands last forever. Like Steel Panther, bands like that that are there for the fun, they last forever. They'll do those, there'll be cover bands forever. They'll play all of the hits. I once went to see this band called The Cops and it's a police cover band. Oh, no, we've never talked about it.

I love me some of the police. Turn that shit. It's good shit. But those bands, you know, they're touring around playing police cover song, sounded like sting, sounded, they last forever. The Beatles, those bands almost always break up. And the reason why they break up is because success makes what you're doing about you. So when you first start playing music, but when you first start making art, it's about the art. And when you become successful, it becomes about the art you made, right?

People first hear something and they go, oh, my God, it sounds so good. Well, the next time it comes out, they're going to the music because you made it. So you are in front of your thing. That has to happen. Yeah. You want that to happen. The balance that comes in from it, though, is how do you continuously keep your eyes and your focus on the things? that you're doing and not on yourself.

That's the thing that's going to break up Karmie and Sid or it's going to drive a wedge between them. Because when Karmie was saying, we don't need a Michelin Star, what he was essentially saying is that this has to be about the food and the experience. Yeah. And then when he gets into a place where he understands that he wants the adulation, then he starts to push everything through the lens of what he thinks is a great restaurant.

And what it's been drilled into him by the people he looked up to. Right, right, right. What he thinks it is, right? It's not, he's not building with them. He's making changes unilaterally. He's not taking a consideration what other people are thinking or what they're going through. And the question is, even if those suggestions are good, which we learn in the second episode that some of them are, that he has streamlined it, you can be right and still be wrong. Yeah.

You can be right for you and wrong for us. So that's the thing to your point that we'll see from him And also once again This show sometimes seems like it's literally about him cooking his trauma He's like preparing it Like he's like he's taking all of the shit from the past And he's baking it up or he's Butterflying it he's like reducing it

And then he's serving it to people And he's gonna run out of gas man I mean I am shameless plug but you were talking about bands check out the dissect feed very, very soon. We're doing a new season of last song standing on Outcast,

but in preparation for that, I went back, read a lot of old outcast profiles. Carmi and Sid remind me of the dynamic of an Andre and Big Boy. Wow, Landis playing. Tell me about it. Where it's like you have this one person in Andre who's doing it

for the love. They're weird. It's not about perfection. for like Sydney, like, Carmen's like, this is how you do it the best way possible. To me, that's Big Boy. Big Boy is like, when you think of Southern rap, someone with skills,

someone with a military precision, like Big Boy doesn't have whack verses, but you do know what you're getting from him. And in those old interviews, you would see Big Boy would be the one who's like, yeah, we understand our day one fans, the people from the hood, always going in on Andre, whatever.

But like, we're still hip-hop, we're still this. You see Andre in real time being like, guys, like, I'm trying to expand. I'm trying to do something new, something that's never been done before. And those two things make the best art. Those two things propel you.

But to your point, they can't coexist forever. Like, you can't have two people at the top of their game, one person who is about the tradition of the art form, and one person who is striving for something that's breaking away from it. That stuff is hard to sustain in any type of artistic collaboration.

Yeah, I mean, the fucking Colin brothers ended up breaking up, right? So it's like it's wanted people have different journeys in life. That's why collaboration is so beautiful. Collaboration is beautiful because it's taking somebody and grabbing them and saying, in this thing, in this endeavor, we're going to walk along together and we're going to give a little bit, right? And we're going to demand a little bit. That's why collaboration is so beautiful. But there are certain things that motherfucker don't want to collaborate on, right?

Oh, wait, can I ask this? Because here's the thing, am I getting washed and old? Because at a certain point, I'm like, I feel for Sydney, like, it's 2024, like, sister I stand for you. But also, it's his name on the shit. You know what I'm saying?

It's the bear. At a certain point, it's like, it, we, like, I'm like, you guys are partners. But you can't be surprised when a motherfucker is just like, this is how I want to do it. You know what I'm saying? It's not called the bear and Sydney.

Like, there's, there is a certain point where I'm like, you can't be surprised when this motherfucker's, fucking goes militant on you? Well, I mean, it just depends on the way you look at things, right? It's an interesting question, and I think it's going to be the central question to this season. If you can do, I'll take Stevie Wonder, for example. So there was a time in his career where Stevie Wonder could go in there and he could write the

song, he could sing the song, he could produce the record. And I'm not even bullshit, y'all. And Stevie could play all the instruments on the record, too. This is reminded me of the photo of little Michael Jackson Look at that Steve like Yeah like he could like literally You know everybody's talking about top 100 motherfuckers And all of this stuff like that

Like Stevie Wonder could do like everything Yeah So look if you can do that And you have the time and the wherewithal to do that That's fine But the thing that I'm saying When I look at Carmi

The reason why his name being on a restaurant Only goes so far is because he needs them. He's a bad leader. We see it in the next episode where he's like, he needs these people. The trick to being a good number one in any situation is to make people work for you

while they have the knowledge that they're working for themselves. It's to give people enough latitude to know that they're appreciated, that they're respected, that they're getting better while achieving your vision. And the vision that you have might change based upon the autonomy that you give them

and based upon the freedom that they have. That's why this show is so interesting to me because that's one thing to do in a song. But like, I don't know as much about the culinary world as I do about other creative endeavors where you might be, like I might be on set and I might see, I might be doing something else, right? Give you an example.

So we might be shooting on one block. I might be walking up the other block to the set and I might see something. And I might be like, yo, I know it's going to be like whatever, but could we shoot this in this way like, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you take it to your director and the director goes, oh my God, see what that is. Try to stay out of it.

Let the director do that thing as much as possible. But I might say, hey, there's a cool. shot if we use this right here, blah, blah, blah. If you have a A type, like a type A director, my film, get the fuck out of the way. Like a Quentin Tarantino, he's like, do not, like, stop. I don't know how he works. But like, like, I would imagine that that's the way.

No, no, because I was watching a Walton Goggins interview. He's like, that motherfucker says every single comma, every single thing, do not deviate. Like, don't change his dialogue. Don't change my shit. Yeah. I know a lot of writers like that. Like, don't change my dialogue. And then the actor's going to be like, well, I wouldn't, my character wouldn't say this.

Something like that. But. You know, and then that gives you a little agency, right? Yeah. But then when you go watch the movie, that director is going to have to be okay with you saying, hey, that shot is mine. Because you're going to say that.

Or if it's not in the movie, you're rolling up, if you're like, what happens to that shot? If you don't make the movie, it's his set. If you start acting like that, nigga, it's saying you back to Idaho. It's his set. He can do whatever fucking want to do. Like, I would tell you that, too.

Like, if somebody else comes up, I would say, hey, his sentence. That's your director. That's your leader. That guy's in fucking charge. Do whatever he says. But with this is different because it's like, food tastes different. Yeah. Like what tastes good to you might not taste good to me. And what tastes good to me, you might make it taste better. Like some of the most incredible battles I've ever seen my mother fight was over food. People who think they cook as good as her. People who might have gotten her on a dish and watching her have to go, because she takes so much pride in it.

Is your mom, can she, like, give credit where credits do her? She can. Is she a low-key hater like, dang? She can, but she's such a good cook that it takes so much to impress her that once you have done it, she's going to figure out how to beat you. She'll reverse engineer your shit. She'll change it up. She really is a fantastic cook.

Obviously, look at me. But I'll say, but I'll see. say this, though, in this particular situation, I wonder how much the kitchen is going to let him dominate them because they've so put it on the line for him. Like, they've done so much work for him. And some of the work that they've done is because they believe in a restaurant, but some of the work that they've done also is because their family. Some of the work that they've done is because they understand the tragedy that he's trying to heal from. So much work that they've done is because of their, everybody's invested in a different way than they were in the past through

season. Some of those are. investments are financial. Some of those investments are from experiences they've had. Some of those investments are emotional. Some of them dance between the two. But everyone is so invested. And when everybody's so all in, they have ownership of it too. And I don't know how that's going to work with it.

I mean, not to skip all the way to the end, but we can go to the second episode at the end of it. The poetry, I think, that was so fascinating about the end when Marcus walks in. Because that's the thing. If you've ever lost someone. that's what really happens because you go back to work and motherfuckers get quiet

and he's like dog I just want to work and it broke my heart because if you remember season one Marcus is this loving just sensitive soul he loses his mom and he does what is so common

when people are grieving be like I just want to work I just want to plow through it and he's the only one who's like nah I see the non-negotiables and that was a moment where I'm like oh this is just too grieving

These are two grieving motherfuckers being like exactly where I didn't feel like Marcus had reached another level I thought like oh that creative kid a little bit of that is gone now he needs this place to work because in his emotional mind that's all he has left and I was like

oh so this is almost this season is a battle of you have Richie who is the Zen Buddhist motherfucker now and and trying to be trying to be and send me on one side being like we're trying to do this different. And you have Marcus and Carmi on the other side being like, if we want to be great,

we have to sacrifice everything. This is the most important thing. And I'm like, oh, this kitchen ain't gone. Yeah, you know what it is? It's like, you know, when my dad passed away, you know what I started doing? I started playing Marvel versus Capcom 2 on training mode and just practicing combos, like over and over and over again. because I just wanted something that I could control. Hmm. Right? I didn't even want to fight in the actual game.

I just wanted to work on combos and try to, like, I just wanted something I could control. I wanted something that, like, if it failed, things are, you start to feel like things are so random. I was just wanted something to where if it failed, it was on me, and if I did it, it was on me, just something that I was in control of because everything felt so out of control.

And I think a lot of the characters are dealing, with trying to control something that's so fluid, as fluid as a restaurant has to be. Yeah. There's something that gets said, you know, that, like, the restaurant is dysfunctional. All restaurants are dysfunctional. They're dysfunctional because it's not,

it's, you're playing a different show every single night. Yeah. And he wants that. Like, he wants to be, everything about him is bringing things, back to what he can specifically put his hands on. He wants everything to be super precise. Everything to be, he's trying, he's searching for control.

The non-negotiables are literally him being like trying to make sense of this universe. And to your point, it's chaotic, it's going to change. And he is trying to will that. And it's very something like, to your point, when you lose someone very close to you, you like, you start either working hard or concentrating on something to be like, not only to control, like to feel like you have some semblance of control, but to feel almost like,

I am alive and I'm doing something and trying to basically exist in a world that I realize now is so random. Right. And like time is so fleeting. And even what I think the genius of this episode is, is this, the claustrophobia, it takes so much,

this is not a bottle episode. That's not what I'm saying. But we do not leave that room. And it's like a, everybody just keeps, coming into the room. Everybody keeps introducing the non-negotiables. Everything is a train ride.

And each joke, I was like, if season two, it almost makes season two more genius because season two is like, we're going to show you something a little bit softer, a little bit more existential, a little bit more joyous. And this second episode was like, oh, no, this is the first season on steroids. Yeah. It was almost harder to watch. Super hard to watch. The second episode, the first episode, I'll come back to the first episode.

I'll ask you one question about it before we, before I get back to the second one. In the first episode, did you learn anything new about Karmie? I don't know if I learned anything new about Karmie. It almost just solidified. The things you did know, it got deeper. The things like, it almost made me be like, oh, this is a more broken human than I eat. Like, I had already known that, but I was like, oh, in that first episode where he's getting the texts about his brother. And I was just like, oh, that, it broke my heart because I'm like, that's how it happened.

is where you're working, you're hustling, you're just like, I am zero-focused, this is what I wanted to do my entire life. And he realizes in that moment, oh. I'm still a person. I can still be, like, in that, I was like, God, did you learn anything new about Carby? No, I agree with you.

I think it deepened the things that I already knew about him. It gave me sort of a new roadmap to what the show is about. which is whether or not Karmie can ever feel happy, whether or not he can ever be satisfied. Because some of the most powerful episodes and scenes in this show are just about him trying to hold things together. Like that whole Christmas episode that they had was really an episode from season two.

There was no joy. Everybody's together, but there was no joy. I mean, there wasn't any joy to it. Like, they weren't having fun with each other. Everybody was trying to maintain some emotional status quo that they knew it was going to be impossible to maintain. They knew that, like, eventually their mom was going to lose it or eventually O'Nker's character was going to blow up. Like, it was impossible to do it. And the thing that Claire's character represents is Carmi, like, submitting to a part of his life.

life that everybody submits to, which is, you know what? It's so weird, man. You get to a point to where you realize the limit of the impact that you can have or the limit of what you're going to be able to accomplish and you just, and you go, I just want to be peaceful. I just want to have peace. Yeah. And your peace might be in achieving that one creative thing, but even that you want to be able

to spend a little bit more time with the people that you love and a little bit more time around the people. Now, we talked about Quinn Tarantino. obviously there are exceptions to this. And he would be one of them. But is Karmie going to ever be happy with what they do at the restaurant? The restaurant is already ridiculously, ridiculously better than what he found it, right? I mean, we see a flash cut of all the glowing profiles and stuff about, like, the restaurant already.

And that's not enough? And to your point, my uncle would said something. I did understand it as a kid. He was just like, he's like, you know. nephew trying to be happy is a trap. He's just like, if you could just feel content. You could go home at the end of the day and just be like, oh, man. And to your point, I'm like, there's not, he can't,

Carmie can't even be content with the fact that it was like, I have a restaurant. It's semi-successful. He's like, no, we're changing the, like, changing the daily menu. Is that as insane? Like, I was just like, Karmie, what the fuck are you doing? Yeah, I look that up. Like, I've gone to, see, and that's another thing.

Think about that. So two things jumped out at me about that. One is that when I go to a restaurant, I go there because I want to get the same shit, right? I'm going to be pissed if they don't have the same thing. So Karmie is not just challenging his staff. He's challenging the people of the restaurant. I mean, that's what his uncle and his sister are arguing about

where it's like people go to a restaurant because they like certain things. It's a connection. There's roots in the community. And like you said earlier, I don't know if Karmie's doing it for the food anymore. This is all ego. It feels desperate.

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So he's talking to the guy, and the guy tells him that they need to open up the beef window because the regulars of the place are complaining. They're hot, bro. They're mad. Think about that. that's a family restaurant, a family-owned restaurant that's been there for years. At least 20-some-odd years, we know that, right?

Yeah. Probably longer. He changed everything up, brought, like, completely changed it to fine dining. Can these people even afford the new restaurant or even get a reservation there? Like, that is a thing, like, it's very real, like, gentrification to everything. If you live anywhere long enough and, like, those type of restaurants start coming in, I'm just like, this restaurant is not for the community. Yeah.

But it just shows, number one, the same thing that makes an artist great is what kind of makes, what makes a lot of them pricks in real life. Just a breathtaking, a breathtaking disdain for convention, Karmie has and tradition. It doesn't seem like he gives a shit about that at all, right? But in that, it makes him, it forces him to be daring. And it forces him to push himself to new levels and to new heights. The question about the show now is, is he demanding too much of other people?

But isn't that such a human thing? Because when you go away, like, when I went away to college, New York, you are around some of the smartest people you've ever met. You're reading shit, learning shit, experiencing all this shit. You might go home for people who, like, maybe have never left. you like, oh, like, let's go here. Let's try this. They're like, niggia, can you calm down? Can we just like go to the diner and can like relax?

Like we're not, we don't want that. And it's so funny where it's like, I can see how that's alienating to car meet because he is this person that cannot help him. He's like, he wants everybody else. He wants to drag them up to this Michelin Star. Like even Richie's like, I don't go to fuck about this shit. But there's something about. Carmney where he's still trying to impress those chefs

like he's still staging for them. There's still that boy who went to New York desperately trying to be acknowledged by this culinary world. Trying to be acknowledged by them and also just in a way the most broken people spend all their time trying to show other people

that they can't break them. Ooh. That's the Joe McCale scene. He's like, bro, you're not going to break. Yeah. I've known people in my life to where you're, you're, you're around them and you're like,

Bryce, you can relax. It's okay. You're safe here. Oh, like a little, you ever see those like trauma puppies? You literally just trying to like, you're safe, bro. You don't got to shake. Yeah, but like some of them are the,

and then some of them are attacking you. They're attacking you. They're trying to show you that they have strength. But really, it's coming from the fact that they just can't let go and trust. And he is having problems of letting go. He can't trust himself enough to go to Claire, which I hope she'll get some lines.

to the season. Oh my. He can't trust enough to go to her. He can't trust anybody enough to make them believe in what he wants to do. If he'd come to sit and been like, hey, I want to get a Michelin Star, maybe they could have had a great conversation about it and they could have come to a shared goal. But he didn't. He dominated her with his superior culinary instincts and knowledge.

he just expected her to come along. He does it the Michael Jordan way. Oh, my God. So my last question before we get to Kai's Corner, the best part of this podcast. My last question for you is, as you notice, I think universally, the bear is beloved, all these Emmys, like everyone, everyone from fucking, you know, every one of these cast members are out of the moon. But everybody's in their back right now. There has been some criticisms, has been like some, how do I put this? If the first season coming out of it, even though there were raves, the cliche thing you would hear,

it's too much, it's too tense, it's too this, it's too that. We got a second season where, if there were criticisms, I'd love the second season. This is different now. Why is this a different show? Why are we following this character? Why is it so relaxed? And now we're getting, at least in the first two episodes, kind of a return to form. This is very much back to the chaotic nature.

Richie Carmie at each other's fucking necks. What do you think it is about this show that makes people go crazy? And where it's like it's not enough for the bear to just like exist as a half hour sitcom, it is like, Sydney and Carmie have to get together. This show either is the worst thing or the best thing. There's a, and like, guys, it can just be a good show. Like, it could just be a good show. It's because it's difficult to pig.

Yeah. It's not a show. It's not an easy show to put in the category. It's not something that's easy to pigeonhole. It's a challenging show. the characters challenge you, you feel for Karmie, but you don't know if you like him,

you know? Here's the thing. Tony Soprano killed people. I liked him a lot more than I like Karmie. Really? Yeah. I don't dislike Karmie. I don't dislike him.

But I'm all, it's almost like I'm watching things happen to him than watching, it's different. I don't know what I want for him. You can have a beer with Tony Soprano. He's going to take you to the, Bada Bing and there's a level of there is a level of like magnetic charm.

We're like even though he's a monster. God damn, this motherfucker is the coolest ever. He's funny. He's cool. Even when he was being racist and Tony was a racist, even when he was being racist, it was still kind of funny. He's standing in front of that guy that was by racial boyfriend. The funny is one of the funniest.

If a fat Italian motherfucker faints when he opens, it sees it. It's just funny. I mean, so the, also, what's the, also. What's weird about that is the Italian racial slurs are kind of funny. All right, man. They are, bro. Like, they're kind of funny. Tony, Tony would say something.

Like, Carmelo would say something. Tony would be like, she's going out with the movie on. It's funny. It's not right. It's not right. It's fucked up. And I was mad, but it's funny. He's like, she's going out with the movie.

You mean you with the with the movie? She's even better off with the it's just it's Oh, can I be honest though? It's funny. The reason I can't fuck with that episode because like Black dude wasn't hurt, bro. He sucked. It was like, hey.

And that's, man, I got, if I ever, I never met David Chase before, but they're so smart. Because if they were to put a black guy on there that we cared that he was getting fucked over, it had been different. What if it was like McCye Fivers? That would have been different. You know what I'm saying? But the niggas that they put on there makes fucking Drake look like Malcolm

Mac. Yeah. Dog, all right. It's time for Kai's Corner. Kai, come here. I have a question for you. What's up, y'all? My question for Kai's corner of this episode, if people haven't met Kai,

Kai, Kai's a lady killer, bro. But he's out of the streets. You have a beautiful woman. If you, there's... She's so great. She's so great. You guys are the best. Now, Carmi in this episode, one of the funniest things,

they're all trying to figure out what happened with Claire. What's your advice to Carmie? Does Carmie hit Claire back up? Does he just got, does she got a kick rocks? Like, what are you telling Carmie if you're walking in after you yell at him about the non-negotiables? Good question. Absolutely do not reach out.

Give the space. That's what I would do. What? Really? I mean, Carmi was saying some crazy things in that locker. You know, he was saying some wild stuff. You saw how it blew up with Rays. Richie.

I just, I don't think it would go. That's how white people do, though. And we being real, white people toxic. I'm sorry. I've been, I've been in some fights. They're like, you know what I'm saying? I've seen some fights around. I'm just like, damn, the Italians, y'all motherfuckers go at it.

But I think you've got to reach out. You have to. Kai. This could be generational. Maybe because things are so parasocial right now, Kai would be able to, like, look at the Instagram and all of that stuff. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm gonna text you to

till I get some kind of response Oh no that's some toxic shit bro You can't they're gonna cancel you I'm not gonna look Hey yo back in my day The response It at least would be Text me and let me know

You don't want me to text you again Damn That's the cold one right there Because then it's like Then the text comes back Well I don't know if I want you to text Oh yeah You toxic motherfucker

You toxic motherfucker You toxic motherfucker I don't know what the answer to that question is Right now Boom And now you got the answer. She wants to talk. Nah, man, Kai, you might be right.

So, Kai, this might be generational because I will be honest. If he doesn't hit her back, like, every day that passes, if he tries to circle the block, Claire's going to do that shit. Like, it took you two weeks to get an apology, really? Really? That's how you, like, come on. You got fact talking crazy, too. He said that, like, you know, she's good with all of us.

But with you? That was hilarious. Oh, bro. Because that's how your homies really did. He's like, we good. Yeah. You knock a bro. And like, she's good.

Like, in this coldest, she's good. Let me ask you a question real quick. Because episode two had as much comedy in the bear as we've had in a little while. Because other than Richie, the show, to me, it's not a comedy. I mean, funny things happen, but it's not a comedy. It is gone so far from the original. So there's a lot of things that happen in the show that, like, are amusing and funny. Can the bear be funny anymore?

Like, is the bear too intense to actually make you laugh? I don't get the belly laughs as much anymore. Like, there are humorous things. But to your point, everybody this season is at such a low. Fuck it. You know what I'm saying? Like, Marcus just lost his mom. Carmi ready to bite everybody's heads off.

Fucking Sydney is dealing with all her shit. To your point, I do still think that this is a comedy and it's like it is a very sitcom structure, but it is the darkest. Like, I'll put it to you this way. Succession was funnier than a motherfucker, but like towards the end of those seasons, it got dark.

The intensity was just ratcheted it up too much. So, but I get what you're saying. It's a hard, I will say these first two episodes were a hard watch. That's not a quality thing. That's more so I was like, man. It's asking a lot of you. I miss Copenhagen.

I miss, you know, Richie finding themselves, I'm going to Taylor Swift songs. That shit not happened in this season. The show itself is changing the menu every single show. It's asking a lot of you. I mean, it's cool. Are you calling Christopher's Store Carmi?

I learned something. What? This is coming from the stories of Christopher Storer's sister, who is a chef. She's also a consulting producer on the show. She gives them, like, so I think a lot of this stuff is so autobiographical. Whereas most shows expand their storytelling and their appeal as the show goes on, like Game of Thrones and stuff like that, you know, they become a little bit more accessible

to everyone. I think the bear will be different. I think the bear will actually narrow how many people are fucking with the show in the long term. Really? I do. Because I will say, but this feels like the biggest, this feels like the season that's supposed to be the biggest. And it was very interesting to me where I'm like, this season didn't start with a bang.

It started with a very artistic, bold, maybe, I would say, hard to grasp. Started with the second episode is a 27-minute episode that takes place in one room. It's like a play. Yeah. Not everybody wants to watch TV like that. I mean, I do. I do. But not everybody wants to watch TV like that.

It's not even a horror movie. But do you know, I've showed uncut gyms to people? Like, my mom could not handle Uncut Jim. She was like, no. Oh, she was not fucking weird. She was like, what's about to happen? I'm like, what? She's like, what's going to happen?

I'm like, relax. She's like, is this place about to blow up or something? I'm like, what are you talking about? I'm like, what are you talking about? She's like, why do I feel like something terrible is about to happen? And that's like the whole movie. And not everybody wants to watch that. Does your mom fuck with the bear as a chef?

I got to ask her. I know she's seen some of them. She liked that Christmas episode, but I think that's just because she was watching with my sister. I got to see, we haven't talked about how much she likes it. When we come back, you know, in a couple of episodes, checking with your mom. I'm checking with my mom.

All right, guys, that has been... Maybe Jomey should check me a little bit. Oh, no, don't, guys. That has been your first fucking episode, episode one and two of the bear on Prestige TV. We will be back covering episodes three and four. Thank you, Van. Thank you, Kai Grady, back on the ones and twos.

Thank you to Justin Sales, the music lead, you know, for everything he's doing on Prestige TV. Guys, lock in. We'll be back very soon.