I wrote about it many newsletters ago. I watched the first two episodes, and did not find them interesting enough to keep going. I'm glad you've enjoyed it, though.
Finished The Bear S2 yesterday. Absolutely amazing. Enjoyed it more than the first, which seemed impossible.
That said, what am I coming back for in an eventual season 3? The restaurant is open, do I want to watch it fail? Sydney is where she wanted to be, do I want to see her decide otherwise? Richie is the best he’s ever been, do I want to see him lose that? Carm is Carm, and changing that seems against the show’s core premise. I suppose he will repair his relationship (otherwise why name her Claire Bear), but he will not accept anything good.
I definitely will watch more, because I trust the team making it, but story-wise, I don’t know what more I want to see.
I find that I am more interested in where the show goes in S3. Will Syd and Carmy figure out a way to make this partnership actually work for them? Will Syd develop confidence as a chef and a business owner and advocate for herself? Will they get that Michelin star or will the pursuit of it drive a wedge into the team? Will Richie, TIna and Marcus take the new skills they've developed and become a more seamless team or will they chafe at having to follow Syd and Carmy's directions if there's a disagreement about the direction of the restaurant? Will Sugar's relationship with the business change as a result of having the baby as she struggles to avoid being her mother? I imagine we'll get some new characters introduced that might also introduce new stories and conflicts.
My guess is that S3 will focus on Carm. We saw him help the others improve/get better but he did not. Instead of realizing, "they can do it w/o me and perhaps I helped that happen" he was distraught and ruined a loving relationship. I hope he can heal himself.
I really hope that that's a big part of S3. We've gotten more backstory to fill in just how damaged he is due to his family and his past, but seeing how Nat is trying to break the cycle makes me hope that Carm tries to do the same in a real way. Those Al Anon meetings aren't cutting it. I'd love to see him have a mentor like it seems Chef Terry was (and not Joel McHale) so that he can improve himself and be a good mentor for the chefs in his kitchen.
I just don't see any of that happening (outside of reconciling with Claire) for two reasons really. One is that I think The Bear is ultimately a hopeful show, where after hard work and many bumps in the road things ultimately tend to work out for the characters and two I don't see the place they reach at the end of season 2 as being the pinnacle of perfection for these people or the restaurant. Yes they've made it to opening day(ish), but there's a long road ahead before it can become a successful restaurant and farther to being the type of Michelin starred one that Sydney (and Carmy) want it to be. Plus plenty of profession/personal and intra/interpersonal conflicts for each of the core characters to overcome. I agree that I also have no idea where they would go once they get to the top or what kind of endgame Storer/Calo could have in mind, but I think they've got at least one more season, maybe two before then. And like you said, I trust these guys, they've gotten us this far.
Have you watched any of the new season of Ten Year Old Tom? I have seen zero chatter about it, but my review is that hearing a baffled Steve Dildarian react to things is still incredibly funny.
The s2 premiere made me realize I only ever watched the first half of s1. So I will gradually work my way through. Like you, I find the reactions are wonderful.
In things I'm watching this week, I started the third season of The Leftovers. I have a genuine albeit somewhat silly question: did the person who wrote the episode titles for the first two seasons leave the production? The titles are *very* different for season 3 =)
That's a showrunner kind of thing, and since Lindelof and Perrotta were there the whole time, I would guess they just decided to lean into the absurd aspects of the show.
Any thoughts on the apparent series finale of The Other Two, or the extremely ironic, very “industry” allegations that apparently led to its non-renewal?
I didn't watch the finale. I've never loved the show in the way many of my colleagues did, in large part because it hits a few of my specific cringe comedy triggers too often.
Sadly, the irony of a show about the awfulness of Hollywood allegedly being run by awful people is unfortunately not new. There has been plenty of art filled with empathy for the victims that turn out to have been made by victimizers. Hell, at least a few of those were responsible for the shows featured in The Revolution Was Televised.
As a longtime Trek fan, someone who's been watching since 1966, I'm touched by your devotion to the show--but sometimes it goes too far even for me! If I'm remembering right, you ran positive early reviews of both of the dreadful first two seasons of Picard (before revising your opinions when the seasons ended).
I love what Strange New Worlds is trying to do, but I think it consistently fails to do it. You note that “Ad Astra Per Aspera” was the Strange New Worlds version of “Measure of a Man”--but the question of whether people who've been genetically augmented should have rights is a no-brainer, much less thought-provoking than the question of whether an artificial intelligence can be said to have consciousness and sentience. You note that "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" was the Strange New Worlds version of "City on the Edge of Forever"--but seeing La'an spare someone's life for the sake of the future is much less poignant than seeing Kirk sacrifice someone's life for the sake of the future. In each case, Strange New Worlds offers a variant that is less dramatically and intellectually stimulating than the original.
The ONLY complaint I have on SNW syncing with TOS is that i just can’t see Majel Barrett’s Nurse Chappel having ever been the badass Jess Bush is playing. But I love this version.
This version of T'Pring is also very difficult to reconcile with the version from "Amok Time." But I think the complication is worth it for both of those characters — and, frankly, Uhura — being written with so much more depth than on TOS.
I think you very much have to assume different timelines or something. This just isn't going to make sense. In the same way that even closer-in-time Young Sheldon and The Big Bang Theory really have to be unrelated.
Before Discovery debuted, Kurtzman and others insisted it would be set in the main timeline, not Kelvin or even a new one. And for a while, it seemed like Discovery was going out of its way to make this work by having the ship and Michael essentially erased from history. But there's too much stuff like Chapel, T'Pring, and the Klingons on Discovery, for it to really fit.
I'd rather have good stories and characters (which SNW has plenty of; Discovery's Klingon story, much less so) than obsessive devotion to continuity. But SNW is swerving a whole lot.
I think worrying about continuity in a show like SNW is a mugs game. There are obvious limitations even if you were willing to do silly things like use the cheap, sixties-era costuming and set design.
TOS was very progressive for its time, but it's barely cro-magnon compared to 2023. I think Kirk pretty much says in "Turnabout Intruder" that women can't captain a starship.
But who cares, really? SNW pushes all the right buttons for me. For someone who grew up in the 70's watching Star Trek re-runs on channel 11 whenever it was on, it hits right in the nostalgia center of my hippocampus.
Christina Chong really sold the emotional ending for me and I found myself getting chocked up. La’an is like this hardened character and a) I didn't expect her to express emotions like that and b) I totally felt it.
I think time travel Star Trek is some of the best Star Trek (I'll include those Holodeck mishaps in here too).
The scene in S2E1 of The Bear where Syd asks Tina to be the sous chef was lovely.
Has Alan weighed in on Silo yet? For my money competes for best show of the year so I'm interested in his take .
I wrote about it many newsletters ago. I watched the first two episodes, and did not find them interesting enough to keep going. I'm glad you've enjoyed it, though.
Thanks I'll look it up!
Finished The Bear S2 yesterday. Absolutely amazing. Enjoyed it more than the first, which seemed impossible.
That said, what am I coming back for in an eventual season 3? The restaurant is open, do I want to watch it fail? Sydney is where she wanted to be, do I want to see her decide otherwise? Richie is the best he’s ever been, do I want to see him lose that? Carm is Carm, and changing that seems against the show’s core premise. I suppose he will repair his relationship (otherwise why name her Claire Bear), but he will not accept anything good.
I definitely will watch more, because I trust the team making it, but story-wise, I don’t know what more I want to see.
I find that I am more interested in where the show goes in S3. Will Syd and Carmy figure out a way to make this partnership actually work for them? Will Syd develop confidence as a chef and a business owner and advocate for herself? Will they get that Michelin star or will the pursuit of it drive a wedge into the team? Will Richie, TIna and Marcus take the new skills they've developed and become a more seamless team or will they chafe at having to follow Syd and Carmy's directions if there's a disagreement about the direction of the restaurant? Will Sugar's relationship with the business change as a result of having the baby as she struggles to avoid being her mother? I imagine we'll get some new characters introduced that might also introduce new stories and conflicts.
My guess is that S3 will focus on Carm. We saw him help the others improve/get better but he did not. Instead of realizing, "they can do it w/o me and perhaps I helped that happen" he was distraught and ruined a loving relationship. I hope he can heal himself.
I really hope that that's a big part of S3. We've gotten more backstory to fill in just how damaged he is due to his family and his past, but seeing how Nat is trying to break the cycle makes me hope that Carm tries to do the same in a real way. Those Al Anon meetings aren't cutting it. I'd love to see him have a mentor like it seems Chef Terry was (and not Joel McHale) so that he can improve himself and be a good mentor for the chefs in his kitchen.
I just don't see any of that happening (outside of reconciling with Claire) for two reasons really. One is that I think The Bear is ultimately a hopeful show, where after hard work and many bumps in the road things ultimately tend to work out for the characters and two I don't see the place they reach at the end of season 2 as being the pinnacle of perfection for these people or the restaurant. Yes they've made it to opening day(ish), but there's a long road ahead before it can become a successful restaurant and farther to being the type of Michelin starred one that Sydney (and Carmy) want it to be. Plus plenty of profession/personal and intra/interpersonal conflicts for each of the core characters to overcome. I agree that I also have no idea where they would go once they get to the top or what kind of endgame Storer/Calo could have in mind, but I think they've got at least one more season, maybe two before then. And like you said, I trust these guys, they've gotten us this far.
Have you watched any of the new season of Ten Year Old Tom? I have seen zero chatter about it, but my review is that hearing a baffled Steve Dildarian react to things is still incredibly funny.
The s2 premiere made me realize I only ever watched the first half of s1. So I will gradually work my way through. Like you, I find the reactions are wonderful.
In things I'm watching this week, I started the third season of The Leftovers. I have a genuine albeit somewhat silly question: did the person who wrote the episode titles for the first two seasons leave the production? The titles are *very* different for season 3 =)
That's a showrunner kind of thing, and since Lindelof and Perrotta were there the whole time, I would guess they just decided to lean into the absurd aspects of the show.
Just an FYI, as of this moment your Dark Winds review is still on the RS website. Not sure if that needs to removed too?
verything I have shows Dark winds not premiering till July 30 and it is not on my guide grid for Sunday?
Yes, that was a mistake, as noted in the new intro to this post.
thanks! I thought I might be crazy
Any thoughts on the apparent series finale of The Other Two, or the extremely ironic, very “industry” allegations that apparently led to its non-renewal?
I didn't watch the finale. I've never loved the show in the way many of my colleagues did, in large part because it hits a few of my specific cringe comedy triggers too often.
Sadly, the irony of a show about the awfulness of Hollywood allegedly being run by awful people is unfortunately not new. There has been plenty of art filled with empathy for the victims that turn out to have been made by victimizers. Hell, at least a few of those were responsible for the shows featured in The Revolution Was Televised.
As a longtime Trek fan, someone who's been watching since 1966, I'm touched by your devotion to the show--but sometimes it goes too far even for me! If I'm remembering right, you ran positive early reviews of both of the dreadful first two seasons of Picard (before revising your opinions when the seasons ended).
I love what Strange New Worlds is trying to do, but I think it consistently fails to do it. You note that “Ad Astra Per Aspera” was the Strange New Worlds version of “Measure of a Man”--but the question of whether people who've been genetically augmented should have rights is a no-brainer, much less thought-provoking than the question of whether an artificial intelligence can be said to have consciousness and sentience. You note that "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" was the Strange New Worlds version of "City on the Edge of Forever"--but seeing La'an spare someone's life for the sake of the future is much less poignant than seeing Kirk sacrifice someone's life for the sake of the future. In each case, Strange New Worlds offers a variant that is less dramatically and intellectually stimulating than the original.
Thanks for all your great writing, Alan!
The ONLY complaint I have on SNW syncing with TOS is that i just can’t see Majel Barrett’s Nurse Chappel having ever been the badass Jess Bush is playing. But I love this version.
This version of T'Pring is also very difficult to reconcile with the version from "Amok Time." But I think the complication is worth it for both of those characters — and, frankly, Uhura — being written with so much more depth than on TOS.
I think you very much have to assume different timelines or something. This just isn't going to make sense. In the same way that even closer-in-time Young Sheldon and The Big Bang Theory really have to be unrelated.
Before Discovery debuted, Kurtzman and others insisted it would be set in the main timeline, not Kelvin or even a new one. And for a while, it seemed like Discovery was going out of its way to make this work by having the ship and Michael essentially erased from history. But there's too much stuff like Chapel, T'Pring, and the Klingons on Discovery, for it to really fit.
I'd rather have good stories and characters (which SNW has plenty of; Discovery's Klingon story, much less so) than obsessive devotion to continuity. But SNW is swerving a whole lot.
I think worrying about continuity in a show like SNW is a mugs game. There are obvious limitations even if you were willing to do silly things like use the cheap, sixties-era costuming and set design.
TOS was very progressive for its time, but it's barely cro-magnon compared to 2023. I think Kirk pretty much says in "Turnabout Intruder" that women can't captain a starship.
But who cares, really? SNW pushes all the right buttons for me. For someone who grew up in the 70's watching Star Trek re-runs on channel 11 whenever it was on, it hits right in the nostalgia center of my hippocampus.
Christina Chong really sold the emotional ending for me and I found myself getting chocked up. La’an is like this hardened character and a) I didn't expect her to express emotions like that and b) I totally felt it.
I think time travel Star Trek is some of the best Star Trek (I'll include those Holodeck mishaps in here too).
I didn’t love the SNW episode, though the second half was more involving than the first. Not loving the series this year. It’s trying too hard.