Talking season 2 of The Bear and what it has to say about passion

In celebration of Season 3 of hit Emmy award winning show The Bear I wanted to explore the relationships characters on this show have between their passions and explore how that shapes the people they are.

Throughout The Bear, Carmy (our main protagonist and focal point for a majority of season 1) uses aggressive and sometimes antagonistic wording to keep his kitchen running, Carm is seen to have severe anxiety, possibly depression and definite anger issues all stemming from family trauma and past kitchen experiences (evidenced by his harassment at the hand of a slick haired Joel McHale). Carm left his job at a 5 star restaurant to take over his brothers small but beloved sandwich shop after his afformentioned brother commits suicide, leaving the business to Carm, who he had been estranged from for years. This leads Carm to attempt to train the workers of The Orginal Beef of Chicagoland using his mitchelin training while juggling angry cousins, health inspectors, overdue bills and the anxiety that comes from greif. He puts a lot of the pressure on himself and feels like his passion for cooking is the only thing keeping him going. We'll look at Carm and his journey later but for now let's go into detail on two other characters. 

During episode 7 of season 2, titled Forks, Richie arrives at one of the world's best restaurants thinking his deployment there is a cruel punishment. Something thrust upon him by a spiteful Carm who (as Richie states) just wants to get rid of him. Starting off as abrasive and disagreeable at the fact that he's just drying forks (and if he's lucky, soon spoons), Ritchie argues with his superior about the nature of this busy work and its mundanity. To add insult to injury Richie is later told by his ex wife (the amazing Gillian Jacobs) that she is getting married but that regardless of her upcoming nuptials, nothing will change between them. Adding a heartbreaking layer to Ritchies story, a story that started earlier this season with him questioning if he has any purpose both within the remit of the new restaurant and his life. Later Ritchie superior, Garrett, opens up to him about his previous alcoholism and the tough journey to sobriety lead him to the epiphany that he prefers acts of service and actually likes the role he inhabits, this isn't just a job to him, it is a career that may have saved his life. This story seems to mirror Ritchies journey full of personal and professional failures and marks a turning point for this episode.

By the second act of Forks, Ritchie is given the chance to work up front at the restaurant, seeing how the front and back of house communicate. He discovers how well the guests are treated thanks to a special Chef detective who learns what these customers want and gives it to them. He sees the smiles on the customers faces, the excitement of getting their perfect meal and the giddiness that comes when he's sent to surprise a customer with a classic deep dish pizza. This all culminates in Richie finally coming to grips with why his colleagues enjoy the job and in-turn finds his own enjoyment (and crescendoing into probably the best use of a Taylor Swift song I've ever seen). Opening up a great arc for the man who in season 1 was more of a hot headed annoyance than a server proud to serve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHiwdDFPsZY

Richie's eventual discovery of his passion is juxtaposed with Carmys. Carm has been taught a kitchen should be loud, hectic and fueled by anxiety, but in this five star kitchen, Richie is constantly reminded to tone down the shouting and even jokingly reprimanded for his language. All things he surprisingly takes on board, building to a genuine bond with the other kitchen staff, Ritchie even surprisingly contemplates staying at this restaurant instead of returning to The Bear. The episode is bookended by a guest appearance from Olivia Coleman as Chef Terry, someone who also felt aimless and defeated in the past but picked themselves up and reignited their passion. Richie finds her spending her time peeling mushrooms at the end of the day just to add a personal touch to the meals. She explains that at age 31 she was angry with the world and in a rut, but when (literally) seeing a sign, she buys the restaurant, gets it going and is all the happier for it. Giving the advice that regardless of age or past mistakes you can always start again. A sentiment Richie needed to hear, as well as informed that the reason Carm sent him away is because he believes in him and knows he's good with people.

Now Richie isn't the only one finding his way in the show, we get another great solo episode following Marcus and his expanding love for bakery that has him travelling across continents to hone his skills. It's a big move that comes with challenges, he is doing this while his mother is in hospice care. In facetime conversations with Sid, Marcus hints to his anxiety being so far from his mother even if she has round the clock care from nurses and checkups from his friends. He never expresses these fears to his mother, instead telling her of all the fun he's having there and how much he's learning. His drive to pursue his career in the face of adversity is commendable and Sid tells him that he can't take care of his mum if he isn't taking care of himself. Marcus explains that he has a nightmare where his mothers nurse phones to tell him his mom is dead, a fear that becomes real during the finale, where we glance at his phone with missed calls from the nurse and messages asking to urgently call her, a dark detail to what should be a joyous day for Marcus and the team. We see that even with his anxiety surrounding his mother, Marcus is still trying his best, and importantly is able to use his situation to better himself, unlike Carmy who (even though he does have some personal growth this season) still finds himself focusing on the negative side of things and regressing with his anxiety.

Once again though, the kitchen environment is calm and supportive here, with a stern but caring teaching coming from Will Poulter's Luca. Luca explains that when he was younger he'd always thought of himself as the best and aimed to be the top chef in every place he worked. Creating an unattainable goal that is dismantled when he meets another chef who we assume is Carmy, evidenced by a picture of them both in Forks. He viewed Carm as the better chef and when realising he will never reach that level he feels free. Instead of resenting him, knowing who is better unburdens him, he decides to never leave Carms side to get as good as he can, which he eventually does. Showing how his open-ness to new experiences now powers his passion. He tells Marcus that some of the best food he's eaten doesn’t come from skill or technique but from inspiration, an idea Marcus uses later in his three different bakery items. One of which is a reimagining of Carms cannoli concept by creating a dish inspired by all his friends and family at the beef simply named 'the Michael'. Marcus embodies the innocence of loving his craft and never faltering, unlike Ritchie he's happy to learn and take on board all he can from the get go and unlike Carm he seems to thrive in the peace and tranquillity given to him on this excursion, regardless of his anxieties, he uses that peace to better his sharpen his baking skills.

Luca's talk about needing to create experiences with great people around you is juxtaposed through Carm, who only wants to spend all his time in the kitchen and doesn't feel a need for outside experiences, something that may eventually be his downfall as he feels all he can do in life is cook and continue trying to be the best. On the season finale and opening night of his new restaurant, Carm is spiralling, seeing visions of his old head chef attending opening night, snapping at the smallest matter and ignoring his girlfriend until told to go see her by Ritchie. This all culminates in him getting locked into checkovs freezer, reacted to as an accident but something I suspect Carm did knowingly to escape the pressure. This leaves one head chef out of action and brings Sid into the spotlight where she and Ritchie take the reins and save the day (followed by some stress related puking on Sid's side).

Carm then has a breakdown in the freezer, expounding (inadvertently) to his girlfriend Claire that all he knows is cooking, how some people need to provide amusement and enjoyment or receive the same, but he doesn’t need that. He goes on to expand on his anxiety at not being in complete control of his kitchen and dropping the ball several times in this series is more painful to him than the happiness he feels in a relationship, a sentiment that breaks Claire's heart and ends their relationship.

The different types of passion in this show work so well. Marcus didn't feel like he needed a passion in life, he took the job because he liked Michael and needed more money, but now wants to continue his love for baking. Richie was stuck feeling aimless and unloved till he realised his knack for acts of service and people skills are exactly the thing that, when honed, create amazing experiences for others, it shows a caring side to Richie that was only hinted at through season one. And Carm is so passionate about cooking that it breaks him at times, his anxiety and stress culminates in outbursts and lonely panic attacks (apart from the ones lovely Claire Bear walks him through). Carmy feels trapped in his passion between something he loves and something that brings him a lot of pain. His mother cooked at christmas and had a mental break, his brother cooked at the beef but his depression got too much causing him to take his own life. Carm is so blindingly passionate about his craft he puts his own mental health, happy relationship and (judging by him and Richies final conversation) his friendships on the backburner (teehee) all because of his love for cooking. I think that if Carm can't find a way to healthily balance his passion for cooking and his anxiety with perfection then it will see him either become an antagonist in the show or lead to tragedy akin to his Mother and Brother.

Season 2 of The Bear was one of my favourite shows of last year, and if season 3 is even close to that quality then we are in for another great season of television.

The Bear season 3 is currently streaming on Disney Plus

Stray observations (yes I'm stealing this from the AV Club)

• I didn't even have time to mention other highlights of the season like Sid stepping up through to plan out a majority of the restaurant while navigating her own anxieties at starting anew, I hope we have more Sid centric episodes this season

• I've heard that Tina has her own episode this season which is great news, the solo, character focused episodes did amazing work at recontextualising some people that were more like side characters in season one, I hope they continue this tradition and give more actors a chance to shine.

• That fork landed so ominously into the cannolis that I almost thought the end of the ep would turn into a dream sequence

• Shout-out to all the amazing guest stars this season like Will Poulter, Bob Odenkirk, John Mullaney, Olivia Coleman and Jamie Lee Curtis.