‘The Bear’ Season 5, Episodes 1-4: Let It Rip

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1:17What is up, y 'all? Welcome to the Prestige TV Podcast. I'm Charles Holmes. He's Van Lathan. Together, we're known as the Midnight Boys. Woo-hoo! And we're back as we are every single year for this little annual tradition of covering The Bear. Yeah. A little housekeeping before we get into it. Don't worry, y 'all. Rob and Joe will be back this weekend to continue their coverage of Cape Fear. For right now, we're going to The Bear. How are you feeling, man? This is the final season. Anxious. Anxious. Because look, here's the thing about The Bear. This show just shot out of the gates like a cannon, right?

1:55Right. And it had a weird type of success, a type of success that shows in their first season rarely get. Like people were adopting some of the slang from the bear. It made stars out of people after the bear came out. Halloween costumes. Halloween costumes. It really penetrated culture. Right. For that first season. Let me let me ask you this really quick. Sure. Because I was thinking about this. Can you name another TV show? maybe within like the last, I don't know, like five, six years that has minted this amount of stars. Like The Pit is a huge show, but I haven't even seen for that cast. It is like Jeremy Allen White is a star.

2:38Eben is a star. Ayo is a star. Lionel was in Project Hail Mary. Everybody's running and working, yeah. Yeah, it is. That to me is incredible, but watching this final season, what I realized, I was like, oh, the bear as a show, weirdly, the narrative of the show followed the trajectory of it. Where it's like the first season is a surprise, second season critically acclaimed, all of these people are becoming stars. But as the show gets bigger and bigger, we get cameos, celebrities want to be on the show, people start turning against it. In the Emmy race, they're like, oh, how is it winning all these comedies?

3:17It's sweeping, it's comedy awards, it's sweeping up, It's not even a comedy. And it almost kind of predicted where we're at with TV, where it seems like it's impossible to be a hit show in 2026. It seems like you get one or two seasons and the audience turns on you immediately. Well, I think to a degree, it's always been like that in the post-Sopranos, Mad Men prestige era. So basically the streaming era. So basically the streaming era. It's always, it's difficult, right? It's difficult because of the way you have to put this stuff out. It's difficult because of what the stars want to do now, what it means to be a star now, maintaining your narrative and your energy throughout an entire season is this relationship with your audience that used to be a lot more reflexive in years past.

4:06And now it's different. Now you kind of got to try. And with the bear, the bear is still dropping in bulk batches. Every single year. Every year it's still a binge. which that also kind of, to me, is inconvenient to the stars of the show because you get all the bear at once, you talk about it for a short time, and while that's good for their careers in terms of the movies that they do, they're not buoyed by the success of the bear throughout a whole summer. They don't get to be stars of the bear for three or four months. They could be stars of Bear for like a week, two weeks. You look at Widow's Bay, Matthew Rhys, I cannot open Instagram or Twitter or go anywhere without like an interview because that show starts, no one's really watching it.

4:59And then it's like the heads are watching it by the end of, you know, or the beginning of this summer, you're like, people are like, are they going to sweep the Emmys? And to your point, when it's a batch drop, it is, the stars and the creators almost get all of the acclaim, but they get all of the derision. Whether you love it or hate it, it all comes in one big swell. And also, I'm sure that their careers are so popping. I'll go back to your question in a second. I'm sure that their careers are so popping that they kind of maybe want to be done with the show a little bit. They probably want to put it in the rearview mirror and go try other things.

5:34Jeremy and Ellen White has a social reckoning coming out. You know, IELTS been everywhere. She's just coming off the Broadway. He's going to be in doomsday. evidence of things, these people are all moving to working line. We've talked all about them and what they're doing. So maybe they want to be free of this. But there is also something that like, if you make a couple of bad choices, right? If your Bruce Springsteen movie doesn't go well, if people are wondering now whether or not you are a movie star, right? If you're Jeremy Allen White, if your show were running in a more episodic fashion, your show would be able to satiate people a little bit.

6:11They'd be able to get back in touch with what they like. And also, to your point, the reaction to the show is different because season three of The Bear didn't go so well. And part of that is because people watched them all at the same time and didn't have to sit with them. But as far as making stars, no. Except for maybe Game of Thrones, right? Game of Thrones was, yeah, the last time. But the cast is so expansive that you can't compare it to this show. Well, maybe also Atlanta. I would say Atlanta. Atlanta, well, yeah, Atlanta. Atlanta is there as well. All of them got huge, huge Zazie Beetz.

6:43Lakeith Stanfield, Atlanta is definitely one. But Atlanta is very similar to the bear in that regard. To where those stories are contained, that narrative is very tight and very clean, and it's so specific that you can take somebody from that and say, this is how I made them this huge actor and this other thing. With this final season, I was wondering, because we're going to get into the episodes really, really quick, but I realized the other reason I feel like the actors might be maybe ready to say goodbye is I'm like, this must be such a hard show to film. That intensity, those characters just kind of being locked in that space where everybody's frantic.

7:26Everything is burning down. I was like, dog, this is a family. But after every season, And after these four episodes, it's like, God damn, are they putting these both. It's tough. They're putting them through it. And they're also putting the audience through it. It's an intense show. Like some of the best episodes of The Bear are when they just take the NPH sign off of the car and mash down the gas and just go. And when you catch your breath, the credits are rolling. this particular season it's just everything is hanging on the balance in every single fucking scene in these first four episodes it feels like it feels like all the relationships are hanging in the balance the restaurant is hanging in the balance not just the survival of the restaurant as a culinary artistic entity but the survivor of the structure of the building you could see an episode of The Bear where the whole fucking restaurant crumbles down on Carmi and Sid and everybody dies.

8:28Like, that's how the fucking, you know what I'm saying? They're over a sinkhole. Yeah, they're over a sinkhole. So the question that is different from the first season to now is, is this show still enjoyable? You know, like the first season, it was insanely enjoyable, right? But as the show built its narrative and things continue to happen, it's sometimes a tough watch. We get into the actual episode, all four directed by Christopher Storer, and they do something that I was like, oh, okay, you're going there. And I've only watched the first four. But through these initial episodes, I'm like, oh, this is contained in a way that reminds me of the first season.

9:12Yeah. It's not, we're not doing the second, third season thing where it's like, oh, we're going. Sid is going here to get inspiration and we're having a flashback episode and we have forks and we have this and that. These four episodes are all, our time has run out, quote unquote. We're back where Carmi in the finale of the last season gave the partnership to Sid. He gave it to Richie, said, I quit. And in these four episodes, we're on a one-way track of like, we have one meal. We need to prove that. And by the end of the fourth episode, it's like, surprise. The critic who's going to give us a star or not is coming.

9:57And I was like, oh, that is so interesting after building this narrative. Whereas you see Brie Larson in this. You see Bob Odenkirk in this. Almost stripping the narrative back and making it this family in this cursed restaurant. What are they going to do? I found fascinating. It's fascinating specifically because of your journey with the characters. You get to a point in this particular season where you're not sure what you want for them, which is an awesome place to be with characters. Like Game of Thrones, you got to a point to where you didn't know who you wanted to win. Yeah. You know who you thought was going to win, but the show got to a point where it was like, well, who do I want to win?

10:35Do I want Danny to win? Do I want John to win? Do I want Cersei to win with everything that she's been through? I didn't, but do I want? Right now, I don't know what I want to happen to the restaurant. It seems as if they would all live free or full of lives if they were apart, that they're asking too much of each other. But it would also seem like such a profound disappointment for them not to have a 15-, 20-year run with the restaurant. But inside of all of that, man, for this little restaurant during this rainstorm at this particular time, we're only through episode four, the stakes just seem so high that I can't relax with any scene.

11:17And it's even The Sopranos, which is a show that was about a guy who oftentimes kills people. They gave you a time to relax sometimes. And these four episodes, they didn't give you very much leisurely TV time. Because we start, we're like, all right, it's torrential downpours. It won't stop raining. the fucking pipes are bursting the basement is flooding people are falling through the roof they're over a sinkhole they're looking to see who has the air rights can they build a hotel and even Uncle Jimmy basically has lost three-fourths of his fortune he's off with a new character cheese and computer trying to figure out do we have the air rights to this place because they're realizing no one wants to buy a restaurant especially one that's going to sink into the ground in the next five or 10 years.

12:07So he's like, can I sell this and make it a hotel? There's not one character throughout this entire four episode stretch who was in a good place. Even Marcus coming off of this big accolade, best new chef is feeling it now. He's almost becoming a little carmy in a way where it's like, he's now trying to prove to his father. He's like, this might be the only chance I get. And I'm like, that is a very, very interesting place to put all these characters. but to your point, I was like, I watched this before bed and I was like stressed. I was having, I was just, oh fuck, I feel kind of. I mean, you know, as you watch the show, as you see things happening, you realize one thing in these first four episodes.

12:51This restaurant is the thing that connects these characters that we love. The prelude to this show is some type of story or understanding of Carmi's family, right? The idiosyncrasies of that family, the absurdities of that family, right? But it starts and is oriented around the death or at least dealing with the death of the person that seemingly kept that family together. Yeah, Mikey. Mikey. So Mikey kept that family together. So the question then became, what keeps that family together now? And it wasn't together when we first got there, when we first started with them. It wasn't together at all.

13:36They had all the bones and the skeletons of that same family that Mikey kept together, but everything was gone. Then this restaurant comes. And not only does it bring the Brazado family back together, right? It brings them back together. Mom ends up coming back into the fold. The sister comes back. Everybody's together again, right? It creates a new family. And the restaurant takes the place of Mikey. The restaurant is now the thing that glues these people. And it feels like if the restaurant meets the same faith that Mikey does, that everybody disperses again. But once again, you don't know if that might not be the best thing for them.

14:18But for me, I don't want to see this family that I've spent these years with, like, end up the same way that they were when we first found them, which is dismembered from one another in different places, not just physically, but also emotionally. I mean, watching this season, because it's always been there, but it was even more pronounced, because Sugar, at one point, is kind of describing the plight of the restaurant. It's just like, restaurants are a terrible fucking business. They're impossible to keep open. And as I was watching this, I'm like, part of me feels like Christopher Storr and his team team are using the bear, the restaurant, Carmi, Sid, and everyone's plate to really talk about what it is to do like anything creative or anything with a team where it's like, if you're a championship basketball team, you win the fucking championship the next day.

15:14What are people talking about? How are they going to keep it together? How are we going to pay all these people? When you're on a successful movie or even a bad movie, you're like, oh, we're a family. We are pushing this boulder up a hill for eight months, a year, however long. You make the thing, and whether it's a success or failure, that family might not be able to stay together. And watching these episodes, I'm like, oh, I feel like Christopher Storer almost is going through that in almost a meta way. Where it is like you build this restaurant, you build something successful, and you have all these stars, and you have all this attention, and you have all these Emmys.

15:51and at the end of the day, what are you doing it for? Are you doing it for a star? Are you doing it so you can show off your cooking skills? Or it's like, even if you are doing it for family, I was reading this very interesting interview with Eben Mos-Bacharac where he was talking about how much the bear has changed his life and how much he loves this show. And the interview ends with, but it needs to end. And he did not say that in a way that he disliked the show or that he has any resentment, but it was a level of a, like, oh, I can't imagine what it is like being on a rocket ship like that for this long and being like part of my life has stopped because you feel it with Carmi where it's like, I don't know whether to believe Carmi or not.

16:34Has he fell out of love with cooking or is he like for me to become a better person? I need to get out of here. I think the thing with Carmi is Carmi. what I am getting from what I'm watching from Carmi is that Carmi thought and he was trained as a chef to uh never ever ever accept any limit yeah like it's a creative endeavor what what are the limits on Steven Spielberg what are the limits on Martin Scorsese what are the limits they have no limits right they take us to different galaxies and universes they take us inside of our own communities to underbellies and secret societies and people that we don't know are there right Right.

17:15Exploration of the mafia, which is a secret society and uncover all of these things. There's no limit to it. And the way Carmi was raised up in cooking is there was no limits there either. There were no limits to what you could accomplish. There were no limits to what you had to sacrifice, which is a part of the game. Right. And he kept pressing upon everyone to think bigger, to go harder, to try more, to stretch yourself and push yourself. and Carmi is coming to terms with his limit. He's coming to terms with the fact that his talent might not match this breakneck ambition that everybody else has.

17:58Family might be more important. Serenity might be more important. He also might be just telling himself that. He might get to a point to where he thinks that that is the case for him, but it's really not, right? He might just be so beaten down by it that he doesn't know that he'll never, ever, ever be happy not being the man at that restaurant and waking up at 2 o 'clock in the morning trying to figure out recipes. But it was interesting because he has that talk with Richie. Right. Where Richie is basically like, it was so funny because as someone who wrestled in high school, I felt it very, I felt it very, Richie was just like, dog, that's a solo.

18:37It's a solo sport. And you got your ass kicked. It's, and what I find so interesting about Carby is there's this level of he comes back in the first season and he is almost this little tyrant where he's not wrong. The restaurant is fucked up. The books are fucked up. It cannot exist like this. It cannot survive like this. And Richie being the one, like, we are out of gas. Right. We need teamwork. You have been trying to do fucking backflips and show us how much you've learned and how much you can do. And I'm telling you right now for us to get where we are, I think even Marcus says it where it's like that free jazz moment, whether you're playing football or soccer, where it's like you might be the man, you might be the ace, you might be the person that can take us to the promised land.

19:29But there's a part when you're great of letting go and being like part of greatness is raising the floor of everybody else. So even if you're not having your best day, you're ensuring that everybody else is. because like you see Sid in these episodes being overwhelmed as a leader, being like, oh, now I'm the person who has to deal with someone falling through the roof and telling this person to do that. And I'm like, oh, even Carmi's in the wings being like, damn, she's become a little Carmi. Well, I mean, she is at the same time. It's just obvious that there's a part of this that she's much better at than him.

20:06like he is a much better cook with utensils and recipes and she's a much better cook with people yeah she's a much better cook with ideas like she's a much better cook with organization it's interesting that I didn't know that in a restaurant everybody called each other chef right and I think that I didn't understand it for the full run of this show and I understand it now because everybody's responsibility in that type of environment is so through the roof. Everyone's intensity level is so through the roof that bestowing that title on everyone is an understanding of how much everybody is bringing and that there's this gigantic shared load to lift, right?

20:58Load to lift. I didn't just say load, so don't, you know what I'm saying? Don't play me. so that and so now I see it and now I'm seeing her with the capability because maybe he's a little bit burned out to lift more than him to empower people in a way that he can't he calls everyone chef but doesn't feel like he really means it right he can hear how hot the stove is he can hear it he can hear how hot the stove is turn around turn that down a little bit he's used to micromanaging things because he's wearing it all is there a chance that when Carmi gives some of his burden away that he'll be more comfortable where he's at is that the true end of this show?

21:35Carmi being comfortable in his own skin somewhere because it doesn't seem like he's been anywhere else he's been. I mean, it's also like that burden of that type of genius that Carmi has where very rarely is the most talented person in the room the best leader. Right. And when you look at someone like Sid, you're like, not only does she have the ability to cook on a similar level as Carmi. She has a thing that he doesn't, which is like, I can empower everybody else in this room. Tina or Richie or everyone else. She's like, you even see it in these first four episodes being like, I'm trying not to curse.

22:15I'm trying not to yell. She is like, you see her struggling with, how do I go from the Berzato reign, the Carmi reign of the way I communicate with everyone is cursing, yelling, fighting, throwing shit to a place of like, no, we're a family. How do we get to what Marcus is talking about? That free jazz moment of everybody is so talented. If there's trust in this kitchen, we're going to survive. And maybe it's only for a night. Maybe it's only for a week, but we're surviving instead of being in a war zone. Because there's even a moment where she goes, why'd you design it like this? And I was, I don't know.

22:54Part of me, I was thinking, I was like, I think that's how it was designed in the other places he was at. Right. He never thought about why it was designed that way in these Michelin restaurants. He was just going, this is how you need to cook. And for Sid, she's like, but that's not how our team runs. You weren't thinking of our team. Just doing what he was programmed to do. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? ZepBound Terzepatide may be able to help. Z-Bound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity, or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off.

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24:11Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia, if you're nursing, pregnant, plan-to-be, or taking birth control pills. Taking ZepBound with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-5979 or visit zepbounds.lily.com. This episode is brought to you by NOS Energy. Every ounce of dirt, sweat, and gears, every checkered flag and trophy raised, every lap, every race, every hard-fought place.

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25:28Your car, your timeline, your terms. Visit Carvana.com to sell your car today. Carvana. Pickup fees may apply. I want to talk about Richie because Richie also is such a fascinating character in this final season because in the same way that like now he's almost more, and maybe he always was more emotionally intelligent than Carmi, his last evolutionary leap is who am I without the quotes? Right. Without the Michael Mann movies, without the suit, without me trying to impress upon you how much I've read and learned. Like after Forks, what I think is interesting is like for most shows, Forks would be the moment where Richie becomes this self-actualized being that can not do any wrong.

26:17And you realize, oh, he's tipped over almost too far into like, no, you need to lead in your own way. like you because it was so funny when he's having that speech originally I thought he was talking about the original beef when he's talking about the perfect restaurant and then he's like he ends up being like no I'm talking about the Berzato family and I'm talking about those Sundays at their at their crib where you could come over as you are whatever food was in the fridge is what was served and they would never kick you out and I was like oh oh, this is where Richie needs to get. He doesn't need to recreate the beef.

26:57He needs to recreate the family that, to your point earlier, gets fractured once Mikey dies. Yeah, it's fractured once Mikey dies. It doesn't exist anymore. There's nobody to hold it down. Carmi has left long before that. Their mother is not in a position from an emotional standpoint to be that rock for everyone. She actually stresses everybody out. And so they're kind of splintered, right? Yeah. And Richie, whose stability was in that family mostly, is kind of on an island. And he was the slowest one to change in all of this stuff. Him and Sid almost killed each other, right? The slowest one to change.

27:39But now he has become the rock. He has become the rock for them. Richie is now a character that whenever he opens his mouth, I expect wisdom. because he's really had to look at himself and evolve. All of this is happening. Everything is wet. This is a loud four episodes. This is a frantic four episodes. This is an episode where, let me ask you this, did you laugh? There are a couple of times that I laughed, but I didn't really. This four episodes to me is not great proof positive for the whole bear is a comedy contingent. so I largely just don't care about whether the bear is a comedy or not conversation but to answer your question I didn't laugh but I was almost happy I didn't because I was like these four episodes did the interesting thing where I'm like oh the creators are trying to like excise something they're trying to this season I was just like oh I was trying to put my mind like my head in like Joanna Callow, Christopher Storer, the showrunner, co-creator of this.