The sign on the kitchen wall says “Every Second Counts.” At a certain point in the premiere of the 3rd season of The bear, Jeremy Allen White Carmy Berzatto takes a look and then reminds her brigade to keep pace. Everyone shouts “CHEF!” in unison.
Later — or technically earlier, because this episode (“Tomorrow”) is a whirlwind of memories told out of chronological order — Carmy is working as a cook in a Michelin-starred kitchen run by an abusive chef played by Joel McHale. McHale is a monstrous boss. Dissatisfied with all of Carmy’s work, he routinely berates him for what he considers sloppy craftsmanship. He vows to steal credit for creating a dish that Carmy conceived but which he altered slightly. After yet another plate of food fails to meet his standards, McHale’s character looks Carmy in the face and asks, “Why are you so slow?”
That’s a question I suspect a good number of audience members will ask later The bearnew premiere episode. “Tomorrow” is not a half-hour of television that suggests it was made with the philosophy that every second counts, or that its creator, Christopher Storeris very concerned about viewers’ complaints about the pace.
It unfolds in a massive montage, picking up almost immediately after the events of the Season 2 finale, where Carmy debuted her new upscale restaurant, The Bear, which was built on the bones of her late brother’s old Chicago diner. The inauguration was a professional success and a personal calamity. Carmy’s team completes their first job almost without him, after he accidentally locks himself in the kitchen freezer and takes out all his frustrations on his girlfriend Claire (Molly Gordon).
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“Tomorrow” begins the next day, but mostly finds Carmy reaching back into the past: leaving Chicago for New York, climbing the culinary ladder, her tempestuous history with Claire, the cascading effects of her brother’s suicide. Among all this is the food; endless preparation, cooking and plating, along with many mouth-watering close-ups that have become one of the The bearregistered trademarks.
The entire episode is essentially one giant montage, a prologue to what comes next. It’s an unconventional beginning for a show that has become increasingly unorthodox as it has grown in popularity and critical stature. (At the recent Emmy Awards, The bear took home a slew of awards, including Best Comedy Series — an especially funny idea after watching “Tomorrow,” an entire episode of television that had almost no dialogue, let alone jokes.) The opening of The Wait is a 66-minute flashback to a claustrophobic Christmas dinner with Carmy and her screwed-up family. Now the show picks up after a long off-season with a jumble of episode-long flashbacks, no evident story arc, and no major character developments.
It’s a bold choice, although a little less audacious because The bearthe complete third season is now available on Hulu. As a result, most will see “Tomorrow” as a very moody introduction to a ten-chapter story rather than a deliberate (and perhaps deliberately alienating) unity of television episodes. (In the interest of full disclosure, I admit I’ve only seen the first episode so far because I watch The bear with my wife and she decided that a 30-minute montage was enough for her last night and went to bed after “Tomorrow.”)
Seen on its own, “Tomorrow” reminds audiences that The bear is as much a show about a restaurant and its ragtag staff as it is about artists and their art. Episodes like this emphasize where creative inspiration comes from and how a creator’s work is inextricably linked to their life and experiences. The show’s flashback probably took too long for Carmy, who has been pushing away all these thoughts for a long time. As painful as it is for him to do this (and perhaps as painful as it is for some in the audience to watch him do it), the process allows him to get to the root of some huge questions: Namely “Why am I doing this?” ” and perhaps even more importantly “What do I want to say by doing this?”
More than once, “Tomorrow” reminded me of the recent documentary Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros about the inner workings of one of the best restaurants in the world, Le Bois Sans Feuilles, in rural France. If you thought “Tomorrow” seemed long, that’s not at all; Menu-Plaisirs lasts four full hours. But the film uses this time on purpose. As I wrote in my review of the film…
A meal at a place like Le Bois Sans Feuilles should take us away from reality for a while; to dazzle us with unusual flavors, smells and sights. We shouldn’t contemplate the time and energy invested in a perfect French-cut lamb chop or an aesthetically beautiful stalk of asparagus. Of course, making food that looks easy takes a lot of effort. Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros is a film about this effort; about the hours, days, months, and years of sweat, thought, choices, and practice it takes to produce something worthwhile—great food, certainly, but really any artwork.
Another thing both Menus-Plaisirs It is The bear emphasize is the amount of trial and error it takes to create a great dish. The ingredients are considered and combined; cooked and re-cooked until the recipe is perfected. (At one point in “Tomorrow,” Olivia Colman, playing a chef who takes young Carmy under her wing, orders him to grill a piece of meat for exactly five more seconds. Because, of course, every second counts.) If you he wants. look at “Tomorrow” as one of the The bearfailures of experimentation on the path to perfection, so be it. I see this more as the series echoing its characters’ expansive ambitions and their desire to push boundaries in their chosen artistic medium.
The only tangible thing that happens in The bearTomorrow’s gift in “Tomorrow” is Carmy writing a list of “Non-Negotiables,” seemingly charting the restaurant’s course in light of opening night. (This reminded me of Charles Foster Kane’s “Declaration of Principles” by Citizen Kane. If you’re familiar with this film, you know that such an idealistic list doesn’t always produce equally utopian results!) I assume that what happens next will be eventful and exciting and probably even a little funny. (The bear: The best comedy series on TV!) But to understand what Carmy will and will do, you need to really understand what was done and done before it. Tomorrow doesn’t happen without yesterday.
While not the most conventionally satisfying episode of The bear, I wondered if “Tomorrow” intended to suggest that Season 3 as a whole would be structured like one long tasting menu. In that case, this episode could be seen as the equivalent of a chef getting ready for work by gathering his ingredients. With that out of the way, they can now start raising the temperature.
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