‘The Bear’ Season 2: What Can We Expect From FX’s Show?

The Bear season one was a highly acclaimed show from last year, and rightly so because this Christopher Storer eight-episodic series was packed with food, noise, chaos, anger, frustration, and, of course, dysfunctional family dynamics. Despite all these issues, the characters in this show wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but working towards running the restaurant by helping Carmy.

Carmy is a highly trained chef who quit his high-paying job to save the legacy left by his father and brother. He wants to revamp it, but they don’t earn enough money from the business to make this investment. To their shock, Mikey had indeed left a lot of money for Carmy in the most unusual way, which helped them finally decide to do the unthinkable. Rebranding ‘The Original Beef of Chicagoland’ and sprucing up the menu in the hope of making it a top-tier restaurant and following Carmy’s dream of running a kitchen in his way.

The theme of the show is chaos; the makers added that element in the trailer as well, along with quick intercuts for the people trying to talk about the blueprint of the restaurant they plan to open. There is Sydney, his chef, Carmy’s sister Natalie, and his uncle Jimmy in complete disarray with what is happening around them. There is talk about how the restaurant and the menu would be conceptualized, and obviously, Uncle Jimmy would be the first one to be skeptical of Carmy’s dream.

Natalie will surely have her doubts, but she would jump on the bandwagon to support and work on Carmy’s vision to make this one a first-rate restaurant. This proves season two would be as chaotic as the first one because the essence of running the kitchen of a restaurant lies in the pacing of it, and few shows have been able to encapsulate its true nature. Carmy would be at the forefront of it because, this time, he would not let anyone mess with his idea of what his place should look like. He would pay respects to his brother and father, but this is his chance to prove to himself that he is a creative person and that he has the right to take a different path instead of sticking to age-old ideas. The trailer was able to project Carmy’s risk-taking personality.

As per the new trailer, the timeline set by Carmy is six months till they open the place for the people, and by the looks of everyone sitting across from him, that is too little time to rebuild, rebrand, and market the restaurant. But why are they sticking to six months as a deadline? There must be a definite reason why they will have to stick to an impossible deadline, or Carmy, Natalie, and Sydney would not have agreed to it. As they say in the trailer, it is cocky and ambitious, but it will happen.

Sydney and Carmy, meanwhile, in the trailer, are sticking to presenting a chaos-themed menu to the people in the hope of giving them something edgy and extra. Carmy is a genius, and his experimental work might be too far-fetched for his employees. They have never worked with Michelin-starred restaurants to understand the nuances of a niche theme and how to work around it. But they will have to pull their socks up because they see Carmy’s vision and are willing to work towards it. Carmy is a wonderful boss, and Tina, one of the oldest employees at ‘The Original Beef’, sees what the man is trying to recreate. She is the older and wiser motivational factor that the kitchen needs to get things going.

There is also a glimpse in the trailer of Carmy still attending the support group as a way to deal with the loss of his brother and his guilt, which is getting difficult for him to get over. Hopefully, talking about his pain and numbness from losing a person close to him will eventually help him come to terms with the fact that he cannot be blamed for Mikey’s untimely death. Carmy requires closure, but with his brother now gone for a while, it is not clear when he will feel better about himself. Hopefully, his ex-girlfriend will help him as well, as shown in the trailer. Their history is something that was not shown in the previous season. This season would probably allow the viewers to see more of Carmy’s past, which was more than just his life as a chef with a fancy restaurant and the work that traumatized him.

Sydney, on the other hand, would be in charge of hiring waiters, as seen in the two-minute-long, fast-paced trailer, and the other cooking team, which will be a herculean task. There will be many new faces introduced this season as a part of the kitchen expansion plans. The trailer touched upon everything, including Sydney’s culinary school life. Her lifelong dream of working with Carmy has come true; now, what remains is to help him push his visions and bring her style of cooking to the chaos menu in the hope she will be able to leave an impact.

Cousin Richie is an essential part of the narrative. He is the one who was always at loggerheads with Carmy but never left his side because he loved Mikey too much to abandon ‘The Original Beefland.’ Richie is as much part of the restaurant as Mikey was. As shown in the trailer, he would be the crucial man regarding the overhaul and facelift of the restaurant, and one can only hope he will not mess things up. Richie and Carmy have their differences, but they always come around for the greater good, which is serving the best food there is in Chicago.

The trailer ends with the name of the restaurant, which was a point of discussion between Carmy and his ex-girlfriend. He does not remember sharing the name, but the woman remembering it comes as a shock to him. This name would change the face of his restaurant. This name was not mentioned in the trailer for obvious reasons because that creates a sense of anticipation. What will be the name of the restaurant? Let the chaos begin.


Smriti Kannan
Smriti Kannan
Smriti Kannan is a cinema enthusiast, and a part time film blogger. An ex public relations executive, films has been a major part of her life since the day she watched The Godfather – Part 1. If you ask her, cinema is reality. Cinema is an escape route. Cinema is time traveling. Cinema is entertainment. Smriti enjoys reading about cinema, she loves to know about cinema and finding out trivia of films and television shows, and from time to time indulges in fan theories.


 

 

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