This show centers around the life of Carmen “Carmy” Berzatoo, a chef from Chicago. After a tragic death in his family, Carmen must leave his job in the fine dining world and return home to run his family’s sandwich shop. Carmen struggles with balancing the stressful job at the restaurant, trying to connect with his kitchen staff, and resolving conflict with family members throughout the show.
When I say this is one of my favorite shows of all time, I’m not exaggerating. Every aspect of this show is executed almost flawlessly to create a perfect chaotic energy. In the kitchen, viewers can clearly see and feel the mayhem and stress through the screen, but it’s carried out in a way that allows us to feel as though we are feeding off of that energy. Part of why this works so well is a combination of the writing and the cast. The writing in The Bear is phenomenal. It feels so real, and even though a typical viewer’s family or workplace isn’t as dysfunctional as depicted in the show, it feels really relatable. The cast also plays a huge role in carrying out the script. Each actor’s individual performance is great, but what really stood out to me was how good the chemistry between the cast was. For a show about families, both blood and non-related, the cast perfectly exemplified both and the relationships between characters were incredibly relatable.
The Bear is a fantastic show, it creates an energy that gets watchers hooked and engaged. The writing, cast, and cinematography help to amplify the human relatability and make this show one of my top favorites.
The main character of this show is Barry, a war veteran turned hitman. When he is sent to take down another mark in Los Angeles, he stumbles upon an acting class and begins to discover his passion for acting. Throughout the show Barry struggles with both internal and external conflicts, wanting to pursue an acting career after being a hitman for so long.
One of my favorite parts of this show is its storyline. It’s complex and elaborate, but never too difficult to follow and always keeps the viewer engaged. As the title of the show suggests, this show focuses on the life of Barry, and throughout the show, it’s very interesting to watch the evolution and development of Barry. Watching this show, I was incredibly engrossed at almost all moments. I never felt the need to multitask while watching and always wanted to have my full focus on the events occurring. The show is able to depict such emotion, drama, and tension and really hooks the audience. Bill Hader, who plays Barry, also does an exceptional job playing his role. His acting is filled with such raw emotion, and he so clearly depicts the internal torment that Barry feels within him. Another interesting component of this show is the fact that you don’t sympathize or root for Barry. You understand when he’s wrong and sometimes even root against him. Even with all this, the audience still finds themselves invested in his story.
Barry is definitely a dark show, but I personally think that’s part of what makes it so great. The raw emotion and torment that Barry feels inside of him really evokes a viewer’s own emotions and isn’t exactly relatable, but viewers can still definitely connect with him.
Two strangers, Amy Lau and Danny Cho, get into an incident of road rage and their feud spirals out of control. One a failed contractor and the other an unfulfilled entrepreneur, the two characters come from two completely separate lives, and quite literally crash into each other.
One thing in particular that this show does really well is its portrayal of obsession. It’s shown how damaging it can be to be so obsessive and how harmful it can be to the people around you as well. This show also has great actors, who create the perfect amount and type of tension between characters at all the right times. Beef also tackles many real problems that are very relatable for certain readers. Some of these include family issues such as love feeling conditional or sibling dynamics and other issues include suppressing rage and feelings of loneliness and emptiness. Another issue that this show addresses is the contrast between the rich and the poor. Both Amy and Danny obviously think negatively about each other, and the gap in their social standings adds even more tension between them.
Although this show can be slightly disturbing at times, it really is a fantastic show that portrays so many important issues in our real world. The plot of this show is engaging and it’s very intriguing to watch how obsession overcomes Amy and Danny and how exactly it affects them.
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