The Bear S5
The Bear is a show about people trying their best, one grueling day at a time. It's a show about breaking patterns, in this final season even more literally than before.
The entire 8 episode stretch serves as an inversion of the S1-S3 patterns that we got so used to. We've seen the same setups time and time again, except this time the punchline is different, it's the concept of 4x7 stretched out to every aspect of the show.
Compare how a typical shift went in the early seasons. How things cascaded when someone fucked up. The same triggers keep happening here, too, everyone messes up something, but the rest of the team is there to reel them back in. One of the biggest strengths of television is time, and The Bear is not afraid to make use of it. In the last two seasons, they've willingly sacrificed some moment-to-moment excitement, to convey the arduous nature of healing, and now is the time they get to cash in all of that buildup.
What's also wonderful about the execution here is, they put you in the same headspace as someone with these traumas. You see a mistake happen, you hear Richie call out to Carmy in a raised voice, and your mind immediately goes "oh fuck, here it goes". Your instinct is to catastrophize, you wince in preparation for the chaos. Except this time, Richie just goes "cousin, we got you", and we move forward.
The Bear does not try to sidestep the ugliness and difficulty of healing. It does not try to pretend conflicts are now simply gone, and it does not act like getting better means the pull of the abyss is gone. Life hasn't become unproblematic, we just got better at pulling ourselves, and eachother back even stronger in the opposite direction.
Another prominent theme this season is the synthesis of identities. It's most visible with Richie, the thesis being his old "The Beef" self, the antithesis is the side of him that "Forks" brought out, and this season is him finding a balance he can embrace.
But like I say, it's a broader theme than just Richie's arc, arguably the show in its entirety is about synthesis, and learning to integrate our past. The sandwhich booth, the OG shirts they wear, recipes inspired by our childhood, facing our past, not just turning away from conflict, but learning how to face it without crumbling. This is how we learn to heal.
Talking a bit about the approach of the whole season, the single-day approach was a bold decision, but it works. It works because for the most part, this season is no longer about development, or gradual progress. It's a culmination. A single event that allows all their past learnings to sort themselves out, and arrange into a cohesive whole. All those fragments of insight, and wisdom that we've accumulated over four seasons, now get a chance to find their place.
Not only does the final season benefit form all the gradual groundwork laid down by previous seasons, it retroactively elevates it. You look back, even at parts that frustrated you, and see that everything coming together wouldn't feel nearly as rewarding, if you'd never had to suffer through it falling apart again and again.
For me, despite the occasional tonal issues, this season solidifies The Bear as one of the boldest and most unique shows of the streaming era, being daring enough to turn half the show on its head while still staying true to its essence.
The fun thing about Kojima's reviews is that the parameter is a simple as whether or not a movie leaves him with enough words to write home about, whether it's good or bad doesn't matter, because I think the worst thing a movie can do is just making you feel nothing.
THE FURIOUS only has a total of 6 showings in NYC today and Apple changed the digital VOD release date from July 14 to July 7. I’ll say it again. If you can still see it in a theater, do it.
The "J" stands for "John/Jane" and "Sen" means "a thousand" in Japanese
JOHN 1000 & JANE 1000 CONFIRMED AS THE XENOVERSE 3 PLAYER CHARACTER NAME LMAO
@DiscussingFilm hey look at me I'm Tom Holland, I play Spider-Man, I'm married to Zendaya, and both of us play a video game based on the character I play together.
fuck you bro