Just under a month before its third season’s release, FX has dropped a much-awaited trailer for “The Bear,” the multiple Emmy-winning Hulu series centered on the Berzatto family (and Co.’s) restaurant and the many, many, many conflicts therein. Though the trailer’s elongated sneak-peeks (or looksee-looker-loos, if you will) mostly consist of out-of-context shots and narration, there’s more than a few key details we can use to ascertain what the season holds in store.
For convenience’s sake, this will be a chronological analysis of the shots as they appear, so feel free to follow along at home and email me (deetz way below) with a corresponding timestamp if you think I’m dead wrong on anything. Only time (and potentially an article) will tell … that I’m right forever and always. This is not my first trailer analysis rodeo, I’ve been around the block (Tumblr, generally speaking), but it is my first time ponying up all by my lonesome. Giddy up!
We start with some very unusual fades to white (not that a trailer needs to match its source material’s editing style, it’s just a little jarring) as a Carmy (Jeremy Allen White, “Shameless”) voiceover talking about his wish of opening a restaurant plays. The first shot is a certified “Bear” staple: A lead character, here Carmy, bundled in a thick winter jacket does a cold little scurry down something like N Franklin St or whatever with the Brown line’s train tracks above as busy street SFX plays. Beautiful. No notes.
The next few shots show a younger Carmy at his fancy New York gig (called Empire, if anyone wanted to know), easily recognized due to the same kitchen layout and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attire. However, as the guy from “Community” (Joel McHale, “Crime Scene Kitchen”) isn’t actively verbally abusing him in the workplace, and the color-grading and composition aren’t stress-inducing blue-toned closeups, this flashback seems to have a happier tone than its predecessor. This more bubbly look at a high-end kitchen is then contrasted by the dark, unpopulated look of the soon-to-be-open restaurant, also named The Bear, as a present-day plain-clothes-wearing Carmen paces around, checking that chairs are properly aligned. The last shot of this section lights him in a pale, blueish wash emitting from the empty kitchen, visually and emotionally reminiscent of the literal cold note Carmen ended the previous season on. The vibes are also similar to the New York kitchen from season one’s flashback, of which the previous shots have just reminded us. Which could mean nothing.
It turns out, Carmen’s pitch of the restaurant is to Michael (Jon Bernthal, “The Wolf of Wall Street”). That’s right, baby!!! Mikey time! Third! Time’s! The charm! Bernthal makes his seemingly contractually obligated appearance to be kind of a bitch to his little brother and make us all sad about how Carmen ended up owning the place to begin with — but this time it’s even sadder, since they’re specifically going to be discussing the dream we now know only Carmen will be able to accomplish. This flashback is old, predating even “Fishes,” as it’s then that Carmen receives Michael’s sketch of what the spot would look like. Since that was five years before current events, this must be even older.
After a very cute transition to show “The Bear” logo, we get our first hints of the actual plot this season. Surprising no one, it’s about the restaurant immediately post-opening. This is very, very exciting, given that, in a way, we’ve spent two seasons waiting to get to this moment. The titular character of the show is finally open for business and we couldn’t be prouder. A very pregnant Sugar (Abby Elliott, “Odd Mom Out”) — baseless guess: Sugar will give birth to baby Mikey (that’s going to be its name, don’t kid yourself) this season — questions Carmen’s latest weird fixation: the “non-negotiables.” The next scene presents the inevitable conflict: The staff wants to negotiate with them. The principal negotiators are, of course, Sydney (Ayo Edebiri, “Bottoms”) and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “Girls”). Though the Richie-Carmy conflict will predictably remain, this catalyst shows a fascinating 180: Later in the trailer, we see Carmen yelling at Richie for not doing something by the books (“Richie, no surprise” “YES, surprise”). This turns the season one “system” conflict on its head, where Richie held steadfast to his own way of running the place and refused to budge on how things should be done. Almost like non-negotiables, one could say.
As for Sydney, this season will bring a continuation of the will-they-won’t-they-own-a-business-together as tensions remain high between her and Carmen, shown in her self-identified “snark, contempt even” toward his non-negotiables. On his end, we also see Carmen quietly criticize the quality of the food they can serve (“if it’s not perfect, it doesn’t go out”) into Sydney’s ear, eerily reminiscent of the aforementioned season one New York flashback, though of course with much less vitriol. Nevertheless, the parallel remains. Back to literal business, though, we get a glimpse at Sydney’s electronic inbox and see a DocuSign link from Carmen as the words “partnership agreement” float as voiceover. In a neatly edited scene of Sugar’s husband Pete (Chris Witaske, “Love”) in PJs at his and Sugar’s apartment asking Sydney if an uncontextualized subject is “a good thing,” she gives a very unconvincing “yeah, no, it’s – great” in reply. Though probably out of order, it serves to highlight her uncertainty over the agreement due to its placement after the previous voiceover. Another relevant nugget is the shot of her shaking hands on the street with the CDC (Chef de cuisine, that is) at Ever (Adam Shapiro, “Never Have I Ever”), the restaurant Richie stages at in “Forks.” Jinkies! This marks the assured return of Sydney’s doubt instead of officially anchoring herself to this ship that sprouted last season after she was told by several trusted industry hard-hitters to never enter a restaurant partnership. Crucially, she was advised this while Carmen missed a whole day of taste-testing research around Chicago to hang out with “his friend who is a girl.”
Speaking of, the Claire Bear (Molly Gordon, “Theater Camp”) returns. Though Carmen summarizes the finale’s events as “I basically said I couldn’t waste my time” to an (understandably) unsympathetic audience, we see Fak (Matty Matheson, “It’s Suppertime!”) showing up at Claire’s place of work. Side note: It is surprising how a big city nurse had a schedule so flexible that she was able to hang out with Carmen basically whenever she wanted last season, so I am genuinely glad to see her clock in on-screen. There’ll be more of her, for sure, but her brief appearance coming so early into the trailer and in only one more shot for the rest of the preview’s runtime does not seem to highlight her as a key element (unlike her extended scene in last season’s trailer), so I’m inclined to believe a lid will be closed on that ordeal. So long, dead-wife-montage-scenes of a very much alive woman, we hardly knew ye. Like, at all.
On the flip side, a season two newcomer seems to have a newly cemented spot in the family this season: A second Fak has joined the staff, baby! That’s right, Fak’s cousin, Theodore Fak (Ricky Staffieri, “Better Call Saul”) from “Fishes,” is seemingly taking up Neil Faks’s role as the all-purpose handyman now that Neil has a front-facing position. From their interaction, we get a hint at another B-plot: critics. The Faks discuss “code red,” the occasion wherein any of the expected food critics, whose headshots they’ve fittingly hung up on an office wall, were to arrive at The Bear (including what seems to be a small child). I estimate this plot to be equal in importance and duration to the fire-suppression test as it will most definitely intersect with the Michelin Star goal Sydney brought up last season and, per the trailer, Carmy seems to be holding on. Nevertheless, very excited to see what role our bonus Fak will play aside from giving stat bonuses to whatever silly situation Fak #1 is running into.
More things of note: Richie’s kid is here! Yay! Excited to see them interact. Also, Richie sings happy birthday in Spanish at one point. The “no surprises” quote is actually part of the list of non-negotiables we see, as are “confidence + compliance” and “pursuit of excellence.” Additionally, “no repeat ingredients” is on there (ironically, twice, as it’s written on both pieces of paper) and Carmen’s handwriting makes “non’s” second N look weird, to the point that it kind of reads like “Now negotiables,” of which it’s gearing up to seem like they are! When we see Sydney’s email, we also see a shipment confirmation notification for her. Not necessarily plot-relevant, but good for her, I guess? Also, the plating for the food they’ll offer seems wildly similar to that of the brief New York flashback at the beginning of the trailer. Moreover, it looks very different from last season’s “Sistine Chapel”-level sketches, so perhaps we will learn what drove this new direction, with “less is more” being non-negotiable. Marcus (Lionel Boyce, “The Jellies!”) is working with a purple sauce, which is neat as I speculate it will be his own take on either donuts or the plum dessert Carmen made at Noma, storylines from early in season one that I am glad to revisit. “Doors!” is the new “hands!” based on how many times it’s bellowed during the trailer. The shot of Sydney and Pete at the apartment shows a lot of baby bottles on a drying rack, so I think baby Mikey (I’m sticking to the name theory) will be with us very shortly! Lastly, in classic “Bear” fashion, they’re having money problems (despite the restaurant’s success). Not sure if that’s analysis, since I could’ve guessed so without a trailer. What is “The Bear” without the constant threat of financial strain?
I was able to suck all the juice out of this particularly scrumptious amuse-bouche of a trailer. As you can easily ascertain from the ramblings above, I am very excited for what the season will hold, especially any answers it’ll offer about how Carmen and Sydney will navigate running a business together. I know the bright spot of the under-a-table convo from last season didn’t just wash over their other conflicts (rightly so), but I don’t think it’ll be all gloom and doom either. However, the sheer number of little fights picked and prodded at between the two in this preview doesn’t bode great either. I’m not sure Sydney backing out to try again at Sheridan (or maybe opening her own competing location?) is the definite end goal, but it seems more and more likely every day. Carmen’s crashing and burning is less of a prediction and more of a subjective observation. But what about the baby? And the new Fak? And the non-negotiables? And the new Michael scene? I don’t know! What’s undoubtedly clear, though, is that “The Bear” season 3 is gearing up to be the 10-course meal highlight of this Summer TV season. You best believe I will be seated (fork at the ready) for the full-season premiere on June 27. Bon appétit to all!
Daily Arts Writer Cecilia Ledezma can be reached at cledezma@umich.edu.
The post Reducing ‘The Bear’’s season 3 trailer appeared first on The Michigan Daily.
Leave a Reply