IN ITS FIRST SEASON, the FX restaurant drama The Bear was about inheritance, avoidance, and grief. Its center was Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), and its overwhelming mood was Carmy's sensation of standing in quicksand. Doing nothing with his dead brother's struggling Chicago sandwich joint meant a slow slide toward bankruptcy and failure, but trying to escape seemed only to make the whole project sink faster. Season two, to its great credit, becomes a different kind of show-one with its own set of questions and preoccupations. It's still a series about inheritance and ambition and how a history of family pain can turn those two things into competing forces. But it's lighter than before-just a touch more hopeful while introducing new tension via inescapable relationship cycles and the costs of an all-consuming career.
The Bear's ten-episode second season relies on one of TV's best, most underused story arcs: a bunch of caring, flawed people coming together to build something they all love. It's a little bit Halt and Catch Fire in that respect and a little bit Ramy (an earlier show from The Bear creator Christopher Storer) in its mix of darkness and levity and the way it deploys its self-contained episode ideas. At times, it even has an '80s-drama vibe with sexy bluehued montages and unapologetically onthe-nose musical cues. This season is bigger and looser than the first and inevitably loses some of the taut, unrelenting rhythms that fueled its heady, nearly painful intensity. That is more than offset by other gains. Season two is more tender and wrenching, and its enlarged world hasn't diluted the show's characteristic intimacy.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
A Wonk in Full- Ezra Klein, glowed-up and post-coup, was almost a celebrity at the convention.
Ezra Klein, glowed-up and post-coup, was almost a celebrity at the convention. Ezra Klein, who is known to keep his passions in check, did not have the right credentials to get into the arena. The Secret Service didn't recognize the New York Times' star "Opinion" writer and podcaster, but eventually he was able to figure out how to get in to where he belonged. This was, after all, as much his convention as any journalist's, since its high-energy optimism turned on the fact that President Joe Biden was no longer leading the ticket and, starting early this year, Klein had led the coup drumbeat.
The Afterlife of Donald Trump - The presidential hopeful contemplates his campaign, his formidable new opponent, and the miracle of his continued existence.
Donald Trump raised his right hand and grabbed hold of it. He bent it backward and forward. I asked if I could take a closer look. These days, the former president and current triple threat-convicted felon, Republican presidential nominee, and recent survivor of an assassination attempt-comes from a place of yes. He waved me over to where he sat on this August afternoon, in a low-to-the-ground chair upholstered in cream brocade fabric in the grand living room at Mar-a-Lago.
Danzy Senna Can't Stop Thinking in Black and White
Her latest novel holds diminishing returns.
Live, Laugh, Love
Dick jokes meet sentimentality in a wily Sandler-Safdie collab.
Tim Burton Is Great Again
A long-awaited sequel revels in gore and nostalgia.
In the Shack With Robert Caro
The Power Broker is turning 50. The final LBJ book is almostwell, he won't say exactly, but he's trying for 900 words a day.
24 Comedians You Should Know RIGHT NOW
THE COMEDY industry is undergoing a metamorphosis in 2024. Name-brand venues like the Second City and UCB are opening or reopening in New York, beloved local spots are being bought out by megacorporations, and streaming-service-helmed comedy festivals are usurping the old-fashioned ones. Post-WGA strike, TV-development execs are growing green-light-shy, Hulu is entering the stand-up fray, and YouTube specials are becoming just as worthy of watching as Netflix specials, if not more so.
Leading Lady
Anna Sawai could take home the Emmy for her performance in Shogun. But she's keeping her cool.
RESTAURANT REVIEW: Le Même Veau
The Frenchette crew has taken over the 87-year-old restaurant, and the snails are as garlicky and the duck as pink as ever.
DESIGN HUNTING: A LOFT WITH A HIGHER PURPOSE
Ali Richmond, co-founder of the nonprofit Fashion for All Foundation, has lived in this Brooklyn loft for almost 20 years with his archive of designer clothing.
