Mission UnBearable #6
Season 4, Episode 6: “Sophie”
I know what this show has come to remind me of. I couldn’t think of it for a long time, but now I know.
It reminds me of the TV scripts I used to write in 8th grade that were about thinly-veiled versions of myself and my classmates having superpowers but mostly going through 14-year-old ennui written in the voice of a 14-year-old.
It reminds me of my 8th grade writing projects because it SUCKS.
I’m not interested in talking about the events which transpire in this episode. It’s no longer worth describing the random collection of scenes dump-trucked into a heap before me each time I click upon The Bear thumbnail on Hulu. I only want to talk about one thing:
In
this
episode
our heroes
discover
pre-portioning
meal components.
Inthisepisodeourheroesdiscoverpre-portioningmealcomponents.
.stnenopmoclaemgninoitrop-erprevocsidseorehruoedosipesihtnI
I was watching this episode with my parents, former restaurant proprietors, and their exact words were “You cannot be fucking serious right now.”
No shit your business is about to fail, Carmy--you somehow missed out on the 101-grade best practices of modern food service!
I can only assume that the writers’ room lost some key members between season 1 and season 4, because it boggles my mind that the same people could create episodes like 1x07 “Review”, which captures so skillfully the daily overwhelming terror of opening a restaurant, and then create this, an episode in which our long-time employees of a fine dining restaurant find out about prep, the foundation of every mildly functional dining establishment. Prep is the reason any restaurant serves anything besides medieval peasant porridge of unknown provenance.
I’m not a nit-picky viewer. I’m not the guy who turns shows off because they fudge the timeline or skip over some boring part of real world procedure. But food service is procedure on this show. This is not Officer NCIS saying “Enhance!” to produce a high-def crop-in of a 480p security video. This is Officer NCIS saying aloud, on screen, “Oh shit, we were supposed to wear gloves at the crime scene?”
This is why they made up the term “idiot box” to describe television.
I can’t believe I’ve trapped myself in Blog Jail with this show. I want to stop so bad. I’m literally googling “negative review bear” to reassure myself that somebody else is watching the same show as I am.
Bearconomics: Let’s Do The Numbers
Optimism Level: 0 out of 5
Soundtrack-Related Torment: 3 out of 5
Montage Fatigue: 3 out of 5
Final Score for “Sophie”: 1 out of 5
