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A a few years ago, the amazing event of A bear it would be one of the most important events of the year. The haunting, poignant comedy about a Chicago restaurant hit television like a juggernaut when it premiered. It was like nothing else and it was all anyone could talk about.
How things have changed. Two disappointing seasons have taken all the wind out of it A bearso when it was announced that the special episode had dropped (before what was expected to be the season finale this summer), you would have been right to be nervous.
The good news is that this new episode, Gary, isn’t bad. Two articles by Cousin Richie and Mikey Berzatto, written by Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Jon Bernthal (actors who play and co-star on Broadway in A Dog’s Evening), concerns a trip to deliver a mysterious package to an unknown customer in an unknown city in the hours before Richie’s wife gives birth.
It’s no spoiler to reveal that Gary is part of the show. The Bear’s concept deals with the aftermath of Mikey’s suicide, and Richie is now a reformed homemaker who no longer does the cheap things Gary hates.
Gary has a bumpy commute, even though Gary, Indiana, is so close to Chicago that you can be there and back in less than an hour. The Bear still isn’t any joke, but the food made from a very small trip is one of the funniest things that has happened in years.
Part of what makes this work is that, at least in the early days of the show, Richie was a living Chicagoan, pushing back hard at the first sign of gentrification. Here, soon after leaving his hometown, he becomes a fish out of water: sweet, painful and half loud.
That little bit of attention allows Gary to refrain from too many unpleasant Bearisms. There are no good looks that allow actresses to chew on the good looks with one eye on the Emmys. It’s not set in a high-end restaurant, so we don’t have airless bootlicking. The Chef’s Table. You will be happy to know that there is no single montage.
However, some Bearisms come through. Although the opening moments are interesting, the two are disgusted in succession in Gary’s place, the bottom drops soon. Richie and Mikey end up in a bar, where we get lots (and lots) of Richie being a socialite and Mikey being depressed. Lately things are getting better, but it stops thinking that Gary is a 30-minute television show stuck in a 60-minute slot.
One event, however, is about to make this happen. Drowning in alcohol, drugs and self-loathing, Mikey utters words to Richie that are refreshing as soon as they come out of his mouth. It’s a sad, angry, scary word delivered as a last resort. Moss-Bachrach’s silent pain as a recipient makes it difficult to bear.
What really sells this show is that we’ve already seen Richie change beyond this point. We know the joy that discipline and attention to detail gives him. We know he’s been a great dad all along. We know he can make it and Mikey doesn’t. You’ll have to overcome a fair amount of ego to get there, but it’s a great experience that should go down as one of The Bear’s greatest moments.
It clearly shows the fifth season that Gary was released as a stand-in. When The Bear takes a turn for the worse, he loses interest in the restaurant and prefers to wander through the endless displays and sections of bottles. Gary may be a sign that The Bear wants to clear the decks and start looking again. This episode also seems to expand the show’s plot; The last episode jumps to the present and means that Richie will spend a lot of time injured. We’ve been burned by The Bear in the past, but if this show lives up to its old form, it’s going to be even better.
