More Than I Can Bear

 

Sorry for the pun.  But it fits.

Here's one of those streamed TV shows that I follow and I don't know why.  Actually, I do.   Embedded deep down in this Hulu series is the inner workings of being a chef and opening a restaurant.   That is indeed fascinating to me.

The rest of it?   Pure garbage.   It's like getting invited for a dinner featuring food I detest but there's the promise of a spoonful of a nifty dessert.

I watch because I long for that dessert.   It has yet to appear.

We're into Season 4 already and I can easily compartmentalize (wow, what a word) this series.   Season 1 introduced you to all the characters in a restaurant kitchen and the frenetic pace that goes with it.   The pace was exhausting but I hung in there.

Season 2 was interesting.  It actually had a plot and a direction and you started to care about a few of the characters.  Season 3 was an absolute mess with dangling plots and new characters and overwritten scenes drove the show into a bus station urinal.

To make matters even more insulting, "The Bear" competes in the Emmy categories for comedy and that is ridiculous.  There is very little funny about this show and its very mentally damaged cast of characters.  But my suspicion is that it's the only way the creator-show runner Christopher Storer can compete for gold and he grabs that opportunity.

Indeed, I believe that it's Storer who is the problem with this series.   As seasons have passed and accolades have been bestowed, the show has completely become his vanity project.   He's buying his own press and essentially doing what he wants, which is a big FU to the viewing audience.   No plot?  He doesn't care.  Long drawn out scenes that are clearly there for the Emmy reel?  He doesn't care.  Plot points that are introduced and dropped?  He doesn't care.

So, Season 4 has dropped and, like a patsy, I'm already four episodes in.   Storer has set up the bare bones of story development and then suddenly upends it by devoting a single episode to one of the characters babysitting for a friend's kid.

WTF?

Now am I getting off this bumpy ride?  Nope.  Should I?  Yes.

But I keep hearing about this decadent dessert.

Dinner last night:  Grilled steak salad.