At the risk of losing your respect for me as a culture commentator, I confess that I have not yet watched The Bear. The upside is I have a lot to look forward to.
I do consider myself a Succession aficionado. You may be right that the Wedding is better art than the Funeral. That said, with regard to the Funeral, I can't recall a TV episode that was so effective at making me forget I was watching a fictional event rather than a real one. l i was actually there mourning Logan. The Wedding was more jarring, but it didn't suspend my disbelief like the Funeral did.
The funeral episode was pretty frigging brilliant too. If it weren’t for those phone calls to dying/dead Logan, I probably would have ranked it higher than the wedding episode. Re. The Bear: I am so envious! I wish I hadn’t seen it yet. Let me know what you think.
Really incisive analysis. I would argue that "Fishes" is among the greatest episodes of TV *drama* of all time.
I'll add a reservation to yours about Succession -- a show I loved from the first episode -- and that is that season 3 is in many respects a retread of season 1. It follows a very similar arc of Kendall rising up to challenge Logan, his siblings fearing to join him in alliance, and his not measuring up to the task for multiple reasons and failing. All through the season watching it, I kept thinking, we've been here already! We've seen this! Do something new! Ironically, it was during season 3 that the show reached its peak of fame and praise. In season 4, Armstrong did a lot new, and the series was saved. BTW, my nephew, who is my comrade-in-criticism on all things TV and film, agrees with me about this, so that's pretty definitive.
Also, kudos one more time to Nicholas Brittell for his brilliant score and theme, which I've never read anyone else note is derived from the opening notes of Schubert's "Ständchen," D 957, No. 4
Episode 7: “Carmy decides to send Richie to intern at a fancy restaurant to prepare for the opening of The Bear. Once in the establishment, he is entrusted with the drying of the forks.”
At the risk of losing your respect for me as a culture commentator, I confess that I have not yet watched The Bear. The upside is I have a lot to look forward to.
I do consider myself a Succession aficionado. You may be right that the Wedding is better art than the Funeral. That said, with regard to the Funeral, I can't recall a TV episode that was so effective at making me forget I was watching a fictional event rather than a real one. l i was actually there mourning Logan. The Wedding was more jarring, but it didn't suspend my disbelief like the Funeral did.
The funeral episode was pretty frigging brilliant too. If it weren’t for those phone calls to dying/dead Logan, I probably would have ranked it higher than the wedding episode. Re. The Bear: I am so envious! I wish I hadn’t seen it yet. Let me know what you think.
Your sister, Mickey, was my clinical supervisor for years. No ambivalence at all,she was a straight up gift to humanity. ❤️
I miss her so terribly. More all the time. https://open.substack.com/pub/susanbordo/p/grief-a-reflection-and-two-poems?r=384ha&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Really incisive analysis. I would argue that "Fishes" is among the greatest episodes of TV *drama* of all time.
I'll add a reservation to yours about Succession -- a show I loved from the first episode -- and that is that season 3 is in many respects a retread of season 1. It follows a very similar arc of Kendall rising up to challenge Logan, his siblings fearing to join him in alliance, and his not measuring up to the task for multiple reasons and failing. All through the season watching it, I kept thinking, we've been here already! We've seen this! Do something new! Ironically, it was during season 3 that the show reached its peak of fame and praise. In season 4, Armstrong did a lot new, and the series was saved. BTW, my nephew, who is my comrade-in-criticism on all things TV and film, agrees with me about this, so that's pretty definitive.
Also, kudos one more time to Nicholas Brittell for his brilliant score and theme, which I've never read anyone else note is derived from the opening notes of Schubert's "Ständchen," D 957, No. 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYejArVzId8&t=21s
Fishes was great, but my vote would have been for Forks.
A joke? Or was there really an episode called “Forks”?
Episode 7: “Carmy decides to send Richie to intern at a fancy restaurant to prepare for the opening of The Bear. Once in the establishment, he is entrusted with the drying of the forks.”
You’re right!! That was a great episode.