Latest / Pop Culture Junkie® / Choosing 'The Bear'

Transcript

Choosing 'The Bear' · Pop Culture Junkie®

• 0:00
  [Music]
• 0:27
  Welcome to the Pop Culture Junkie Podcast. I'm Olivia, here with my fellow Junkie.
• 0:32
  I'm Shauna. And I'm so excited. I haven't seen you in a long time. I want to hear what you've
• 0:38
  been up to, what you've been obsessed with in my absence. I missed you so much. I feel like
• 0:43
  there's a big space between us. It's the hole in our heart for Nicole. I'm going to pretend like we
• 0:48
  haven't just spent the last two hours catching up with each other. Oh my god, it's good to see you.
• 0:54
  I love you so much. I haven't seen you till right now. I am almost done with Bridgerton. I'm on the
• 1:00
  finale of season three. Okay. You know, I'm not enjoying season three as much as I thought I would.
• 1:07
  Yeah. I can't quite pinpoint what it is in my brain that I'm not liking about it as much.
• 1:13
  Because I really like Penelope. Her and Colin, I'm convinced by them as a couple. I don't know.
• 1:20
  They went from being like just friends to deeply f***ing in love to, oh my god, I'm really mad at you.
• 1:27
  Just very quickly. Yeah. I don't know. Well, I think pacing was very weird. They built their
• 1:32
  friendship. And I can see like a genuine like caring there. Yeah. For each other. But they didn't give
• 1:38
  us enough time to be like, oh, like Colin sees her in this way now and that way. I totally agree.
• 1:44
  I guess we were supposed to think over the course of two or three episodes. Because I think they
• 1:49
  kiss at the finale of what episode three or the very end of episode three or four or something.
• 1:54
  Yeah. They kiss. Well, they kiss them and there's the carriage scene. Oh, you're right. You're right.
• 1:58
  Okay. So the carriage scene is until episode four. Yeah. That's like the cliff. Yeah. And then
• 2:03
  all of a sudden, they're wildly in love. And we know that she's been in love with him. But yeah.
• 2:09
  He's fully on board devoted to her. I don't know. It seems it felt a little rushed. Yeah.
• 2:15
  I just felt like they were doing too much. Like, why do we need another family member or all that?
• 2:21
  Another family? Like, normally it's like one love line, one story line. I agree. That's why
• 2:28
  texted you and I was like, are we supposed to care about Francesca? Because I really, yeah. She
• 2:34
  was like a genuine baby in the last frame when I watched that. Yeah. They recast the actress, I think,
• 2:40
  from last time we saw Francesca. And now all of a sudden we're supposed to remember. Oh, yeah,
• 2:45
  there's another Bridgerton daughter you should give a f*** about. She's kind of bland. Yeah. She's
• 2:50
  an interesting one. I think she looks like the Phoebe, what's her name from the first season,
• 2:55
  enough. But she's beautiful. One of my friends said she looks gorgeous, but she has like an
• 3:00
  Instagram face, not like I'm a Regency Beauty face. I think that's kind of where I could see that.
• 3:06
  I could see that. And they could definitely tell this season. Like, I think,
• 3:11
  oh gosh, the actress who plays Penelope, Nicola Coughlan. She's got like acrylic nails on,
• 3:18
  it falsies. Girl, come on. Blow up time. Season one, they didn't have, it was very light makeup,
• 3:26
  very realistic. And now they're like, we're leaning into the fantasy a little bit here. She's
• 3:30
  gonna have some acrylic. Yeah. We're just gonna go with it. I don't know. I'm enjoying it. And so I
• 3:36
  figure I'll finish the finale in the next day or two or whatever. And then I started reading
• 3:42
  Fourth Wing, which is a novel that I know you have already made your way through. Let me pull up
• 3:49
  the author on the scene. Rebecca Yarros. Thank you, baby. Thank you. Yes. I'm really enjoying it so far.
• 3:55
  I am only on chapter seven, but I did start last night. So I'm trying to read fast. You don't
• 4:00
  yell at me like usually. Yes. You've picked up the pace. I'm trying. I'm trying. I feel you.
• 4:07
  I'm like, shoulder. Why are you so straight, Master Trinidad? You're training. Yes, Mommy. I'm like,
• 4:13
  that one really means chef in the bear who's like, you'll never amount to anything. Oh my god.
• 4:18
  Show him a kill. Yes. I have never seen Joe McHale be so mean as he is in ‘The Bear.' Because he's
• 4:25
  actually so funny. Yeah. You see him in ‘The Bear' and you're like, oh, Daddy Chef, no. Yeah, you're like,
• 4:30
  but yeah. So I'm enjoying Fourth Wing so far. Again, everyone who's listening watching,
• 4:39
  I just started. So I don't want anyone to get mad at me. But it does give me Divergent vibes.
• 4:45
  Really hard. I agree with that. I think that there's only so many fantasy ways to play it. I don't
• 4:53
  know why. No one can think of another one. There's so many. There's so much. So much. So
• 4:56
  into the yeah, like the magical college kind of thing. Because that's Divergent as well. That's
• 5:01
  Harry Potter. I mean, I'm okay with a magical college, I guess. And it kind of reminds me of anime.
• 5:06
  Instead of Umbrella Academy, my hero academia and a lot of anime, they all go to like a hero college
• 5:13
  or a magician college or a soul reaper college and then learn their training and then level up.
• 5:19
  That's what I'm kind of trying to go with it as. Yeah, it's just like, I'm not like all the other girls.
• 5:25
  I have silver in my hair. This is my childhood best friend. We don't want to have sex. Yes, we do.
• 5:32
  Oh, there's a guy over there who wants me dead. We're definitely not going to have sex in 15
• 5:38
  chapters. Yes, we are. Yeah, I don't know. But I'm enjoying having. I really like it. Iron
• 5:45
  flame was such a popular book release last year. Second. Yes, it's a second book in the fourth
• 5:51
  wing series. The series has a completely different name though. It's not even like the fourth
• 5:55
  wing series. It's like another thing. But it's super good. The third one's coming out in I think
• 6:01
  October. No, don't quote me on that. It's time in the fall. I think it's actually at the very
• 6:07
  beginning of 2025. But it's very time to finish this one and the second one. Yeah. Okay. Yeah,
• 6:13
  you can do that. I'm going to take that long because I really am enjoying it. I've been making my
• 6:18
  breakthrough. You're never. Yeah, they do also. I don't know. Okay, I am new kind of to this fantasy
• 6:29
  romance genre. I know you are a veteran. Yeah. So they have the signets in fourth wing, which are
• 6:36
  like the dragons. Give them. I don't know. I'm just like, does every fantasy book have to give you
• 6:41
  a tattoo? It's one of a bond. But yeah, there's always a touch of darkness. Yeah.
• 6:48
  P.D. skips her the tattoo. Until like, I don't know. And then obviously in a quarter of the
• 6:53
  words in wrote, I don't know. Maybe it's like a popular thing in Greek mythology or like North
• 6:59
  Norse mythology. Because a lot of fantasy books are retellings of Greek Roman and Norse mythology.
• 7:08
  And that's ultimately what they are. Yeah. Why a lot of them become similar. Yeah. I'm not complaining.
• 7:15
  I love me a good trope. Yeah. And it means to lovers. Come on. I just think it's so interesting.
• 7:20
  What were the Greeks on it? They we've really been like, that was a hit.
• 7:24
  Let’s keep replaying it! The Greeks were horny and bisexual. And I love that. Yeah. I love it. But for us to be
• 7:33
  retelling stories from then. I see. So all we need to do is just retell that Greek story over.
• 7:40
  Yeah. And it could be that it's the most inherently human thing. And before the horny and bisexual.
• 7:46
  No, you that too. I do believe that. But like this type of storytelling is just inherent because
• 7:51
  what if the Greeks like learned it from other people, you know, that I think that stuff's pretty
• 7:56
  cool. I think that is so interesting too. And not to get too deep and weird. But like if you look
• 8:00
  at the Bible as a piece of literature too, it's like there are so many ancient texts that kind of
• 8:05
  follow the same tropes for so many of those because humans just kind of inherently crave a certain
• 8:11
  plot point and start type of storytelling. Yeah. A lot of them are just borrowing from like other
• 8:17
  cultures. Yeah. Yeah. So very interesting. Squirrel! Squirrel! So we're talking about the Bible.
• 8:26
  No, but I really like fourth wing. I think that I like. A guitar more, but I am really excited.
• 8:33
  I think Rebecca Yara's does a great cliffhanger and setting things up really well. But that also makes
• 8:40
  you really angry that you don't immediately have the next book. So it does kind of creep that void
• 8:45
  within you. I mean, that just reminds me when we were all used to be waiting for the Harry Potter books
• 8:49
  that you know, and you finish want to be like, what the f***? I think you have to wait for the next
• 8:53
  Sunday come out. Yeah. Wait for the date all that. But yeah, it's been really, really good.
• 8:58
  I'm excited. A touch of darkness was good because it was just so filthy. It was filthy. Yeah.
• 9:06
  Which I love. But the plot was little. They were really leaning into the Greek side of it.
• 9:13
  Yeah. They were really like, you know, this the story arc we're telling. We're not adding anything
• 9:18
  else. I was, I mean, do we tell the story of why we're listening to it? Okay, we did because you
• 9:26
  were listening to it. And it made it made it got me go and my engine's rev. I love that for you.
• 9:32
  I love that for you. Fourth wing has engine revving. I yes. Yeah. It's pretty good. It's better than
• 9:38
  that. I think in doing it. Yeah. I'd say it's in between the two of those. Yeah.
• 9:44
  Don't tell me who does it. I know. Okay. What have you been up to? So I have been traveling in the skies
• 9:51
  speaking of engines. We've been traveling a lot for work. And I normally fly American. And so I have
• 9:58
  been perusing those movies and TV shows. And it got me to start Palm Royale, which is with Christian
• 10:07
  Wigg Laura Dern Ricky Martin Ricky Martin? Yeah. And a ton of other really, really famous actors.
• 10:16
  And I'm happy with Laura Dern. Oh, I love her so much. But like Ricky Martin's in it too? I'm here for it.
• 10:21
  Yeah. It's it's so good. And I'm escaping the other actors names. But they only have the first three
• 10:28
  on on the plane. And it's it's so interesting. It's such a like a silly little funny first person
• 10:36
  kind of narrative within a murder mystery. Okay. But it does in like Palm Beach, Florida within a
• 10:45
  country club. So it's a very like silly kind of premise. I just flash back to my last job for a
• 10:51
  second. Sorry. Working car auctions in Palm Beach, Florida. Yeah. And so it's kind of like the story
• 10:58
  of like these elites. And it's a little bit of like a murder mystery who done it. But I think they do
• 11:03
  such a good job at bringing in all of the politics and in class and wealth disparity. The public.
• 11:09
  That's like right by yes. Maralago? Yeah. And so it's so good. It was so funny. So I watched the
• 11:16
  three on the plane over my various travels. And whenever I go to town, my mom watches my dog for
• 11:21
  me. So I spent the day there. And we just binge the entire rest. Yeah. That's so cute. It was so
• 11:28
  good. Honestly, everyone should watch it. What's it on Apple TV? That is the one. No one. I know
• 11:35
  streaming platform that I don't have. And I'm getting there. They're making really high quality
• 11:41
  television to try to get people to come in. I would say do it because I selfishly really want
• 11:46
  a second season. It was so good. I mean, I haven't watched Ted Lasso still. You know, same. Morning
• 11:51
  show is very good. I know it was Nicole's favorite show was she's passed on. Yeah. That is the
• 11:58
  call for instant in it. So that that checks it out to me. Yes. Yes. I don't know. I need to get on it.
• 12:05
  I don't know. I have an app. If I have an iPhone, can I just. Is it like, does it have anything to do
• 12:11
  with Apple? You just pay for it? Just any other platform. You can download it on anything. But yeah,
• 12:16
  you have to pay for it. It's a subscription. Yeah. I don't know. I just, I just demand this to be free.
• 12:26
  You know, it'd be great is if we could invent something where you could just watch any television
• 12:31
  show you want. And you could just flick through it like with a remote and just be like, I don't like
• 12:36
  that. And then like, go to the next one. I'd be like, I don't like that. You know what I mean? Yeah.
• 12:40
  Like, yeah, I think a lot of people knew what you meant. What if we could just get back to that? Or I
• 12:46
  mean get to that. Where do you think we are? I know. We got to spend more money than we have. Okay.
• 12:54
  Oh, you weren't making a joke. I was making a joke about cable. And how cable would be cheaper than all
• 13:01
  of these platforms. But the way you described it was streaming. No, because for streaming, you have to pay
• 13:07
  like $19 here. $19 for that one. $19 for that one. Cable is all just mushed together. And did you
• 13:16
  think cable was free? No. Okay. I'm like, parents tried for it. It was for me. Cable was cheaper than
• 13:23
  paying 15 bucks a month for what five different streaming services that we all have now. I think
• 13:29
  Cable is now cheaper. But at the time, it wasn't. I'm not talking about flex and all those got
• 13:35
  creating. Okay. So it's not Netflix. Disney plus Apple TV. Crunchyroll. How many more do we have?
• 13:43
  Crunchyroll. That's the anime one. Okay. Well, that's a little niche. No. Lots of people like it. And
• 13:49
  you're going to like it soon. Okay. A little spoiler for an upcoming episode. Yeah. I love your
• 13:53
  watches. I love you. I watch his anime for the first time. Yeah. Why did I read that in my head is
• 13:58
  like you are always sunny title the gang watches anime. There you go. I love it.
• 14:06
  producers will like that. You'll be like giving them the episode title right there. The gang watches
• 14:10
  the anime. Write that down. Write that down. Write that down. How the top? Well, my other obsession,
• 14:16
  where again, going to spend a lot of time talking about today. Shawna has twisted my arm
• 14:22
  or should I say my stomach and your inter submission in the coma in the best way because she is cookin'
• 14:30
  some stuff up. We are going to talk about the bear. Yes, chef. We're going to take a quick break and
• 14:38
  we're going to get cookin'. The bear recently dropped all 10 of its third season. A fourth season
• 14:50
  has already been greenlit so hopefully we don't have to wait very long. But the show has been
• 14:55
  amazing with critics, viewers, tons of social media hype throughout this process. And if you have
• 15:02
  heard us talk throughout this episode, Shawna has been trying to get me to watch this for a very long time.
• 15:08
  It's so good. And I don't know what it was about it that I don't think it was the right time or the
• 15:13
  right place. But I will tell you over this last weekend, it was more like a day and a half. I binge.
• 15:20
  This is so fast. I told you slow down the fans will understand. You're like, no, I'm doing it. I'm doing it.
• 15:28
  And so once I got to the second episode, I was pretty hooked. It gets you really quick. It's like
• 15:34
  breaking bad in that way when the first episode you watch and you're like, well, shit. Here we go.
• 15:39
  And I'm curious, did you ever watch shameless? You know, I haven't. But I've seen a lot of clips on
• 15:46
  Instagram, which is stupid, which make it look really funny and interesting. Yes. I think it might
• 15:53
  happen eventually. But I've also heard that shameless is kind of like weeds, which started out really
• 15:58
  strong. And then I despised by the end. And so that kind of sits in the water. When Emma, you're
• 16:03
  rossum leaves who's like the main character. It gets bad. Any show that continues on after
• 16:10
  main character. I see. And I think that it like no wind to stop. No, wind to call it. And that's why I'm
• 16:15
  so glad like the boys is ending next season breaking bad new into it. Yeah. Call it before it sucks.
• 16:21
  Yeah. I was a avid shameless fan. It's eight seasons. I'd watch it after an already. It was in
• 16:28
  its last season when I watched it actually. So by the time I got through eight seasons and this
• 16:33
  was back when television was not eight to 10 episodes per season, it was a lot. So it was a 22.
• 16:40
  It is a yeah, it is a very big commitment. But it is some amazing television. And that is actually
• 16:47
  how we met the world met Jeremy Allen White who is the main character in the bear. Now shameless
• 16:55
  is set in Chicago. And it's also about a very dysfunctional family. So it's very similar to the bear.
• 17:02
  It is very similar to the bear. And so it was a little bit difficult for me to see him as
• 17:10
  carmy and not as lip from shameless because it is kind of similar. And we both Chicago.
• 17:17
  I'm real quick for someone who hasn't watched the bear. It's an American comedy drama television
• 17:22
  series. Do you think it's a comedy or a drama? That's so funny to me. It was like it's one
• 17:28
  comedy awards. But I would say it's a drama series. Me too, right? Like it feels there are funny
• 17:36
  moments. But for the most part, you end an episode and I'm like a kind of need to cigarette and
• 17:40
  some whiskey and a steak. It was created by Christopher store for FX on Hulu. Jeremy
• 17:47
  Allen White stars as carmy, Brasado, an award winning chef. You returns to his hometown in Chicago
• 17:53
  to manage the chaotic restaurant that his deceased brother left him a sandwich shop called
• 17:59
  what the beef the the beef in the north side of Chicago. There it is. North river. The supporting
• 18:06
  cast includes Iban Moss back rack, a yo edgy beer, Lionel boys, Liza Collins, Zias, Abby Elliott,
• 18:15
  Matty Matheson, John Bernthal who plays the dead brother and many more celebrity cameos.
• 18:23
  John Borentos just. I love him so much. He's such a good and honest underrated actor.
• 18:31
  Like this man's going to get an academy award someday. He's such a good actor. Yeah, I don't think he's
• 18:36
  he's an amazing supporting actor that I've seen him in everything. Like he's really really good at that
• 18:42
  that role. I haven't seen him in a lot of leading. He was in the Punisher TV show. Which I made
• 18:49
  through the first season of and really finished the second one. He's again a supporting character
• 18:56
  in the walking dead. Yeah. But he's such an important supporting character that he dies so early
• 19:00
  on the show and fans are still like get this more shame. Yeah. My toxic trade is I would date
• 19:07
  chain in real life. Absolutely. We would. He is a cop but I wouldn't date him but I would sleep with
• 19:13
  that. If I met him not knowing he was a cop and I there's like, oh, I kind of like this guy
• 19:18
  then I figured it out. I might wouldn't like I'm already hooked. I've already been in me.
• 19:28
  I didn't see that. I just said, I mean look at him. He's so handsome. He's a good looking guy.
• 19:35
  He's a perfect guy. He's the Punisher. And so the reason that I brought up shameless is Jeremy
• 19:40
  on why was my favorite character in shameless. Was he dummy hot in shameless? Yes, but he's a little
• 19:46
  bit younger in it. And so the same character and it's so interesting. It's a really simple one.
• 19:53
  tightly wound like short fuse Chicago boy and like kind of driven in a way but to the point where
• 20:07
  prevent themselves from success. That's the thing is they're getting in their own way.
• 20:11
  Carmi is so focused on being a good chef that he gets in his own way of being a good chef, right?
• 20:19
  Like we know that he's talented in the show. But okay, we're going to obviously talk about spoilers
• 20:24
  throughout this episode. Yeah, so I haven't watched the very yet. Yeah. The same thing we did for
• 20:29
  House of Dragons. Exactly. Season one and season two. We are going to talk about season three
• 20:35
  episode one. Yes, I've only watched the first episode. Do this bitch. You powered through it so
• 20:42
  fast that now you're ahead of me. I know. Well, first of all, if I say I'm going to do so,
• 20:46
  everyone would do it. This is true. And it was really good. I went to sleep last night probably
• 20:52
  midnight watching it. And then I woke up in the morning and was like, I need to know what happens
• 20:56
  today. So I just had it up on my second screen and was like writing marketing emails. There might be
• 21:02
  me. There might be like a yes chef and email news. Whether somewhere. I don't know.
• 21:06
  I need 55 beeps. 55. Well, jokes. Wait, I can't show. Yeah. So I will say from first impressions,
• 21:15
  I had seen a lot of TikTok clips and claim around it. And I knew everyone said, yes, chef,
• 21:23
  but I did not realize how much like I thought it was just about Jeremy Allen. Why it's
• 21:31
  true. He calls everyone chef and everyone calls him chef. Sheffa cousin. Yeah. I love people cousin.
• 21:36
  No one goes just cousin. You can't like, he can't get a name. No, she's just cousin. Yeah. And so I
• 21:43
  was like, wow. And in the first season, it was used enough second season. I was like, whoa,
• 21:50
  we turned the dial up on that. Because at that point, everyone is chef kind of right? Like by the
• 21:55
  end of second season, they have the bear open. And he wants it to be a Michelin star restaurant.
• 22:00
  And so I think in his mindset, he's already running the beef as in his mind, a Michelin star restaurant.
• 22:09
  And I know how he's treating everyone. And that's how he's making them all on the ship. And obviously,
• 22:13
  they're used to Mikey's way of running the ship, which is a little more chill and probably drug
• 22:20
  and do ship is on fire. The ship is on fire and holes coming up throughout it. And there's drugs everywhere.
• 22:26
  It's all over the ship. Everything's on fire. So the helm beating a guy. I know what they do it in
• 22:34
  the kitchen. But at the very end of season two, aO a debris father says, yes, chef. Well, she's like,
• 22:42
  I have a good day, chef. And I'm like, the dad doesn't even work in the kitchen. Why is he so sure?
• 22:47
  Respect. She earned that respect. So starting season one, I hated Richie. I thought he was such a dick.
• 22:56
  I thought he was so obnoxious as like this character is just needs to leave. He can't stop screaming.
• 23:02
  And I have like ADHD and I have no way sensitivity sometimes. So if I'm at a place and there's too
• 23:12
  many sounds at once, sometimes I get so overwhelmed that I have to like go to the club bathroom.
• 23:17
  And I'm just in there with my own thoughts. You would die. I would die. But for some reason,
• 23:25
  this show still I can still watch it. And everyone is screaming. Everyone's screaming entire time.
• 23:32
  You start and you're like, Richie's a dick. We don't like him. By the end of season two, Richie's
• 23:36
  my favorite character. I adore him. I want to use my favorite. But I think he's a great character.
• 23:42
  So when he goes to the cooking school, it is so it is so. Working to work that restaurant. Yeah. So
• 23:48
  I was essentially live texting Shonda throughout this because I watched it a day and a half.
• 23:54
  But I just texted her when I was going through it. And I was like, Marcus and his love for pastries
• 24:00
  is making me want to cry. I did cry for the record. I was boo. And I'm like, it was just over this man's
• 24:07
  pure love for pastry art. And I was like, it's so. Marcus is so pure. I am. I feel like
• 24:15
  her. I'm just going through the angel. And so we're going through and like I think third an
• 24:22
  episode goes by. And I go, the guy who plays Richie is so good at douche. You can't take accountability.
• 24:28
  But somehow you still like it. I just said, oh girl, just you wait. Just you wait. And she is
• 24:34
  Marney's boyfriend in the girls. I totally forgot that he was in the girl. I thought you were going to say
• 24:39
  you haven't seen the girls. No, I watched the girls. Which is the piece of white fence. Oh, it's just
• 24:44
  girls. You're right. Not the boys. Yeah. Girls. It's peak white feminism. But I watched the first.
• 24:51
  I think the only season I watched was the final season. Because I was just no
• 24:57
  character on that show is a good person. It's terrible people and I couldn't do it anymore.
• 25:01
  Yeah. But I forgot he was on it. Yeah. But you're right. He's absolutely the same character.
• 25:07
  He is very good at playing that specific guy who's like loud, boy, stress.
• 25:14
  Do you know he's in the MCU now? He was cast and fantastic for it as the thing.
• 25:19
  Yeah. You see the original or not the original. But the fantastic story about the day.
• 25:25
  You know the thing then. That's exactly what I was getting at. You see the jazz gal.
• 25:29
  Yeah. He's the thing. And the coming one. Okay. So excited for his entry into the MCU.
• 25:35
  Yeah. And if you've never seen the show, little bit of a trigger warning, it does start with someone
• 25:42
  on a live. They're themselves. There are a lot of references throughout the show. I mean, I think
• 25:47
  the show itself is honestly, I mean, it's about cooking and owning a restaurant. I can just
• 25:52
  struggle to go through it. But honestly, it's a show about trauma and family generational trauma.
• 25:58
  Generational trauma. I think that is the overarching theme here.
• 26:02
  Yeah. Generational trauma, PTSD and mental health. Yeah.
• 26:06
  Absolutely. So the show starts with Carmies brother Mikey completing suicide.
• 26:11
  And he leaves the beef. The original beef. I'm just going to call it the beef. Yeah.
• 26:18
  To Carmies. And it's this family owned sandwich shop. And then we get like flashbacks throughout
• 26:25
  this series about like their family dynamic. Very messed up. Oh my god.
• 26:31
  Same as shame. It's like it's this really, really messed up family where they don't really deal with
• 26:37
  anything. Lots of alcoholics, lots of dysfunctional family relationships. And I think it does a good
• 26:45
  job at personifying the different ways that that kind of chaos has in a family. And you can really see
• 26:52
  it within each of those different siblings. And I think very, very interesting. I think our parents
• 26:58
  are all my generation at least of millennials. Like our parents were raised to really
• 27:03
  disassociate, ignore. And those patterns do show up within your children. I think it's a really
• 27:10
  good examination of that. We can talk about mental health and my family growing up.
• 27:15
  Yeah. Are you a little stressed today? And like it manifested itself. Like it, right? And I feel like
• 27:21
  that's and that's the age group that Carmies in. And you can tell that he's totally processing all
• 27:27
  of the trauma that he went through the Christmas episode. Yeah. I kept waiting for you to get to that.
• 27:32
  It's the most stressful episode of television I've ever watched. And I like Jamie Lee Curtis plays
• 27:39
  their mom. She kills it so good at it. She's so good at it. Is she so just drunk and angry and sad?
• 27:49
  Yeah. And you know, it's like not about the kids all about her. Yeah. I had a family member who
• 27:56
  who passed away from, you know, taking their own life about a year ago. And I thought it was a really
• 28:03
  great representation of how people go through that grief. How families try to support each other.
• 28:12
  Like almost they're not okay. So they're not asking how each other okay. I thought it was beautiful.
• 28:17
  Yeah. The ending of season one with the note and all of that. Like, oh my god. Let's, okay,
• 28:23
  let's break that down. Go ahead. Because you just watched it. What like six hours ago? Yeah. And so
• 28:29
  the entire time, Carmies like, why did he leave me this restaurant? Like, I don't understand. They
• 28:33
  had a kind of a rocky relationship. They loved each other so deeply. But Mikey was so into drugs.
• 28:40
  Yeah. Mikey was his idol like that older brother that you want to be and look up to.
• 28:45
  Got a little rocky at the end. He said, you can't work in this restaurant, which I think was
• 28:48
  really just his way of trying to get him out of staying in Chicago for a work of course. So he
• 28:54
  wanted him to go to New York and do those things. Learn about cooking until like if you're just stuck
• 29:00
  here at the beef. Yeah. And I think it was that moment, but he can't recognize that at that moment.
• 29:06
  And so he's like, why did he leave me this? And he's spending this entire time trying to figure it out.
• 29:11
  The business was in debt. The taxes weren't being paid. He's trying to figure this all out and he
• 29:17
  gets this letter at the end that cousin's been hiding from him, right? Yeah. Cause it became real
• 29:21
  in the family. And so throughout his entire life, because he uses role model, he would go to him and
• 29:26
  say, it doesn't matter. Let it rip. Let it go. Your anxious. Such as a matter of let it rip. And
• 29:31
  that would always be what he talked to him. Like he said, it's a car. Yeah. Yeah. To get him out of a
• 29:36
  panic check or get him out of his head and just go with it. Go with the flow and be in the situation.
• 29:41
  And in his letter, it basically says let it rip. And it says the bear. And which is essentially
• 29:48
  the title of the show. And it's going to be a name that call him bear. And it's the restaurant that they
• 29:53
  were supposed to open together, but they had their falling out and never happened. And so a lot of
• 29:59
  the first season is him grappling with how do I honor his legacy? How do I turn this business around?
• 30:06
  Do I even want that? How do I bring my current life into my old life? I thought it was just so well done.
• 30:12
  I really like that they showed Karmie going to an alcoholics anonymous meeting too.
• 30:17
  Because addiction is a family disease. Yes. So it affects the entire family. It's not just the
• 30:23
  person who's ill. And so him going to these meetings and his he's full of a family of addicts.
• 30:31
  Yeah. And then he's finally able to open up and talk about his story. I thought that was just so
• 30:36
  beautiful because a lot of people probably don't realize that you can go to these meetings as a
• 30:41
  family member of somebody who's you know an addict, something like that to get support. So I
• 30:46
  thought that was just such a nice touch. And Jeremy Ellen White, it's like a monologue in that scene.
• 30:52
  It's just so well delivered. He's such a good actor. It's so good. So I assumed he was from Chicago.
• 31:00
  He loves Chicago. He's from New York. He's from Brooklyn. Is he really a Brooklyn? I was like,
• 31:05
  I was a little upset by that. But again, I grew up in Chicago. So love Chicago. Okay.
• 31:11
  I do love I love New York City. I've been in Chicago twice. New York City once.
• 31:16
  I've actually never been to New York City, but I'm going in October. They're both just so amazing
• 31:22
  and so good in their different ways. Right. The pizza. This show made you so hungry, right?
• 31:27
  Yes. Thankfully I did all in one day. So I just won't be craving. I did end up like making some
• 31:33
  crazy like, crazy, like, pet chat a mushroom thing because of the fucking pasta. But I'm over there
• 31:39
  making like easy Mac. Yes. My dogs like me like you stupid bitch. I consider putting real cheese
• 31:46
  in like one of those easy Mac little cubs. I consider that cooking. I consider if you make
• 31:52
  instant like ramen noodles, but you crack an egg in it and you chop up some green onion.
• 31:56
  Yeah. It's in like some spice cooking things. I've checked. I've checked. I've checked. I've
• 32:00
  checked. Yeah. We have to find cooking. Like is it the act of heating food? You know, that's a great
• 32:05
  question. Microwave in because then all of those easy bake ovens. Did you ever have an easy
• 32:11
  bake oven growing? I did. Did you eat them? Yeah. They're good. I have in the food.
• 32:16
  The oven itself. Did you bring down those metal pieces? It just consumed it. No, no, no, no.
• 32:24
  Carmi. Carmi served it to me. I didn't know. Do you know? Carmi could serve me shit and I would
• 32:30
  eat it. Oh my god. Jeremy Ellen White in his like underwear campaign. Yeah. Well, while we were
• 32:37
  talking, I also just remember he took iron claw, which is also a very just social family. It was so good.
• 32:45
  But by the end of it, I was like, I'm so sad. I want to watch something funny. Yeah. Now I'm just like
• 32:51
  really curious. I want him to do an interview and suddenly give a little breakdown about whether I
• 32:55
  get so great, especially like a actor or actress who's been in the industry for, you know, 50 years.
• 33:03
  I've so many good insights about directors of their process. I agree. I really like those.
• 33:09
  Maybe not as much as like hot ones does. As Jeremy Ellen White been on hot ones, if not,
• 33:13
  he definitely needs to be. So does Ayo. I think she's incredible. She honestly is such a good actress
• 33:21
  in this. I know she's a great writer as well. Like she wrote bottoms, which is with what's her face,
• 33:27
  Rachel, Senate. So good. So good. I think she's just incredibly talented. She's incredible.
• 33:34
  That episode where she kind of goes like restaurant to restaurant and tries all the
• 33:38
  and it was his restaurant. I love this. So serendipitous. Okay. So amazing. I guess the very end of
• 33:43
  episode one of season three, that's where I left off. Episode one is very artsy. There's very little
• 33:49
  dialogue. It's set to just a musical score. And it's a flashbacks. It's a lot of flashbacks mixed
• 33:56
  with like him apologizing to Sydney about being locked in the freezer and calling cousin.
• 34:02
  So what I thought in season three, episode one against spoilers is that we were seeing him after
• 34:11
  he had like left again and he just decided he was going to leave the bear restaurant. Yeah.
• 34:18
  And then we were kind of flashing back in between. But you said that you thought it was
• 34:23
  them flashing back to him first left. Exactly. And that's why his sister was, you know,
• 34:29
  flashback to his sister being like, I love you. Here, take money. He's like, it's fine. I don't need
• 34:34
  your money. It's fine. He's trying to leave the bear. She'd be like, are you fucking kidding?
• 34:38
  Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. No, she was like, take money. Please, please. Yes, it's fine.
• 34:44
  And then it flashes back to him and he's training under Joel McHale who just walks by and goes,
• 34:49
  fuck you. Yeah. I can't imagine you're working at any job in your posh to smoke. So I was like,
• 34:55
  hey, hey, fuck you suck a dick. Yeah. You're like, shit. All right. I did give me a PTSD to working
• 35:01
  in a restaurant where you're like, God, the amount of unprofessionalism that happens. I'm sure that
• 35:07
  I and not like you and I were ever cooks, but like the food industry is just insane. I've worked
• 35:13
  decade long in the food industry, right? Before I found like my career now, but I worked at this place.
• 35:20
  I won't shout them out in case they listen and they decide to sue. I don't even think they're in
• 35:25
  power anymore in power. It was a Greek restaurant. And the name of the restaurant was based off
• 35:31
  of a popular romcom movie. Okay. And they would literally shout at me, Sean, you're so stupid.
• 35:38
  Sean, are you keep fucking up? I was 19 years old to be very, probably worth fucking up.
• 35:44
  But I was like a 19 year old waitress. I went to freshman at college. I just got through life
• 35:48
  tragedy. Yeah. And I was such a fragile baby angel. And I remember driving home one day from this
• 35:54
  job. I had my little waitress apron on and I saw my checkbook in it and I was just trying to get
• 36:01
  home and just weeping. And this cop pulls me over for speeding. And he comes up to me and like,
• 36:07
  yes, he's just like, you know how fast you're going? And he just looks at me and he sees my little
• 36:16
  apron. And I was weeping and it probably helped. But I was like a 95 pound platinum blonde
• 36:22
  baby girl. And he's like, just slow down, sweetie. Life will get better. Don't worry.
• 36:30
  I would yes, chef. But yeah, the restaurant industry is brutal. And I can't imagine what it's
• 36:38
  like working in those like Michelin Stark wrote trying to prove yourself kind of shit.
• 36:43
  Because if it was that bad working in my big Greek place that I won't say the name of,
• 36:48
  then my big, gricky place, like big Greek wedding restaurant.
• 36:55
  Yeah, that place does suck though. I've been there. I have a word to there, but food's not good.
• 37:00
  So it's definitely no bear. Don't eat the tiziki. Yeah. Oh god. Yeah. Don't do it.
• 37:05
  I'll add to the inner work. Do you know? Legically donate the tiziki.
• 37:09
  Allegedly. I've 20 years or yeah. We're like 15, but we'll do a six years. I am Jesus Christ.
• 37:20
  An ancient being. I worked there 65 years ago. Yeah, I think it's really going to be interesting. I
• 37:29
  keep thinking about Sydney and how they're going to deal with her anxiety and her process of
• 37:35
  kind of seizing control as a woman within a very male dominated and true thing as a woman of color.
• 37:42
  Yeah. As a woman of color. Absolutely. I think it is just so well done. The side characters where I
• 37:48
  talked about Marcus, Tina, the other one. I love Tina's. Because in the beginning too, I was like,
• 37:55
  Tina's a bitch. Yeah. You're like, oh my god. I get it. And she, you know, and I heard in Sydney's
• 38:03
  relationship. I think they just did a really good job about workplace insecurity and the feelings
• 38:09
  that come with them and trying to prove yourself. Yeah, prove yourself and work over in posture,
• 38:15
  syndrome and ask for help and like realize those things. I thought it was just an amazing well done
• 38:20
  series. So I'm glad you forced me to watch it. That is another important overarching theme that I
• 38:25
  think you just hit on is imposter syndrome. Yes. Like no one in this entire show thinks that they're
• 38:30
  good enough at what they do. I mean, maybe that's just part of we see the flashbacks obviously to
• 38:36
  Joel McHale's character. I don't even know if they get his character in name. And if they do,
• 38:40
  please fans, let me know besides just New York chef or new. Yeah. Like his head chef teacher,
• 38:48
  but he just convinces him the whole time that you're buried some suck. You get stuck.
• 38:53
  I got it literally like. And then when the bear is opening before a car me locks himself in the freezer,
• 38:58
  he thinks that he sees him, right? And it's just that imposter syndrome that we all feel no matter
• 39:04
  what we do for a living that you suck at this. Like, yeah, why did they hire you? But you have to
• 39:10
  keep telling yourself actually like, I don't know what I'm doing here. Yeah. Well, also if you want a
• 39:15
  James Beard award, like you're really good. And so yeah, I thought it was just so good. I'm so glad
• 39:28
  that you liked it and that you watched it. Yeah. I think that again, it really connected with me because
• 39:33
  my family member, like the dynamics. I'm from there. I love to cook. Oh, the Chicago B roll too.
• 39:40
  Yeah. It's like you must be loving this. Just all the beautiful shots of Chicago and all just the food
• 39:46
  and the subway or not the subway, but the train or whatever. Yeah. Like the like the the uncle who's
• 39:52
  kind of like mob adjacent like local journey. Yeah. Yeah. Reminds me of my dad so much looks like my dad.
• 39:59
  Did you say it in an episode that I was your dad at some point? Yeah, you guys have really similar taste
• 40:03
  and things. I love that you really like. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. So I remind you of Uncle Jimmy too.
• 40:08
  No, because that's more an appearance. Okay. That's good. I don't want to look like in like background.
• 40:15
  Like yeah. Yeah. I mean, you remember. You remember, dad, doesn't he look like? I do not remember.
• 40:22
  You just drunkenly asked him for a cigarette. Oh my god. I forgot. That's your tap.
• 40:27
  It was on my 30th birthday. We're talking sick casino and Sean has never met my dad before.
• 40:33
  Okay. Let me preface this. I only spoke cigarettes when I'm really drunk.
• 40:37
  It can't send you family members are listening. But yeah, your dad gave me a cigarette. Yeah.
• 40:43
  Yeah. Great guy. Love him. Love that guy.
• 40:46
  Oh, Johnny. I'm like a little uncle Johnny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
• 40:51
  That's the freaking gobbagool with my freaking cigarette. Oh, now you're getting New Jersey. Oh,
• 40:56
  shit. Yeah. What's a Chicago accent? Kind of like what they're doing. But like it's less like
• 41:02
  you. You. You. You guys. It's more like big like kind of yeah. We seem fucking cigarette. Yeah.
• 41:09
  Yeah. Yeah. It's a little closer. It's like a mix between a Minnesota and a New Yorker.
• 41:13
  I say that felt a little bit more so. Yeah. We're speaking cigarette. Wait. No, that was average. Yeah.
• 41:18
  We got it. We got a mystery. We got a mystery part. We got a mystery accent to her.
• 41:24
  Yes. So it seems like the season three again, we're only gonna talk about episode one.
• 41:29
  I've seen the second one so far. But it seems like they're really gonna go for kind of dismantling
• 41:37
  this car me as this perfect good guy, really making him not necessarily like an anti-hero. Or would
• 41:44
  you kind of see that from the first episode? You know, I just hope that car me
• 41:48
  repairs the relationships in his life. Because in the first episode, we see him making that
• 41:54
  phone call to Richie and apologizing for the way that he spoke to him the restaurant night
• 41:59
  or the opening of the bear night, I should say. So like Sidney and Richie and the staff
• 42:04
  held down the opening night of the bear. Because car me's in the walk in the entire time. I've
• 42:09
  got existential crisis. Yeah. And they held it down. Yeah. And so I think we're gonna see him the
• 42:15
  first couple episodes really try to like amend those relationships. Especially like the one with
• 42:20
  his girlfriend too. His friend, that's a girl. Oh yeah. His friend with benefits girl like that he
• 42:27
  kind of dumped from like the other side of the cooler door. Yeah, that was that was pretty crazy.
• 42:35
  So I hope we see him mend some relationships. I would love to see car me have some sort of
• 42:42
  personal life. I mean, and we kind of touched on that in season two with him getting a girlfriend.
• 42:46
  Yeah, or exploring a relationship with a woman. So I hope that we get to see more of that in season
• 42:51
  three. Because he's just he's actually a young guy and he's so stressed out. Dude's gonna have an
• 42:55
  aneurysm by the time he's 40. Do you really? He's smoking enough cigarettes. So, oh yeah.
• 43:01
  So much. It's just so angry. Just angry and just veins popping and smoking and just like.
• 43:08
  Yeah, I think the season's gonna be, you know, I think in his mind they survived with
• 43:15
  out of him. So they don't need him. And that's gonna just send him down a spiral. He's valuable.
• 43:21
  He's like, do they even need me here? Can Sydney do all this shit herself? Because their
• 43:25
  partners in the restaurant like they might even necessary here. And then help definitely feel
• 43:29
  the imposter syndrome. Yeah. I think we're definitely gonna see him and Sydney's relationship
• 43:33
  of all a lot. And a lot of people have been saying like, do we ship them? And just because there's a
• 43:38
  man and a woman on a show doesn't mean that they need to be shipped. Yeah, right. We don't have to
• 43:42
  love them. Like they don't need to be in a romantic relationship. They can be business partners
• 43:47
  and friends. Marcus and Sydney though. I better get to the other. Oh, also. Marcus. Is mom?
• 43:58
  Oh, that's right. But man, I get my heart shrieks. If you're a pastry chef and you look like a
• 44:02
  little gentle giant teddy bear. Come, come find me. You'll find her. Come find me. And show me your
• 44:08
  pastry. Show me your pastry puffs. Oh, okay. I just want to know what makes me like actually a
• 44:15
  pastry. Yeah. What makes him so cute is his like purity for his pastries. I know. It's just so sweet.
• 44:22
  Yeah. Yeah. So I'm excited. I like him. I'm excited to see where everything goes. I'm excited to see
• 44:27
  I'm just everyone evolve more and as is the bear grows and oh yeah. I'm excited to see
• 44:34
  of Jamie Lee Curtis shows back up and actually steps foot inside of the restaurant and eats some food.
• 44:39
  I think that they've been priming her. So I think she'll be back. She's primed. She's finished all
• 44:44
  those Halloween movies. So she's she's out of contract. She's ready. She's ready. But it's his mom ready.
• 44:50
  No, no, neither of them are ready. Yeah. Well, that about wraps up this episode. And I must say,
• 45:00
  I think it deserved at least one Michelin star maybe two. Don't you think I'm so hungry.
• 45:05
  We're gonna make some food. We'll make that omelette with the potato chips. Now, where do they find
• 45:12
  you on social media? You can buy me Shauna Trinidad on Instagram and TikTok @shaunatrinidad
• 45:18
  and you can find me, Olivia, on Instagram @livimariez L-I-V-I-M-A-R-I-E-Z and you can send us your thoughts,
• 45:34
  hopes, wishes, recipes, dreams, whatever you like. Pastries. Pastries for sure. Bye first going to the
• 45:42
  Pop Culture Junkie Podcast social media links. You can find them and so much more on our website at popculturejunkie.com.
• 45:51
  From there, you can find the podcast on all platforms, follow, rate, subscribe and review the show,
• 45:58
  giving us that sweet sweet validation, we crave and come back next week for another hit of pop culture.
• 46:09
  The Pop Culture Junkie podcast is produced by Jeff Markin and Cheryl Lightfoot for the Pop Culture
• 46:14
  Entertainment Network.
• 46:17
  So entertain me, entertain me right now.
• 46:20
  I need it bad, I need it bad.
• 46:26
  I need it bad, I need it bad.
• 46:30
  [Music]