#richy

Jake is hiding from the police, but you joined him a few days ago. Now, you need to keep your friends cool while you help Jake, your boyfriend, and Adam's friends from Moonvale.

(might have some spoilers of Moonvale! including mentions of the new characters)

(Click here to read part one!)

PART TWO:

What are you reading/watching/listening to right now that is tickling your brain?

The Bear.

There is a reason everyone from your neighbor’s dad sitting in his armchair to seasoned and snobby film critics think that show is the best show on television.

I’m rewatching it now (except that I haven’t seen the very last episode purely because I don’t want it to be over) and the stuff they set up as early as episode 2, and then took several years to pay off in their own good time, without letting fandom craze or culture shift take them off course? It’s crazy. It’s insane.

And it’s not a show about 2000 years of fantasy worldbuilding, or multiversal theory, or post-apocalyptic grandstanding. It’s a show about a guy trying to run his dead brother’s restaurant in Chicago, modern-day.

And like. Nobody has powers or a gimmick or a big mystery to uncover. It’s just people working a difficult job, with other difficult people, in a difficult family.

The theme of the show appears to be (I haven’t seen the last episode) “Healing Comes From Loving Others With What You Love,” or something like that, I haven’t cracked it. All I know is I love the characters. I love how consistent they are. I love that they don’t constantly harp on how romantic “mental health issues” (whatever that means) is.

And—many do not know this about me—I love Chicago. I lived there just a little bit, but my dad’s is from there, so we also visit often. And they might as well have lifted the soundtrack out of my father’s Spotify. So I feel like I’ve stepped inside a dramatization of my father’s brain (and my father is the person I love most in the world) every time we watch it.

I do hate some parts of the show. Hate the idea that one of the characters (Sugar) can be consoled about leaving her infant every day by being reassured that “if you don’t do what you love, you’ll be sad, and no baby wants to see mom’s sad face.” That’s ridiculous. I also don’t like the apparent edging around one character’s decision to commit suicide as a self-sacrificial move to keep his brother safe and happy. That is dangerous. And it doesn’t feel like the show is trying to say that but the implications are rough.

Actually, if anyone who has seen the show wants to bounce ideas around about what it’s saying, I’m for that. I’m here.

also the language is just foul. The foulest language I’ve ever heard in a film or television show. I have worked in food service and it is accurate—but jeez. That is hard to get past. The only excuse I give for it is..it does not feel like the showrunners were trying to be gratuitous or edgy like some showrunners definitely are. It feels like they were trying to use the language as part of the foul culture that the main character is trying to escape but is a part of, at the beginning of the show.

But that’s as subjective a take as any I’ve ever given, and hard to defend, and the reason I don’t recommend the show is because of how nasty the language in it is.

But thaaaat’s the one.