In my humble opinion, The Bear is one of the best shows available on TV at the moment… if not ever. Now that the show is back on Hulu for a third season, we are finally able to learn how running a new restaurant is mentally affecting Carmy’s daily life, and whether or not it will impact his ongoing relationships with Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Cousin (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and Claire (Molly Gordon). Off screen, however, we were curious how involvement in a show like The Bear would change the way that the cast views restaurants themselves, and the normally enjoyable act of eating out. Once you have seen how the sausage is made – and how a reputable joint is run – are you able to treat a meal any differently?
We got first-hand insight from the cast of The Bear themselves during a recent press day ahead of the drop of The Bear Season 3. They had strong opinions on how to view the season (the Binge, or the Pace), but lightened up when the conversation shifted to eating out. More than anything, it seems like working on The Bear have given the cast a newfound respect for the establishment’s workers, as Ayo Edebiri told CinemaBlend:
I feel like that’s the number one thing. I sort of clear my plate alongside them always now. And I feel like every server is like, ‘Stop doing that.’ … But by reflex, I’m just like, ‘I’m so sorry. Let me help. Let me get out of your (way)’
Once you have played someone who is working day and night to deliver the best dining experience possible, you 100% want to lighten the load of the servers who are doing it in real life. This rings especially true for Abby Elliott, who plays Carm’s sister “Sugar” on the show. Natalie occupies the role of Mother Hen at the restaurant, so it wasn’t that surprising that she saw the question from the point of view of a mom, explaining:
I think with kids, too, I have two little kids, and now when I go to restaurants, I’m constantly thinking about cleaning up after them. And if they drop anything on the floor, it’s kind of a stressful thing. Because you just know how hard restaurant workers work. So it’s definitely changed for me.
To which The Bear star Jeremy Allen White summed up:
I think all of us probably just have much more interest and then, yes, like a hypersensitivity now in restaurants and to restaurants, yeah.
Thanks to The Bear, I now also have a hypersensitivity to Taylor Swift’s “Love Story,” the way that meats and fish are sliced, and Jon Bernthal, in general. Then again, I was late to The Bear, and had no idea how emotionally attached I would get to each and every character. But I’m not alone in this, as the show basically has been cleaning up on the awards circuit from the moment it made its debut. We will be curious to see how The Bear Season 3 is received now that it has dropped, so dive in and enjoy if you have a Hulu subscription and the time to watch.
