Minor spoilers for Season 2 of FX’s The Bear are ahead. If you’d like to get caught up on the hit dramedy, you can stream both seasons with a Hulu subscription.
In Season 2 of The Bear, the first character we see is Marcus, and the first thing we hear is a heart monitor. Rather than being with Jeremy Allen White, who leads The Bear’s cast as Carmy at the start, we begin with Lionel Boyce’s beloved baker as he takes care of his mom before heading to work. Personally, I really loved this choice, and haven’t stopped thinking about it as I’ve streamed the new season, and it turns out, the actor behind Marcus feels the same way.
For context, The Bear’s season opens with Marcus by his mother’s bedside as she’s on what looks like life support. The baker goes through the motions of taking care of her, and the first words uttered are “I love you.” Then he leaves the house, defrosts his car, and heads to work at The Beef.
This sequence really set the tone for the next ten episodes, and this character’s love for his mom and his co-workers has proven to be a central storyline. So, while speaking to Lionel Boyce, who plays the character, about this scene he mentioned how much it meant to him that Marcus got to kick off the season, saying:
Yeah, that's the moment, it meant a lot to me, because it meant personally that Chris [Storer] trusted me to open the season. So I'm like, ‘Wow, that's, that's great.’ I mean, obviously, he trusts everyone you cast otherwise you wouldn't cast them. But you know, I mean, it's just a thing where like, wow, you like, really believe me to pass me the ball in this way.
While I’d assume there was some pressure on Boyce and this scene, I love that he had so much appreciation for the choice personally. He explained that while we know the characters from Season 1, when it comes to this installment on the 2023 TV schedule, it’s all about getting to know them inside and outside of work. Using Marcus to introduce this idea in the opening frames was perfect.
When it came to Marcus’ character and understanding his life outside of work it was vital to Boyce, and this scene helped illustrate that story as he said:
This is what he's carrying inside. And he's not really sharing it with anybody. He's just going to work with a smile on his face, you learn what's behind the smile. And you also for his arc this season, I think he's a person who cares, so you see where he spreads his care. In the first season, you see when he discovers his passion, and I think that's why he felt something that made him happy in the midst of his life. So he got carried away in that way.
He makes a great point. Season 1 was all about Marcus discovering his passion for baking. Now, with Season 2, he’s learning how to balance that with his personal life and obligations, which is also a much larger theme for the show. Boyce continued to talk about this idea, and his character, saying:
And now he learned the hard way you have to balance so now he's trying to balance and see where he can put things and also learn how to express himself because all of this is internal. I think Season 1 was about discovering a passion in work. And now it's learning how to express himself like, ‘Oh, this can be my relief and release in a different way than I knew.’
Now, that we got this intimate look into Marcus’ personal life, it makes his love and care for his job even more complex and meaningful. The fact that the season opened with Boyce’s character and his mother proves just how imperative this idea of how the personal affects the professional in both fantastic and hard ways is to The Bear.
Along with Lionel Boyce’s sweet story about Marcus finding himself as a baker while taking care of his mom, The Beef is turning into The Bear as the rest of the characters deal with the same internal personal vs. professional battle in varying ways. To see how this story plays out, and how Marcus’ arc blossoms, you can stream Seasons 1 and 2 of The Bear right now.
