Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

THE BEAR Season 3

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In season 3 of THE BEAR (Disney Plus), Chef Carmy buckles down and runs his new restaurant toward an ever-elusive standard of excellence, only to create a dysfunctional workplace that reflects his internal landscape. I didn’t find it as funny as Season 1 nor as poignant as Season 2, but I’m so committed to the characters that I found myself loving it just the same.

In the first two seasons, Carmy, a highly successful chef, returns home to Chicago to take over a family sandwich shop after his brother dies, only to find it a chaotic mess. In Season 2, he refashions it as The Bear, an upscale restaurant with the same staff, now sharpened and tuned to this new sense of purpose.

Season 3 brings the crashing end of Season 2 in for a soft landing by elegantly tying all the loose ends before showing us the hectic life in The Bear’s kitchen day in and out. Like all good restaurants, I came for the food, and there is food porn galore. Seriously, I could watch a chef spoon boiling juices over a slab of pork for an entire episode. From there, we see all the characters struggle with whatever is holding them back from achieving whatever their standard of excellence is–Carmy sacrificing harmony for perfection, Sidney being in Carmy’s shadow, Richie’s estrangement from his wife and new role as a weekend dad, Sugar’s fear of motherhood because she doesn’t want to end up like her mother, and so on. Two looming events promise a big finish to the season, one an upcoming make-or-break restaurant review, and the other the closing of a beloved high-end restaurant that brings everyone in the culinary community together.

In this season, we get a lot of things I love about THE BEAR–the characters, the slice-of-life feel that relies on dialogue and the excellent cast instead of off-kilter camera work, the vignettes, the focus on working class people, the themes of finding purpose in work and achieving personal excellence, and cameos by great actors and real people from Chicago’s vibrant culinary community. Also some things I don’t like as much, which is the occasional uncertain plot pacing and periodic overreliance on quick camera cuts to push the comic or cute. My biggest peeve with this season is while the previous two seasons told complete stories, Season 3 wraps up a few subplots but otherwise ends on a cliffhanger.

We’ll have to wait until June 2025 to see what happens next. But yeah, I’m totally in. THE BEAR remains one of my favorite shows, and while Season 3 didn’t push it to a higher standard, it didn’t wreck it either, and it remains one of the best shows out there.

GOODBYE EARTH

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Based on the novel by Kotaro Isaka, GOODBYE EARTH, a South Korean dystopian TV series (Netflix), is a real trip. Audiences seemed to hate it based on Rotten Tomatoes ratings, but I found a lot to like, and while the plot meandered, I fell for the charming characters.

In this series, an asteroid is heading toward Earth in 200 days, and Woongcheon, a city in South Korea, is reeling from the turmoil that followed its discovery and failure to destroy it in space. Making matters worse, South Korea is predicted to be ground zero for the asteroid impact, guaranteeing no one will survive. The government and the elites bailed, resulting in an attempted coup and horrific loss of life. Convicts also escaped the jails and went on a rampage, killing and kidnapping children.

In the aftermath of this, the people left behind in Woongcheon struggle with shortages, unavailability of transport out of the country, scams, criminals operating openly, and corruption. The story has an ensemble cast but primarily follows Jin Se-kyeong, a former teacher haunted by the loss of many of her students; her fiance Dr. Ha Yung-sang, a scientist who was stuck in the US during the disruption and who is considered valuable by the elites for rebuilding civilization after the impact; Captain Kang In-a, an army officer leading a defanged support unit trying to maintain order; and Father Woo Sung-jae, a priest forced to take over his parish and hold it together after the main priest vanishes. Their relationships in the community lead us into the lives of many other characters who try to find meaning, joy, and sometimes escape, knowing their days are numbered.

This is one weird show. I was struck by the obvious inspiration it took from HBO’s THE LEFTOVERS, about the people left behind when 2% of Earth’s population suddenly disappear. Struggling to find meaning in such an inexplicable event filled with loss and grief, humanity loses its mind, resorting to cults, oddball religions, and violence. Similarly, the people of Woongcheon experience a lot of the same wild reactions to the looming apocalypse, and ask a lot of the same questions about whether life has any meaning if it ends.

As for the plot, it is all over the place. Storylines come and go. The ending is fairly ambiguous. It’s a frequently titillating and beautiful-looking but ultimately hot mess of a story. I fell for the characters, however, including the many secondary characters, and I enjoyed the frequent interruptions of the disjointed plot where we see them simply living their lives and sharing loving, comedic, or odd moments with each other. This is where the show really shined for me, in the simple humanity and its inherent bravery when juxtaposed with impending doom.

Overall, I like GOODBYE EARTH. Would I recommend it? Cautiously, I guess. There’s a lot to like, but those looking for conventional plotting and a brisk pace may be frustrated.

ERIC

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In the six-part series ERIC (Netflix), a father faces a parent’s worst nightmare as his son goes missing, and he will have to fight not only a hostile city but his own nature to get the boy back. Immersive world building, deft direction and storytelling, and excellent acting elevate this show from something I might not have watched into one I found riveting.

I am typically not into “missing child” stories. As a parent, I find them depressing and filled with anxiety. My partner suggested it, so we gave it a shot, and sure enough, it’s anxiety-inducing all right. But the gritty production, excellent performances by Benedict Cumberbatch and the rest of the cast, and almost perfect portrayal of the beautiful decay of New York City in the 1980s hooked me almost instantly, and it’s an intense ride. It doesn’t rest on the inherently dramatic premise but reaches for so much more.

Cumberbatch plays Vincent, a mad genius-type puppeteer who co-produces a popular kid’s TV show similar to SESAME STREET, called GOOD DAY SUNSHINE. The show provides children with an idealized New York where people take care of each other. The problem is that outside the show, he is a bit of a toxic basket case, detached and irascible with his wife and son. While fighting with his wife one morning, his nine-year-old son walks to school on his own and disappears in the jungle of New York, producing every parent’s worst nightmare.

From there, the show appears to spill and spin in multiple directions as a virtual ensemble cast of primary and secondary characters are introduced, all of whom will play a part in the unfolding tapestry and contributing to the emerging theme that those in power–whether it’s Dad or the men who police or those who run the city–should do better to break negative cycles, particularly neglect. Honestly, at first, it’s all a bit unwieldy, super ambitious and requiring a major balancing act compressed into six episodes, but it all comes together nicely, mainly by shifting the focus of the show from Vincent and his family to Michael, the detective assigned to the missing persons case. His story is as compelling as Vincent’s and even eclipses it, which keeps the drama rising to the climax that neatly ties all the threads together and pays them off handsomely.

Overall, I enjoyed ERIC quite a bit. Part mystery, part social commentary, part redemption story, it’s a gritty, realistic, and compelling drama I found gripping almost throughout.

BUG (2006)

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In BUG (2006), a psychological horror film directed by William Friedkin (THE EXORCIST) and written by Tracy Letts (based on his 1996 play), a lonely woman connects with a paranoid drifter and engages in a race to delusion and madness. This is a good movie about delusion and the dark if occasionally comforting places it can take us.

Agnes (Ashley Judd) lives in a motel and works at a bar. She struggles to find moments of happiness, often aided by drugs and alcohol, after losing her son years earlier to a kidnapping and her ex-husband (a very menacing Harry Connick Jr.) tried to kill her and went to jail. A friend introduces her to Peter (Michael Shannon), who is courteous if incredibly socially awkward. He is so non-threatening and bumbling that she likes having him around; his presence is a comfort.

When her old life threatens to return and rob of her of any control she has left she latches onto Peter, who becomes increasingly erratic, claiming massive forces are pursuing him and have infected him with a strange parasite.

The result is psychological horror, a locked room where the participants have locked themselves inside their own world, and a lot of the room is their shared head space. No matter how crazy Peter acts, Agnes goes along with it, weaving an elaborate conspiracy crashing toward a final scene that is simply breathtaking in its passion and audacity. Judd and Shannon give the roles their absolute all, sweeping us along, and we are terrified, not so much scared for ourselves but for where this is all going for these people who obviously need help.

Overall, I found BUG to be a nice surprise. When I first saw it come out, I pictured it as a typical horror grossout, but it’s far more complex than that, far more psychological, powerful, and yes, relevant. In today’s world, where conspiracy theories get mainstreamed by the internet, you might even find yourself saying, Oh, I know a guy exactly like that.

BODKIN

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In BODKIN, a seven-episode series now streaming on Netflix, an American podcaster and his assistant travel to a small town in Ireland, where they team up with a sharp-edged investigative journalist to explore an old mystery involving disappearances. The result is charming, comical, and a ton of fun, proving that if you make the effort to develop likeable characters across the board, you can do almost anything with them.

Gilbert comes to Bodkin with his assistant Emmy to do a podcast episode on a cold case in which three people disappeared in the small Irish coastal town of Bodkin on Samhain ten years before. They are teamed with Dove as a fixer, a hard-edged reporter for THE GUARDIAN who needs to get out of the UK for a while, as she’s being investigated by the government after her whistleblower source commits suicide. They get a whole lot more than they bargained for, uncovering smuggling, an ancient gangster feud, and more. The slow, charming, and often comical build pays off in the latter episodes, when all hell breaks loose and the tension and the reveals come to a head.

The three main characters are terrifically strong yet wonderfully flawed in different ways, subtly crafted, and the many colorful people they get to know in Bodkin makes for a good mystery with plenty of light as well dark moments that never get too light or too dark. The result is honestly something special, a true crime drama that throws the true crime drama out the window to stake out its own identity. Honestly, it’s a ton of fun, and I’d happily recommend it to anyone.

STOPMOTION (2024)

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In STOPMOTION (2024), a stop-motion movie artist becomes obsessed with her new project, with grisly results. Interesting stop-motion sequences, some gruesome body horror, and a strong performance by Aisling Fransciosi (NIGHTINGALE) elevate the film, though it felt incomplete and kinda empty for me.

The movie starts with Ella working with her mother, who is a legend in stop-motion film art. As mom has arthritis, Ella acts as her hands, and it’s clear she’s an unhappy puppet with artistic aspirations of her own but a lack of confidence in developing her own ideas.

When mom is out of the picture, Ella vows to finish her mother’s film but lacks the ability to do it right. Then a mysterious little girl shows up who says she has a story Ella can tell. Only, this story requires sacrifice, and telling it requires the artist to become a part of it.

The themes are interesting. I’m always on board for a story about where creative obsession is someone’s undoing, whether it’s YELLOW BRICK ROAD or BLACK SWAN. Again, the stop-motion sequences are really well done–the director got his start there–and I loved seeing how these things get made. The body horror is delightfully repulsive.

The only thing is the character is such a blank slate. She kind of has no personality, which is the point-she is just another puppet, first of her mother and then her own suppressed artistically violent urges. As a result, her descent doesn’t quite feel like a descent. It all comes together in an ending doesn’t quite pay off.

This is one of those movies a lot of people seem to love or hate, but as usual, I found myself just plain liking it. It was a worthwhile watch, it has a ton going for it, but in the end, I just had a hard time connecting with and rooting for the protagonist.