In Purgatory? 'The Bear' Closes Its Recent Season; 'It's Always Sunny...' Returns; Plus, 'Stick' Swings

Thanks for tuning in to Taking It Down.

Taking it down is the streaming and TV podcast, which understands you have a limited amount of time but plenty of intelligence, no matter your job or your status.

We know that a deeper understanding of art doesn't mean that you want a lecture either.

It means you want to think it through or test your ideas or hear a real conversation, not just critics flexing film school jargon or Hollywood insiders rattling off numbers from a box office.

From using your time sagaciously on what to watch to constructing why a show hits or misses, you'll leave each episode on Tuesday with recommendations or what to avoid.

Each Tuesday we start with a spoiler free segment.

Decide if a show's for you or not.

After a quick break, we dig deeper into a show or movie's qualities.

It's the section where we unpack television with an eye for the blue collar folks, with conversations about what the series is doing, where it stumbles.

If it matters.

We're talking TV without talking down.

All right, if you're new, welcome.

I'm the weekly host, Blaine.

I'm also editor in chief of the website the Alabama Take.

That's the site where writings on various things appear and it produces this podcast and several more podcasts.

In a minute I'm going to be joined by co host Donovan who has the best insights on shows and more.

This week we are getting into the return of the longest scripted television show ever.

At this point it's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Believe it or not, that's the longest series that's not animated.

Surely the Simpsons will wear that crown.

I guess, until someone rips it from Homer's dead, drunken, bloated hand or head.

Anyway, we'll also touch on the latest episode of Stick on Apple TV plus.

And then to end, it's our big wrap up on the thoughts of this fourth season of the Bear from Hulu and fx.

There's your rundown.

It's time for Professor Donovan to come in and give me a new ideas we've never considered.

Lets get going Alabama take projection.

All right, Donovan's here.

There is no Adam in the podcast this week.

I don't think next week either.

Third chair being empty, he's busy communing.

With the Lord on a higher plane of existence than we could ever imagine.

The fact is, he's in Great Britain enjoying the hell out of himself, seeing Oasis perform live, putting on shows of his own under the moniker Sister Ray Davies.

And that's on Wednesday, July 23rd at SJQ in The heart of Dalston, which is a huge part of London's big music scene.

Go.

It looks awesome.

Do you like the.

That I had all that info at.

At my.

I did.

I looked it up too, and I was looking at pictures and stuff.

Yeah, it does.

It's the center of London's music.

Dalston.

I guess it's pronounced Dalston.

Maybe Dals.

D Think so.

Anyway, sjq, you can meet Adam.

Co host Adam.

If you have heard him, you can go meet him.

Go with care, though, because that bloke's likely on cloud nine.

Cloud ten.

Bosch.

Somehow or another, though, I think we were running the podcast without a third chair last time.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia began.

Its previous season really was.

Was that.

I think it was just you.

And I think you're right.

We did the Ricksky Rat episode, which has just a hilarious Danny DeVito bit where he's refilling, getting water in a cardboard fry container for some reason, and he's like, what the hell?

It looks like I'm doing.

I'm getting water drinking from a. I know what you're talking about.

They're an inch and a half high at most and they hold.

FRAT the greatest example of network interference ever.

Yeah.

With Danny DeVito being added to It's Always Sunny.

Yeah.

After the first season, I think.

Was it John Landgraf in charge even back then?

And he said, I think so.

They added Danny DeVito for an episode and he insisted that he stay on cast.

Yes.

That was brilliant.

Yeah.

You don't hear about studio interference being really good, and I like that, probably.

Because it usually isn't, but.

But this one.

Incredible.

We've got two episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia to begin its season back 17, a record number for scripted television.

Yeah.

Have they learned anything?

That's the best part of this show.

I'm sad this isn't the spoilers section, but friends, I can tell you, they did not.

If they did, it would be a different show.

Absolutely.

It would be horror.

It would be the world we live in.

We have it.

We do live in the world that Sonny created.

I. I think that we're gonna see some good corporate synergy this season because I really think that putting Frank on the Golden Bachelor.

Yes.

As we've seen teased in the trailer.

Yes.

That's not a spoiler.

It's been teased.

He's going to be really.

Is gonna be really excellent.

He's gonna get a real piece of ass.

He thinks to love Danny DeVito is a national treasure.

Thank God he's on TV as Frank, the dad.

If you don't watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but you do watch Abbott Element.

Element.

Abbott elementary, their recent, fairly recent show episode might have confused you because the gang was there.

The gang was there because of community service.

And this season starts with the gang.

You know what.

What were they doing when they weren't being filmed with the Abbott elementary crew.

Who'S filming elementary behind the scenes footage of.

Yeah, there's tenure at Abbott Elementary.

It was good.

I thought the gang fucks up Abbott Elementary.

You know, I love how they give you everything in the title almost.

Yes.

And as it turns out, it was way worse than what was on Abbott Elementary.

I did watch that episode.

Did you happen to go back and watch it?

I did not watch it, but I read a review of it and I heard you talk about it.

But I'll be Abbott elementary as it is.

Makes me sad in a way that it's always Sunny in Philadelphia visiting Abbott elementary doesn't.

How so?

Just because of the chronic.

It's not getting any better.

Chronic underfunding for schools, especially for the most populations that are at the most like it.

It may.

It bums me out that we as a country have just been like, yeah, public school teachers need to supplement their classrooms with their own income.

And watching a show about it, I don't need to watch that.

It makes me like.

So much of the plot is like, obviously they're being creative and trying to help the kids.

And I'm just like, oh, but in a good world, you shouldn't have to do this.

But it's a comedy, so supposedly it's very funny.

It is funny.

It has some really good moments.

I'm not saying anything bad about Abbott elementary, this show.

I'm saying something about Donovan watching it, who was just, like, too bummed out to keep going.

What it reminds you of.

Yeah, exactly.

Just the relentless march of neoliberalism, I guess.

I think you've got it.

Yeah.

Abbott elementary manages to make all that good comedy, but it's because of their character interactions.

Yeah, They've got solid characters there.

You saw a hint of the janitor.

He is so funny to me.

Whereas them all being on Sunny, it's like, I know everything's supposed to be horrible.

That was great for me.

Yes.

There's a bit in Abbott elementary where they cannot fathom children not knowing Run DMC's Hollis Christmas in Hollis.

And they're playing it, and then every teacher kind of walks around in the Background of the scene.

Even the janitor walks by and is just singing every word.

They know every word.

How do you not know this one?

And we got a little something there.

And in this episode.

Yes.

Yeah.

My wife watches Abbott and I catch a few episodes from there and my wife even watches it with our 7 year old because I'll be damned.

Broadcast comedy still exists, huh?

Yeah, there's one.

Yeah, there is one.

It's.

It's got toned down elements of the gang.

In that episode.

Do they teach Charlie to read?

I don't think he.

He does get to read.

No, they teach him to read.

Suppose they do teach.

Yes.

Frank ends up in the cage that they're designed to catch a racc.

We learn more about that raccoon.

Yes.

But what an odd crossover.

It's so weird.

It feels like it almost has to work.

Yeah.

Quinta Brunson, you could tell she really, really had some fun playing against type in one very specific moment in this episode.

Yeah.

Her co star.

What is his name?

Tyler Michael Williams.

Is that.

Am I right about his name?

Tyler James Williams.

Tyler James Williams.

You were pretty much right there.

And I love him.

He's a.

He's a good actor too.

He's funny.

A lot of fun to watch.

So the first episode of It's Always Sunny gives the other side of the story of what happened at Abbott.

Both the Abbott episode and the Sunny episode are very funny, but the combination of the gang being completely dumb as well as the Abbott faculty devolving in their presence using stronger language, it isn't just jarring.

But laugh out loud funny.

It makes sense.

That's.

It's the classic Sunny where like even good people are brought low by how horrible they are.

Yes.

Yeah.

That's the longevity of the show, how it centers around horrible.

I think the world keeps getting better for a few people at least and worse for a lot more people.

And then those of us in the whole a lot more camp, we want to see folks who are just horrible, Truly dumb, but never succeed.

Yeah.

You know, because in the real world we got horrible.

Truly dumb.

And stepping up to lead maybe.

What.

What are the things I love about Sonny is.

And I.

Did you read the New York Times?

I did.

Article.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So anyone who had New York Times last week, folks, they did a.

A good feature on Sonny for on it in.

In honor of its 17th season.

And I think that the guy who wrote that, and I would agree with him, really hit the nail on the head with just like how clear eyed the show is about Its characters.

Uh huh.

No one's under any delusions that these guys are good people.

In fact, it wouldn't be funny if anyone but them thought that.

And like they're utterly clear eyed about them as their character and also about like what that leads to in a way that feels really fun and refreshing.

It would be weird if someone watched this show with thoughts that, oh, one of them or two of them are kind of okay people.

Right.

If you want to emulate any of these folks, you might have done too much Charlie work.

Who I would watch this show and think these are normal.

This is something to do.

But we'll talk a little bit more about.

It's always Sunny in the spoiler in maybe just a couple of things.

There's not a lot to point out, you know, if you get the the idea.

But there are of course, plot lines that could be spoiled.

We'll get to those in the spoiler section.

Let's shift gears.

Did Stick have its best episode yet with Clark the mark for you?

Yeah, it was the most focused.

And as I was watching it, I was like gentle listeners.

There are no true surprises in this episode.

None.

But it is.

It felt like the most focused episode.

Yeah, it was kind of contained in a way.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

What I saw was an episode just so heavy with tropes, only a surprise or two at the most.

Yet I ended the episode just as pleased as if I'd watched, you know, one of the best comedies of the year.

But it's not quite that.

Not as a whole, you know, Price drinking at the bar, having Owen Wilson go back and forth with strangers.

That's good.

Yeah.

Yeah, it is.

He's drinking.

You know, it harkens back to what I saw last week.

This crew works at its best when they are working together for a goal.

Yeah.

When they're all somewhat split off.

I mean, and that's.

I'm not here to accuse like classic sitcom A cop being B plot structure of, you know, like that's.

That's a classic formula.

But it did feel more cohesive with everybody in the picture instead of kind of split up in their various.

Yeah.

Having a clear outside of the group antagonist with Tim Oliphant as the rival smarmy golfer who makes millions more garners more investment successes than Price.

Having him be the focus of who they're after I think helped a lot too.

It helps that Timothy Oliphant is really, really good at playing someone who is genuinely unlikable.

He plays.

It's not over the top.

It's not over the top.

He plays smarmy.

He can play a hint this guy might be dangerous.

There's a hint that.

There's a hint that he might throw Price out or maybe even have his buddies beat him up.

Yeah, he could.

So we do get the Price and his old rival in the same room.

It takes a lot of sports tropes to get us there, but I think it does them well.

It's the best episode for me and a good sign, I think, for.

For stick on where it's going.

Hard not to talk about that episode in relation to Ted Lasso's dart episode, but I think they were shooting for different things.

Yeah.

And I'd say Ted Lasso is still the winner there.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, as far as quality.

Yeah.

But I think it also was going for a moment of gentle heart, truth, all of those things, you know, genteel heart and truth here.

I think we're just using some.

Some good old let's.

Let's.

Let's rub it in the face of the antagonist kind of tropes.

I mean, it was a sting.

A classic sting.

Yeah.

Do you like Stings, guys?

Exactly.

The bear is also on our docket.

Season four.

We're done with season four as of today here.

No spoiler land, though.

How'd you feel about the season as a whole?

Good.

And I think not.

I think this is outside of the realm of spoilers, what I'm gonna say.

But I think that some of what it was dealing.

It was dealing with a lot of different things, and it wasn't perfect.

There were moments that were like, okay, we're all stammering because that's what we're known for.

We're the stammer show.

Wow.

Yeah.

And, you know, there were parts that were sentimental, which is fine.

It's hard.

I'm sorry.

I'm not saying that's bad, but I think there was a big overall kind of dealing with, like, the difficult artist.

Like, what.

At the point where people are like.

And for that himself, too.

Like, your art doesn't justify X, Y, or Z.

What's it worth?

You know, what is the worth of your art when you have all this other.

When it's doing all this other stuff to you.

I thought that was.

That was good.

When it's your demise, when it's detrimental, in a way.

Yeah, could be.

Or when it allows you to treat other people poorly, you know, because you're great and you can get away with that because you're great.

Yeah.

You are right There Is a lot.

It was trying to do a lot and I think that it did a lot of that quite well.

Yeah, well, I saw a lot of gripes about season three.

They wanted questions answered, you know, slam fist on the desk and you know, the bear is as serialized as anyone as any show it wants to tell.

Elongated story, obviously to the point where it even maybe gets people annoyed that it does take too long to get around to this or that.

But I do think season four was good.

I thought it allowed for season three to show why it existed.

Yeah, I agree.

I know what we talked about that I think last time and I had the episode, the start, the finishing this season reinforced that for me.

Yeah.

It seems as though it's a season of a lot of pain, a lot of truth, a lot of honesty that begins maybe some improvement for a lot of these people.

It's almost like the characters are saying to themselves, if I have, if I'm going to be any good at anything, I've got to shrug off this burden.

Yeah, there was a lot of good stuff and this is.

Sometimes it got a little sentimental, but a lot of good stuff about.

Just a lot of good stuff about friends, family dynamics and the way that those can entrap us, but also the ways that maybe those can be changed.

Right.

That things can be faced, that we can make changes in our lives.

And I think a lot of that feels very resonant.

If you're sitting out there and you've never felt that you needed to make a change in your life, then good for you.

The rest of us will have the bear.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There might be moments where audiences, some people would watch this show and think there's no way, way someone is that mentally incapable of normaly when they look as normal and act almost somewhat normal as these characters do.

Even I would question it at times.

I would think, is this real?

Is this real as far as how they're acting?

Am I believing this?

Am I in?

And most of the time I was, you know who.

And this is also not a spoiler.

The.

The one portrayal that.

And I think this is just down to acting.

That I think is absolutely correct.

Is Jamie Lee Curtis as the third mother absolutely correct as Donna?

I think so too.

Yeah, she's got it exactly right.

I think so too.

With that we'll take a break so that we can break down some of these things.

Spoiler wise, we'll run them down in the same order.

So after the break, about a 30 or 45 second break, you'll hear us talk in depth about these things.

No social media algorithm displays everything you follow.

You try to hunt and find where your friends are on each of these sites.

That's the reason you followed your friends in the first place, to see what they're up to, for it to be right there.

With the decline of reasonable discussion on social media as well, you know it's time to stop scrolling or at least rely on it less.

We'll have a newsletter every now and again, about once a week, maybe less.

There will be a segment in each newsletter that recounts what we've done, both on the site and in the podcast.

You won't feel left out, and you won't have to rely on Facebook or mama or their Uncle Teddy telling you this or that.

Instead, get it right from the source, the middleman, the algorithm.

We'll give you a link to the newsletter.

Each newsletter provides some stories, some thoughts, but there's always that section what's going on on the site, so that you can click on those in case you missed them.

And now back to the show.

Okay, let's stick to our order.

I don't think I have a lot to say about It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the first two episodes.

I think they're going to do one per week now.

But they wanted to get that Abbott.

I guess they want that bump.

That Abbott bump.

Well, they wanted to get that Abbott, probably plotline completed so they could move on into their season, I would imagine.

I don't know.

They may not have any say whatsoever in how many episodes get released.

That might be a John Landgraft kind of thing.

The guy who runs fx.

I did appreciate the Abbott elementary episode because it dares to ask the question, can jet fuel melt steel beams?

These kids don't know about 9 11.

This was like.

In some ways, this episode was more disjointed.

It almost felt like a collection of sketches.

Did not make it any less enjoyable.

And that's kind of how Abbott works.

Yeah, it is.

Which is fine.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with that.

I'm not.

No, no, no, no.

I'm not denigrating it.

As Donovan said, it is funny.

And she on it all you want, but Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire actually rocks.

And I didn't really realize it until I went back and listened to it.

I was like, I just took this song for granted as a kid.

What the hell kind of rocks?

This was just like cla.

Like, it was.

It was just classic Sunny, right?

Like, they're trying to lure Children to the.

To the choir room.

To the choir room to get them because they need to find their sexy.

So they're sexy.

Bad boy.

They gotta create a boy.

But this is one show where it would be so funny just to sit there because one idea leads to this, leads to the next one, and then there's just no way.

How does trying to get some kids to play basketball lead into?

They don't know enough about 911 lead into we gotta recruit a boy.

Banter update.

We didn't start the fire.

There's a lot of shenanigans and hijinks, man.

I mean, that just opens the door for them to be so themselves and so stupid.

So stupid.

What do they do?

Spend two hours at least.

They take way too long for lunch to argue about 9 11.

They spend long enough that they clearly after school and they've gone into conspiracy theories to the point where they're not sure if the World Trade center actually existed because no one's ever seen it with their own eyes.

Dee's incredulity of we said we'd never forget, guys, and the kids don't even know.

The kids don't even know.

It's just a meme to them.

Oh, yeah, that's right.

That's what they say.

Getting to see one very nice character swear the way she does about Dee was a real fun, fun treat for me.

So good.

It really was.

I can't wait for my wife to watch this episode because she's yet to catch up for her Abbott tie in.

She's not a big Always Sunny.

She's kind of like me.

She will walk through the room when it's Always Sunny is on and maybe catch a scene or two and chuckle and then leave.

I kind of do the same thing with Abbott at times.

Although I do watch a little bit more of AB Elementary.

I do love that Dennis in Abbott elementary.

As soon as he sees the cameras, he's like, no, I'm gone.

Right?

I'm not going to be a part of this.

And you don't see him for the rest of the episode, but here you find out he's actually making coffee.

Turns out he's just making coffee, trying to construct a boy band.

He's actually the only.

He's the only one who's actually, I think, made a positive.

Weirdly enough, he made a positive contribution because his coffee was really good.

Yeah, he was making.

He had to go, like, run deliveries for all the teachers and stuff.

What does he say?

He compares himself to Walter White at one point.

The Walter White of coffee.

Yeah, that's pretty good.

And then we have a second episode of It's Always Sunny.

Where what does it's always sunny do?

They look at culture.

They look at our society and they say, what is stupid enough for these very stupid people to want to be a part of, to want a piece of?

And he inherits Is it Cake?

My daughter watches Is It Cake?

On Netflix from time to time.

She used to.

Hilarious, hilarious setup.

And so you.

You kind of forget that that's what they're doing.

Yeah.

Especially until the end when you're like, wait.

And then Frank Bus.

He's like, I got you.

I wanted to prove to you the magic of cake technology.

Frank fakes his own coma to basically make a cake of himself.

It was only a matter of time before they figured out it was cake.

But, boy, it took them a very long time.

They leave Dee to convalesce with or be there with Frank in the coma, if he is even convalescing.

And the three guys run off to a gala because that's where the money is, the investment for Patty's Pub.

Two really good things here is, like, how impressed these guys are by, like, they're just so stupid.

So, like, of course, like, they're the only people in the world that could be impressed by this, like, venture capitalist guy.

Like, they meet.

That they meet.

Who is just on every drug imaginable.

The stakes of the drug, it just levels up at each party he takes them to.

So that was great.

To the point.

To the point that they're in a crack house.

To the point that they just did a crack house.

So that was good.

Also, it's such an obvious joke, but when Dee pulled out the folder that says my most prized possession.

Yeah.

And she opens it, it's just.

What is it, like an episode of Big Asses, 1973.

Yeah, it's.

It's a magazine of.

It's a porn magazine.

It's a porno.

And then, of course, Frank has faked a picture that Dee maybe has drawn as a kid.

And I love my daddy.

And that was actually the prize possession.

Oh, it's just good comedy.

This is great writing.

It was good.

It was good.

And I don't know how they do it so consistently.

I guess I just sit around in a room.

They're so well acquainted with one another, and they bounce ideas until one thing leads to another.

At this point, I mean, it has to be like, wait, like, right, what would these dipshits do if they found out Frank was In a coma, Would they.

Would they get sidetracked by something else completely?

Yeah, they would.

You wonder if it starts with, what would they do if Frank was in a coma?

Or what would they do if they found out that you could make anything into a cake?

Which one of those was the.

Those are both valid approaches into the mentality of this episode.

Yeah.

Consistency of Sonny, though, is really amazing.

It's.

I feel like it's never.

Like it's always kind of been.

It is what it is.

If you don't like it, you're not gonna like it.

Yeah.

But it is what it is, and there's never really been a drop in quality after 17 years.

That was actually my.

What I was gonna bring up next.

17 seasons and seasons.

Yeah.

I guess longer than 17 years.

Yeah.

Because it started in 04, I think, or 05.

Yeah, it was in that range.

It's in that range there.

It was.

Right.

I think the first episode had come out right before I went to college, so.

05.

06.

Okay.

Or.

Sorry.

The first season.

17 seasons, I saw some complaints for.

Let's see, when.

17.

What was it?

Seasons 14 and 15.

A lot of people thought the quality was dropping and it might be time to fold the tent.

Yeah.

I didn't.

I saw a little.

Do you remember the episodes where they kind of sort of went to heaven and hell or some sort of afterlife?

I didn't think those were as good.

They were all right, overall.

Yeah.

You don't want to see them have to pay.

You don't want consequences for these people, but you also don't want them to succeed either.

No.

I like when a little bit of consequences happen.

The funny thing is there's just enough consequences here that they're always put back at square one.

Yeah.

It's just a reset.

And it kind of makes sense to me that they're in heaven, the heaven and hell thing, because obviously their existence is purgatory, because they could never move forward.

They can never change.

That's what it was.

You know, they're stuck in limbo forever with each other.

And I may have the season numbers wrong, but it was the end of one season and then the beginning of another.

Kind of picked it up right there with it.

And it was also right around that time when Glenn Howerton decided that he didn't.

He thought he was kind of done with the show.

Yeah.

And he left for many episodes.

And I think that hindered.

They really do create a balance when it's all of them.

Yeah.

I think they're just Kind of like you alluded to.

I think they're just very comfortable at working with each other at this point.

If Glenn Howerton had truly been done, I think it would have, I think they would have re.

Established a rhythm.

I think that's just a natural.

Yeah kind of progression almost in a show when you, when you have an actor step back like that and obviously he's.

He's back, thank goodness.

Still killing.

Each of them brings their honed Persona to the, to the cast.

You know, you got Glenn Howerton's semi leadership.

Definitely psychotic.

Definitely.

Oh, he's a megalomania, megalomaniac.

He's got that.

These, you know, also got a touch of that being his twin sister.

And she.

But she just wants to be seen and succeed as an actress in any way possible.

Doesn't matter what acting is it, even if it, if it even is acting.

Yeah, she wants to be a star.

And then poor Charlie, he's just the dumb guy.

He never learned to read and he'll eat anything.

I will say to you as I'm running through the Personas here, there was no funnier scene in my life than Charlie and Frank running as fast as they can into their own apartment to eat the cat food.

And they're like narrating what you have to do to eat the cat.

Cuz all these cats show up, they.

Eat the cat food.

What is it they do to fall asleep though?

Is it paint fumes?

Yeah, they do paint fumes so you can't taste the cat food settling off paint fumes.

And then of course you got our closeted gay guy with Rob who's changed his name to Rob Mack now, apparently.

Yeah, I saw that.

Kind of crazy.

And then Frank, Frank the total degenerate.

The, the.

This is not a funny thing to say, but they play it for laughs because it's so stupid and horrible.

He's racist.

He's just stuck in 1910, it seems like when white men ruled the world.

And he thinks that's the way it is.

He carries just guns everywhere.

He always has a firearm.

Always has a firearm.

And he's the, he's the one who's got the most money of them, which makes him the most dangerous because he can fund any stupid idea.

He's an utter degenerate.

And it's great.

It is great.

And it's so wonderful too that those mid seasons that he and Charlie bonded and there was the running question of.

Wait, is that also his son?

Yes.

Which never gets answered.

Fine enough that it doesn't, but it's cute and funny in its own stupid way.

This show's been around long enough that it knows how to deliver an episode.

I think that's like, okay, this is kind of functioning in the way that we think this is gonna function.

And then they're able to throw us all time curveballs.

The ones where it's like, wait, is Charlie the dumb guy?

Like, where they have the, the health inspection of the bar and it's only Charlie that holds it to, you know, like they're, they're, they're playful enough with their dynamic that they know when they can upset it, you know, And I love that.

Is that the one where it's filmed almost in, In a one shot?

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's probably a couple cuts there, but it's.

And it comes out right.

It came out right after Birdman.

They're kind of mimicking it.

You know, they take something.

They always take something from culture.

Yeah, they do.

And sometimes it's really big in depth thing from culture.

Such as, you know, they have that huge episode about abortion and abortion rights, but then a lot of times they'll take something like cake magic.

Yeah, that's.

That's cake.

Yeah.

Is it cake?

What is cake?

Yeah, let's get into Apple tv, one of those.

I don't have a ton to say either, but we'll.

Yeah, I think I feel the same way.

We've said a lot that could be said about the show overall.

I think so far it does give.

Us an opportunity to talk about.

Stick with any specifics from this mysterious episode, though, in case anybody didn't want to be spoiled on it.

And they're in this part.

It's too late.

Yeah.

Best episode to date.

Despite adhering to these predictable TV plot lines.

Classic Sting.

Did it get you at all when saying no, Santi and Zero started arguing.

No.

Yeah, me either.

Me either.

Like, I'm like, I know what.

I know a good Sting when I see.

Huh.

I did too.

Now the only thing I thought that was in question was I, I thought, oh, come on.

Clark would have recognized Mitts.

Well, he's.

He's not.

He's far away.

He's far away.

Yeah.

And he's just yelling.

He's just yelling.

Okay.

They do play it.

Or do play their Sting well enough, I suppose, where that's plausible enough.

Yeah.

When he.

When they finally get close enough, Clark does.

I appreciate that they gave Clark the line.

The Timothy Oliphant the line.

I didn't know that was you, Mitzi.

Yeah, I didn't know that was you back there yelling, yeah, yeah.

It's a good.

It's a good one.

I love that.

I kind of got pumped that Price is able to hit that shot with a three wood and he skims it over water in this amazing, superhuman fashion.

I suppose the plausibility there is.

Okay, if he can really do that, why is he not still in the pga?

Yeah, I mean, I have no thoughts.

About that, but his breakdown must have been that horrible that no one will want him back.

Kind of tight, focused episode.

Everyone has the same goal.

There's some zigs, there's some zags, there's some zaniness.

And at the end of it, well, he get.

Clark gets his comeuppance a little bit.

Yes, he does.

I'll just praise the actor playing Santi once again.

His facial expressions work.

Work well for acting.

He.

He can say a lot with an expression because when he comes back to the rv, zero opens the door and says, do we.

Did we win?

And he.

He makes the face.

He tells her everything she needs to know in a look there.

And it's good.

Yeah.

Yeah, we promise.

So let's deliver our conversations about to go deep into what to make of those last four episodes of the bear, episode seven through ten.

So that's where we are.

If you don't want to hear anything about episode 7 through 10, you might want to wait.

Quote of the week, I think lands out here.

So we begin unpacking the bear and it comes from my wife.

My wife.

I asked her if she watches the bear because it's good.

She said she did.

She didn't.

I said, well, that might be a good thing too, because I think it would stress you out.

And her reply was, I thought it was supposed to be a comedy.

It is not a comedy.

It has abandoned most of those pretensions at this point.

Yeah.

If.

If it ever even had any.

Episode 7 might as well call the wedding episode.

Although it's title is Bears.

Has there ever been an episode of television that screamed every single one of these characters needs to be in therapy?

I mean, the answer I thought the.

Little girl was okay.

She seems things in a mostly healthy fit.

Claire Bear too, doesn't really need a lot of therapy.

I think she's pretty healthy.

That's true.

Everyone else, desperately.

Sydney is in need of it and maybe this season has taken her to that brink.

By the way, when I said has there ever been an episode of television?

The answer is it's always any episode of.

It's always but a Close second.

In fact, there's a.

There are a couple episodes of It's Always Sunny where they're in therapy.

It goes horribly awry.

I think that the Bear's a great show, and I think this season's a little better than the last.

And we talked about.

Probably thanks to last season.

I don't think you could have this one without the other.

But every conversation in this series, especially this season, is really about what they're not saying or the conversation under the conversation.

And maybe this season, it got a little exhausting.

You know, this is how we talk in real life.

This is real life talk.

But in TV and film, your dialogue doesn't need to be that.

It needs to be much more efficient.

So there might be a sense of exhaustion from the audience.

And if they say someone were to say that, I would say that's very fair.

I almost get the sense because I feel something along those lines.

And there's almost a point where it becomes like.

It's almost like you're seeing how the trick is done.

You know?

How so with the dialogue, Blaine, I mean, it's just like, you know, I don't know how to explain.

You get it.

Like, I'm kind of flirt.

Doing the.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

It's like the rhythms and stuff of the dialogue, instead of mimicking natural language, which I think it does, it almost starts to feel like, oh, that's a little trick.

Like, I get.

I get it.

Yes.

Which I think is fair.

If you come up to me and say, that's the way you're starting to feel about this, I agree.

Well, do you remember when I almost had that complaint about Mad Men and I figured out, oh, wait, that's what it's supposed to be doing?

I figured it out pretty quickly because my near complaint with Mad Men was, wait, he's cheating on his wife again?

And he's drinking again.

Wait, shouldn't he learn his lesson?

No, that's the point.

He doesn't.

Yes.

He hasn't.

I wonder.

This is pure speculation.

I know Christopher Storer wrote a lot of these episodes.

I wonder if that's just a trick.

Maybe trick is too unkind a word.

A quirk.

Yeah.

Maybe we're just seeing a particular creator's quirks coming through.

Probably.

Probably.

But I just.

Yeah.

When you, you know, it's like when you see the theater, like, sometimes it's great to see the theater as theater, but when you see the theater as theater and it doesn't want you to see it as theater, not you know?

Yep, I agree with that.

A minor complaint.

It also slows down the.

It slows it down to real life in a way where change doesn't happen overnight.

Change won't happen in every episode.

These, these characters, almost all of them are acting out of pain.

Fear or fear of pain from pain.

Their, their inability to determine the route to deal with it at this point in the series may feel unrealistic for a television show, but it's very realistic for life.

It's a lot.

It's something that culminates in this episode with them helping a child with her fear under the table.

And it gathers them all around quite in an obvious visual there of, hey, all this probably started in our childhood and here we are under the table helping Evie, Richie's daughter.

Yeah.

And it does a good job of, like you said, Blaine, the change is not overly dramatic in the Bear.

It doesn't happen magically or miraculously.

And I thought thing it did a good job of showing in that episode was you giving the advice.

Them giving the advice to the little.

They're able to give advice that they can't take for themselves.

That's true.

And I think, you know, and oftentimes I think that's something you'll hear in therapy, right, when people are kind of trying to help you maybe reframe your thoughts.

And the way you think about yourself is like, hey, would you say this to a friend?

Or like imagine you're a friend, what would you say there?

And I think that was kind of a little bit of like they're being honest and facing things, but also there's an element of like, I'm explaining this to a little girl so she doesn't have to be afraid.

And you know, especially Carmody and Shug and Richie are still very much defined by their childhood and the, the kids that they were that they carry with them.

Quite sweet for all of them to go around and talk about what they fear.

It was a, it made for good a good episode.

It was a self contained episode too, which is nice to see with television these days.

And it was.

I found it to be a lot of them questioning their knowledge of others because there were at least two times, maybe three, where we have characters say to each other that they don't know the other well enough to make an inference about their internal state.

And yeah, a lot of that of course echoes that Mikey hurt them because of their lack, maybe because of their lack of a true father.

Do we, does the show ever say what's happened to their dad for sure.

I don't remember.

Just that he's gone.

He's left.

I think.

Is he gone or is he dead?

Or was there.

I think I got the impression is he left?

Not that he's dead.

Yeah.

But they could switch that on me hurt.

I mean, obviously it's a hurtful and painful thing when someone dies, but like the hurt that she has seems more like he left.

The hurt that she takes out on her kids sometimes.

Okay.

That or at least part of.

Part of her track.

Part of her.

That's just my thought.

Yeah.

I don't know if it's accurate in.

In tv, film, literature.

Well beyond.

When you have characters having a meal together, they're.

They're sharing more than just food, usually in a deeper manner.

Here it was the gum between Carm and Uncle Bob Odenkirk, you know, which.

Which to me signified this is a smaller piece of almost food.

So we're gonna have a smaller connection between these two.

It's not going to be.

The stitches won't be.

It won't be sewn as tight.

It's very small still.

Bear's still showing.

It can pull some.

Some great guest stars.

Well, loving Bob.

I'm so glad to have.

It would make sense that he's back.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I enjoyed the.

It did make me laugh that John Mulaney's character is back, but this time he's completely in business with the facts.

Yeah.

Like he's.

He's propping up.

He thinks their schemes are incredible.

He.

He kind of sees the family as what they are too.

He.

Yeah, he's.

He.

He's amused by them.

Right.

And class A acting from Eberron Moss.

Baccarat in the.

Yeah.

He gives this look to his daughter Evie when Tiffany kisses her and joins in to help with the fear under the table.

And it switches smartly edits to him giving this look to them.

It's good stuff.

He.

With it, man.

He's gonna break my heart.

Because he looks.

He does such a good job of Richie as like, he's really.

There's a lot of brash and bluster, but he's also this really vulnerable guy.

And every time he's around his kid, he looks like his heart's about to break.

And I think that that's the acting there.

Yeah.

It's.

It's a truth of.

Of human nature too, which is that, you know, it's good acting.

I do say.

I will say the Francine plot line.

It was there, of course, to give us a.

Another idea of forgiveness and moving on.

Having Sugar have to deal with someone as well.

But it also played like just a good excuse to have Brie Larson.

And I don't know that it didn't deserve to be cut and make the episode.

I think that's mostly what it was.

It was just an excuse for them to pre Larson and replicate Franny and Sugar doing the same thing that Richie and Carm did last season.

Right.

Yelling at each other, but saying the exact same thing.

Yep.

It kind of ended up a little much ado about nothing for me.

I think if you treated it just as like the culmination of an ongoing joke as opposed to something.

Yeah.

Momentous.

I think.

Yeah.

Don't.

We shouldn't overweight it with importance.

I think.

Okay.

A bonus of the wedding episode, really.

Any episode that he's in is getting to watch Oliver Platt.

Look at these guys and gals when they're speaking here it's him and Richie alone with one another.

And.

And Richie makes this profound point that he.

He may be the connective tissue for the rest of the family.

And Oliver Platt just gives him this look like, no shit.

Without saying, I mean, you can almost read his mind there.

I think that there have been more close ups than ever been employed in other seasons.

In this season, I believe that that is also Christopher, if you're out there and I'm maligning you, I apologize.

But it seems like that's something he really likes in the episodes that he directs.

Yeah.

Because whenever I've been like, wow, then it'll go to the directed by Christopher story.

I'm like, oh, okay.

That's why we're up their nostril.

Well, you know, it's this.

Everyone's getting closer and in that closeness, maybe there's a little less dysfunction, a little bit more happiness.

The episode actually ends with Richie laughing at the picture on his phone because he's of joy that he's a part of the family there.

He's.

Yeah, he does have friends, you know.

There it was a little.

That episode as a whole was a little sentimental.

Which can I think Ruby folks the wrong way.

But I think it's hard sometimes.

It's really hard to talk about these important things without being sentimental in a way that for some reason, rage and anger and hurt aren't sentimental.

But like, appreciating being a part of that family life in that way is sentimental.

I don't know.

It's just a stray thought I've had for myself.

Yeah.

About.

Or a stray thought I've had for myself about my reaction upon watching that episode, which I did like.

Yeah, I did too.

And here's where the full season drop hinders the show once again.

Sydney tells Richie in this episode.

Yeah.

She says, well, there's only one decision.

That's right.

And then a week between episodes gives you.

Gives that line a lot of back and forth and little tense that you don't get from being able to push play on episode eight right then, which.

Honestly I felt everything past the wedding was really hampered, especially leading into the finale was really hampered by being released all at once.

Yeah, I think it does it.

I mean, we want, you know, we watched it to talk about it, but I do think the kind of the way to your stuff, it almost does it a disservice to kind of roll through it the way Hulu encourages you to watch it.

Yeah.

It's such an odd choice for this show because I don't do this with every show.

It's very strange.

You know, even with.

And limited themselves to three episode dumps here, we just.

We still just get the whole thing all at once.

I don't know.

Some.

I'm sure there's some reason for it.

Maybe that's.

I don't know, maybe they have the analytics showing that people really engage with it in this way.

I don't know.

That's what they see.

I guess.

Episode 8 Green starts.

The name of it is Green starts with a weird opening.

It's as weird as maybe the first episode of the series where Sidney has a dream of disaster.

A cooking show that's gone crazy.

She's running off the stage into an empty theater.

I guess that's kind of the summation of the bear, though.

They're all worried that this cooking presentation's about to fail while they're running from their issues that everyone else could see.

You know, I guess.

And the fun thing about being recorded like this and having people hear my opinions every week is that I'm probably gonna contradict myself in six months.

Months to a year.

Yeah.

But I don't know if I need a dream to make any one internal state.

You know, like, it was just kind of like, all right, let's go.

Like, I. I know that she's stressed out.

Yes.

Yeah.

Well, that is, I think, easily implied.

But Carm had a very similar dream where he was in front of a.

He was at a cooking show.

Yeah.

That's the one where he ends confronted with the bear, is it not?

I'm not sure.

I just remember that he.

He has the And I think the idea there is not that she's stressed, but she is stressed on the level that Carm is.

Is stressed too.

Yes.

But also, I don't think I need anyone's dreams ever again.

Yeah, it's true.

The only time.

The only time I've been like, yes, a dream sequence has been if David lynch is directing it.

Well, yes.

Where the whole movie could be a dream.

Yeah.

Did you get the nod to Groundhog Day with Sid waking up to I Got yout, Babe?

Did I get to the nod to Groundhog Day with him explicitly watching Groundhog Day?

You know, these guys and gals are having the same day.

It seems like they're in purgatory too.

Just like our sunny friends.

Yeah.

Wow.

Except they can actually move forward a little bit, but they're feeling a little stuck themselves.

Ricci lays it out in the episode called Green with his line that Honesty's scary.

Fixing things like this with honesty.

Scary.

Watching Karm walk back up to his mom's is frightening to him, maybe to the viewer.

We've seen bits and pieces of alcohol, alcoholism, and just some really severe dysfunction.

Who knows how much he blames her for Mikey's death.

In this episode covers kind of who's going to try on the Honesty to fix who's going to do this.

And for Carmo, so far, it's.

It's Karm, but it's not Marcus who avoids his dad.

Yeah.

He has a look that his dad's waiting to talk to him and he turns the other way, which is interesting.

And.

Because then we'll go ahead and get the penultimate episode, which links together perfectly with this one.

Yes, it does.

To Annatto, I guess.

Is that the name of the dish that they're talking about?

Tonato.

He said what?

Carmen says it in the episode.

I'd never heard of it and I couldn't pronounce it.

And this is what you were talking about, I think even in the non spoiler section where Jamie Lynn Curtis is Donna working.

She's basically working her night step, I suppose, where she makes amends.

And I think the key moment in all of that is.

I mean, there's just great acting between the two where he's great, he's at tears, she's at tears.

And, you know, he tells her, you know, it's okay, you don't even have to say it.

And now I see where you're going.

She does.

But I do think that the key moment is just after, is when he cooks for her.

Because when you cook for your Parents, that's as grown up of a moment as you'll have.

You know, the literal tables turn in a way.

Well, and in the one feast of the seven fishes where we introduced Donna, she won't let others cook for her.

That's so true.

She wants to make everything beautiful, but she won't let others cook for her.

And I think there, I don't think this is the whole of it, but there is a bit of, like, your ability to give love is also bound up in your ability to receive love.

It's the old Mr. Rogers thing, right?

Like, he thought if children were told that they were loved, they would be loving.

And so Donna Don is being able to kind of receive love from her son in a.

In that gesture, I think is.

Is big.

Instead of holding on to the control and being like, no, I'm the nurturer.

I. I do.

We do things my way.

Huh?

It's also the episode where Tina gets the pasta under three minutes with help of Zen advice from Luca, that devious Luca.

More.

More proof of growing, you know, getting it right, getting better.

Donna apologizes for her poor motherhood.

Karmic, in an episode, tells Uncle Jimmy thanks.

On a voicemail.

Carms quit smoking.

Every.

You know, it's these characters trying their best to make small steps to improve.

One of the earlier times we talked, like, I do think that was part of the point of season three for, for me.

Yeah.

Is that these, these characters had to be.

They're stuck doing the same thing and it's not working.

Season three is almost their bottom.

That's kind of what I mean.

Since it's like if any of these characters have any hope, they're gonna start recognizing from this and from the bounce back that they're.

If they want different results, they gotta do different things.

You know, maybe a bit of subversion with Marcus winning a best new chef every day.

Do need a Marcus.

I loved it though.

But when they, When Sugar tells them food and wines, giving top five chefs whatever the.

The recognition is, there's a moment where Carm looks right at Sydney.

You catch it?

And he's thinking it's gonna be you.

Right?

He's thinking it's Sydney.

Yeah.

Which you.

The viewer is supposed to think too.

Oh, yeah, right.

This is also the episode, correct me if I'm wrong, where Rob Reiner's character.

And I forget his name.

Yeah.

It's something funny.

The consultant.

Yeah.

He meets the computer and he.

And they have that dialogue where it says, interesting first name.

The.

And he says, yeah, it's a nickname.

You don't.

You don't have a nickname.

He says I have a nickname.

What is it?

Not gonna tell you.

Nice to tell you.

It's a nice little funny method for us to be reminded these are people who will not reveal themselves to others at first.

Yes.

I'm going to keep as much hidden.

Uncle Jimmy honking, losing his mind.

Honking in the car was a nice touch.

He was a child.

That was really good.

The Joe Perry universe lives on in the Bear with Marcus's roommate wanting to go to Hoots to celebrate.

What's Hoots?

It's Hooters.

It's his favorite restaurant.

There was another one that I thought needed a trim.

I don't know that I. I needed Chester in there to be awkward and weird.

I made me laugh.

Just let me see him.

Since he's the same character that he played in Joe Parrot talks with you.

Yeah.

Basically the same character.

Not to be a little nicer.

Yeah.

Probably not to be cliche or cheesy.

What?

But the bear can also be about.

It wants to be, I think, and kind of succeeds at it.

And about the grand scheme of it all.

It can be about life itself.

And every second is the Super Bowl.

As Richie's staffmate says at the end of the penultimate episode.

Yeah.

If you believe life's important then and you're paying attention to every moment, then, yeah, it's every moment could be the.

The winning one.

Our lives are the sum of what we do with them.

Right.

So you got five moments of greatness and 25 moments of hell.

Well, I bet that'll outweigh.

Yeah.

It didn't come to me as a surprise at the end of nine to find out that Carm had taken his name out of the ownership agreement, the partnership.

As soon as he was wandering around Frank Lloyd Wright's house, I was like, he's out, he's done.

Yeah.

Everyone probably had guessed his changes would be something along the lines of he's not going to be a partner anymore.

I mean, I think that was kind of obvious.

The ending did leave me questioning how it all relates to his telling uncle that he knows how to fix it all.

Yeah, I know how to fix it all, though.

It's okay.

And you think, okay, well, he's probably taking his name out of the agreement, but what does that mean?

So takes us to final episode.

Goodbye, high turmoil.

This one is basically stays in the high in the frequency of high turmoil.

But it's just a four character play.

Yes, I would say it is same yeah, Four characters.

We never see anyone else.

And it stays in the same space for 35 minutes, give or take.

I guess that's kind of a bottle episode.

I mean, a bottle episode is a classic.

We ran out of money right here.

You know, I don't think that's the case here.

I don't know.

I don't think that's the case here either.

They may have used all their money on the soundtrack.

I don't know.

I appreciate it.

I felt like the bear is sometimes.

I've sometimes criticized it for what is probably nice to call quirks.

Right?

Like the rhetorical quirks, the stylistic quirks, the.

You know, we've got our big cast of characters, so I thought it was actually really good and effective to pare it down to Richie, Shug, Carm and Sidney, kind of the four.

The core of.

The core emotional lives of the show, I guess.

Oh, yeah.

And Sugary doesn't even make an appearance to the last five, ten minutes.

Right.

Sydney's dedicated to the restaurant at this point, and there's.

She's kind of in a no way out situation because she has said no to Shapiro.

We see that earlier and we see that in a previous episode.

And then.

So with Carm's removal from the contract, it's so funny for me as a viewer, I'm not the smartest sometimes.

I just assumed that when he removed himself, I thought that was noble.

I thought that was an improvement.

You know, the removal of stress from himself and giving it to Sydney and saying, here, it's yours.

Take it.

Succeed.

You're gonna do great.

But then hearing her reaction and seeing her, I was like, oh, shit.

Yeah, he's.

He's burdening her with debt, isn't he?

Yes.

I think it's both things, right.

Because he, I think, would see it like that.

But Sidney is like, I don't know if this is gonna work without you.

Oh, and my credit's already destroyed and this restaurant is in debt and you just.

You left me holding the bag for your idea.

Yeah.

I don't know that it's ever been more evident that Carm also has an addict's mentality.

It's not as horrible as Mikey's, we hope, but here he's kind of saying, I can't get it together here.

So a change of location is going to fix me.

And that's.

That's addict thinking.

Like, if I can't get it right here, then let me move.

And I will quit drinking.

I will quit online shopping.

I will whatever.

And it's sad.

These are self centered people who are all hurting.

And rather than acknowledging sometimes those that hurt, that pain and that each one of them has a deep and unique pain related to the same thing.

They yell and fight.

You know, audiences can get frustrated with them, I think, because if one side would become vulnerable enough to open up to the other side and that side would listen and relate, a lot of healing could be done.

But this is life, you know, that does not happen.

You know, we do get a little of this when Richie finally says that he thought Carm avoided the funeral due to blaming him.

Richie for Mikey's death.

And turns out Carm was at the funeral.

Just not very long.

Do you get in this one the kind of push through to honesty, especially between Carm and Richie?

Yep.

And I agree with you, Blaine.

It's real life.

Like so many things in our life would be different if we were just vulnerable.

For so many of us, that's worse than the bad situation we're in, you know?

Yeah, it hurts.

Yeah, I can relate.

You know, I mentioned audiences could probably get frustrated with this kind of behavior, but I could also see myself in it where being honest and open feels like the end of the world.

And yeah, that's probably how these characters are supposed to be feeling.

And there's a little.

There's a bit of the death of yourself.

Yep.

When.

When you do that.

Yeah.

Your, your idea of yourself, your ego.

Wants to protect you from that.

Yeah, exactly.

It thinks it is.

And here instead of sharing gum like Carm and his uncle Bob Odenkirk, you know, they had the small connection.

Carmen, Richie, get the real thing.

They share a cigarette and even Sydney gets some of it.

Until Richie says, you're no good at that.

Give me that cigarette.

Which would be me just trying to smoke a cigarette.

It's as if this long conversation demonstrates it might be the final stretch of healing to begin.

This is the.

This is the jumping off of.

I think everybody's going to start healing a little bit.

It's going to be intense.

There's still some pain left over and some deep rooted anger.

Nicholas Qua, if I'm pronouncing his name correctly on Vulture, argued that it would be a fascinating finale.

Oh, it would be fascinating.

It really was.

They chose to end it here.

That would be a bold move.

I think I'd be okay with it.

The clock does hit zero.

Yeah.

I mean, that's some big time ambiguity if they choose that or if they have to.

And I think mainly because of the beef's Plot line still lingering.

Well, they open the two or three or more windows that truly carry the restaurant and, and Rob Reiner's guidance.

Is it, is it helpful?

Is it legitimate?

Is it going to work?

And then, you know, you see him pair up kind of with the computer and you think, these guys are going to be like a super team.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That revelation that Carm went to Mikey's funeral hits.

It's all of them so hard.

And I think it's because they were all thinking, fuck him, he can't even make it to his own brother's funeral.

Or I think Sugar might have.

The thought of this poor kid must be in such pain and emptiness because he can't even make the funeral.

There's these two ways of looking at it and I think a lot of them are you.

You didn't even come to the funeral.

Yeah.

Which we, which we had revealed.

Was it the wedding episode?

Yeah, we.

We found out Carm actually.

Was it.

Yeah.

From Bob Odenkirk.

He says, I saw you at the funeral.

And he does so, so gently.

Yeah.

And which I thought was good setup for this because it's so obvious that Rich resented him for leaving and Carm resented Rich for being the brother to Mikey.

Oh yeah.

And.

And Sugar, obviously, you know, he's her baby brother.

Uh huh.

She sees him.

She has that.

Yeah.

She sees him as pitiful, scared and fragile because she doesn't even question that he's leaving the shift business when he tells.

Yeah.

She's not the one to have a big reaction like Sydney and Richie.

Yeah.

You know, honestly, it could be healthy for, for Carm if he goes.

If he doesn't replace cooking with something unhealthy.

Yeah.

And what do you do with his character?

I guess.

What do you.

Yeah, I guess for the next season he still has to stick around to help them.

He's got, he's got to help the thing, make it.

Much like Lucas there to help to lift it.

Lifted up a lot of stuff.

He helped Tina and Marcus and.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

You know, maybe Carm can be that guy.

Which is what I thought he was trying to do.

I thought he was just going to say, here, it's your restaurant.

I'm just going to work here.

I didn't see him bailing.

There is that conversation Carm has with Shapiro that we never hear.

You know, he gets the phone call from him.

Shapiro may have extended him an invite.

Now that would be far fetched probably, but you know, there are options that Christopher Storr could play with what if Carm went to work for Shapiro?

I don't think that's gonna happen.

But even if the offer's on the table, it could cause your next season's conflict.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think I liked this season of television.

I think that it prolonged a few things.

I'm not so sure that the.

That.

That this season the bear couldn't have gotten everything in eight episodes and felt.

Yeah.

I'm not saying the pacing was off because these.

This is real life.

This.

And real life takes a while.

Did I need to see Tina try to get the pasta under three minutes?

Seven times?

Would five times have worked?

Yeah.

Right.

Did I need Sydney to have a dream sequence where she's under the gun just like Carm was?

I don't think so.

Did I need the Francine plot line to see sugar also needs improving?

I don't think so.

So, Right, so it's not a perfect bit of television, but it was.

It was good, I thought, you know, it was good.

Makes us think things, feel things.

Even if it made me feel things.

You know, if it kind.

I. I do think that there's like.

Even if it's.

You're watching something and you're like, eh.

Like if you got something out of it where it's like, well, I thought a little bit about this.

I felt a little bit more about this.

That's good, right?

That's true.

That's good for you.

And it did that.

So therefore maybe makes my top 10 at the end of the year.

We'll see.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I thought it was pretty good.

Not perfect and lots of quirks that kind of do take away, but overall pretty good.

It would be nice to see Christopher Storr, if he can produce another season, say, you know, what's working, the emotions are what's working and what's not working, and then come up with a season five that might end it all.

We don't know.

Yeah.

All right, well, we've reached the end of our episode.

Speaking of endings, for Adam, who's not here, and for Donovan, who he is, I'm Blaine, and we hope that you don't look back in anger.

Goodbye to everyone.

Talk to you next Tuesday.