| Everything we can't stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
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Everything we can't stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
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- Trying to understand the backlash to The Bear.
- The one show you should binge over the holiday weekend.
- The viral celebrity poop story everyone's talking about.
- Happy birthday to the Greatest of All Time.
- An interesting move from Justin Timberlake.
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Why Do People Suddenly Hate The Bear? |
If there's one thing pop culture fans relish more than the return of a beloved, favorite TV series, it's the accompanying opportunity to bitch and moan about the show once it's back. It's a familiar path, one so well-traveled by some of the most popular recent television series that, by this point, the phenomenon could be considered a badge of honor: a show that becomes so successful, it falls prey to predictable backlash. Early seasons are so heralded and expectations for new episodes are so high that they become subject to a scrutiny that's impossible to weather. |
That seems to be the case with Season 3 of The Bear, a show that won just about every television award that exists for its first two seasons and, perhaps more impressive and indicative of its universal appeal, was the fact that just about every person I know has, at some point in the last years, stared me in the eyes, almost crazed with adoration, and fawned, "Have you seen The Bear? It's so good!" And, as is the pattern in cases like this, it appears that the tide is turning against the show. Reviews have been more mixed for Season 3 than the previous two outings. On social media, there are viewers posting their not-so-stellar reactions to the new episodes. At the very least, people are feeling emboldened to articulate that, apparently, they never really liked the show in the first place. Maybe because there seems to be a bubbling distaste for the series, they feel like they can finally admit their negative thoughts without being blasted by the show's passionate fanbase. Vanity Fair's review of the series said that, "In all its shifts in style and focus, the Emmy-winning juggernaut doesn't seem to be building to much of anything." Variety's review called the series "aimless," arguing that the narrative is "bogged down with repetition and stunt casting before the season ends with most storylines unresolved." New York ruled that the show is "trapped by its own success," writing, "instead of looking forward, The Bear spends a lot of time staring backward and sideways." Of course, this is a top-tier series with an ace writing staff, an audacious sense of storytelling, and actors delivering riveting—if stress-inducing—lived-in performances. Even when its flaws are more exposed amidst its wild success, The Bear is still capable of excellence. In his review, my colleague Nick Schager wrote, "In case anyone doubted that The Bear was TV's most artistically daring and electric series, the third season of Chris Storer's acclaimed FX on Hulu hit, premiering June 26, comes out of the gate with an absolute knockout." After finishing Season 3's 10 episodes, I see both sides. This is a season that served more iterations of its most celebrated delicacies: some episodes that were tornadoes of chaos and stress, some that contrasted the pandemonium with a quiet and tender poignance, and others that un-self-consciously stopped the action completely to focus on the inner lives of supporting characters. When you're being presented with familiar dishes, now for a third time, it's a natural reaction to sigh: "This again?" The constant screaming in the kitchen can get exhausting. The sojourns into standalone episodes can be predictable. The sheer volume of montages veer into overkill. (Truly, enough with the montages!) But the brilliance is undeniable. The episode where Abby Elliott and Jamie Lee Curtis' characters repair their complicated relationship while Elliott's Sugar gives birth to her first child is 0ne of the best TV outings of the year so far; because I couldn't look away from the screen, I didn't realize that there were tears streaming down my cheeks until the episode ended and I could finally breathe.
I guess the main takeaway I have is to take the rise in so-called "hate" for The Bear with a grain of salt. (Cooking reference not intentional.) Do the detractors have a point? Here's a sampling of the anti-Bear reactions:
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What to Watch Over the Holiday Weekend |
It amuses me when people ask what my July 4 holiday weekend plans are. With temperatures on the east coast surging past 90 degrees—and a humidity point scientifically termed "Kevin's body transforms into a geyser of sweat by just being outside"—I have no desire to do anything besides lay in front of an air conditioner and catch up on shows. (After all, few things are more American than lounging sedentary on a couch.) If you share my patriotic spirit for doing absolutely nothing besides binge television episodes, then allow me to give you my recommendation: Everyone should be watching AMC and AMC+'s Interview With the Vampire, which just wrapped its stellar second season. I can't sing this show's praises enough. A new adaptation of Anne Rice's iconic novel, it is pulpy, eerie, twisty, violent, smart, and oh-so sexy. The psychological warfare happening in scenes featuring the titular interview are as unsettling and riveting as the gory—thrillingly so—vampire hunts and kills. Season 2 features one of the most emotional, and, it bears repeating, sexiest love triangles on TV since, fittingly, HBO's vampire fantasia, True Blood. |
In what should be music to the ears of viewers annoyed that other current shows, like The Bear, drag audiences along for an entire season without any gratifying narrative payoff, Interview With the Vampire delivers. Answers you crave are given, and are shocking. The Season 2 finale, in particular, is a wild ride in that regard. If you're familiar with Rice's novel and the 1994 movie with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, then the starkest difference you'd notice in this series is that the romance between vampires Lestat and Louis is explicit—not just implied. (As in, they fuck. A lot.) Ahead of Season 2, I had the chance to meet and talk with Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid, who play Louis and Lestat, about what that carnal attraction adds to the series. "They have a soul- and fire-burning love story," Reid said. "So you need to believe that when they're in the same room as each other, it is fireworks, chaos, and trauma, like house-burning-down and building it back up again." Vampires "represent sexual desire," Anderson said. The pair are the quintessential embodiment of that, finally depicted through a modern, uninhibited lens.
"One of their main powers is seduction," Reid said. "They hypnotize you, and then they go in for their meal. That's kind of appealing to think about. You're like, 'Whoa, I could be killed, but it could also be kind of raunchy?" The interplay between violence and sexual pleasure is titillating. Watch Interview With the Vampire, and you'll understand completely what he's saying.
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There's a tabloid news story that's gone viral over the holiday that I can't stop thinking about, mostly because of the second-hand trauma I feel for the scandal's subject. The Daily Mail reported on gossip that had been going around the Hamptons hoity-toity glitterati: Someone had stayed as a guest in Gwyneth Paltrow's Hamptons house and allegedly had such a bad case of diarrhea that they shit the bed (literally) in her guest room. They apparently then fled the scene before having to fess up to their humiliating actions.
The even more mortifying evolution of the story is that the Mail then ran a story naming the culprit. I have no interest in amplifying this person's embarrassment by reprinting his name here. Let's just say that if I was publicly outed as the person who pooped the bed in Gwyneth Paltrow's house, my will to live would cease entirely. "Gwyneth told Oprah," the Mail reported—a phrase that would then also be the epitaph on my tombstone.
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This story was everywhere on my social media the past few days—just like, apparently, feces were on Paltrow's guest mattress. |
Happy Birthday to The GOAT |
Anyone who, given the state of things in our country right now, had misgivings about celebrating on July 4 needn't feel guilty. All frivolity and jubilation was earned, because July 4 wasn't just American Independence Day. It was the 100th anniversary of the invention of the Caesar salad. |
I don't know what my life would be like without my beloved Caesar in it. It certainly would be starved of joy and satisfaction. Happy centennial to an icon. A trailblazer. A hero. Thank you for your service. |
Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods are apparently opening a bar in Scotland, which is certainly a choice to make given their respective histories. I guess we could all learn something from them: Don't let anything stop you from following your passion. |
More From The Daily Beast's Obsessed |
- The breakout star of A Quiet Place: Day One is…a cat. (Read more)
- Meet June Squibb, who, at age 94, is Hollywood's greatest new action hero. (Read more)
- The legacy of Eddie Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop is more complicated than you remember. (Read more)
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