At some point during its 2018-2023 run, “Succession” became recognized as the best ongoing prestige TV show, elevating itself into the pantheon of “best ever” shows with a terrific final season and universally-satisfying final episode. Since “Succession” retired last May, what show has claimed the championship belt?
Might it be “The Bear”?
Season One was raw, messy, fast, exploding with style. The visual feast of Season Two took everything great about Season One and made it better—with innovative editing, a killer soundtrack, and one of the greatest hours of TV (episode six, “Fishes”).
Season Three (which I just finished last night) has been called an “overstuffed and undercooked” disappointment. I think that criticism is fair. I started glancing at my watch while characters endlessly and loudly yelled “No, fuck you!” in a noisy kitchen. The improvised humor (the Fak brothers’ banter) was cringy and unfunny. And some of the huggy “I love you” moments (Episode 8, “Ice Chips”) felt unbearably schmaltzy. Plus, the show’s best character — Ritchie, played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach — went from being our lovable, underdog blue-collar fuck-up to a Master’s-level psychoanalyst in his verbal spats with Carmy.
So, yes, Season 3 was a disappointment, but I’m not as harsh as others. I thought Tina’s episode, “Napkins,” was wonderful, fully capturing the horrors of mid-life career reinvention. And I think the show’s editing team — notably with their many rapid-fire flashbacks — are taking some big and admirable risks that mostly work. The show takes aesthetic chances and has guts, and that’s why I respect it despite its missteps.
Is “The Bear” the best ongoing prestige show on TV? This season was a B- rather than the A- standard it set for itself, so, while it doesn’t get to claim the belt this year, there is enough momentum and interesting storylines for the show to clamp it around its waist next year.
While we’re on the topic of food….
My Mount Rushmore of Food Movies
1. Big Night (1996) Big Night may have established the recipe for the food movie plot—in which chefs must prepare a climatic “do or die” meal, usually for a food critic, that will determine whether the restaurant is allowed to stay open. Such a formula gives a cooking movie a suspenseful edge, but Big Night mostly works for the rich themes in the background—the conflict between artistic purity vs. commercial viability, as well as commitment. The two male leads live in a state of limbo as they wait to see if their romances, their restaurant, and their new country pans out. Observe how each character keeps one foot “out the door” in one realm of his life and has the other foot set firmly “inside the door” in another. It’s very clever.
2. The Taste of Things (France, 2023) An atmospheric movie about how food can be used as an expression and conduit of love. This movie gets you to think that this will be about one of those climactic meals, but then it winks at you and says, “Got you; this is about something else.”
3. The Cakemaker (Germany & Israel, 2017) This is an almost flawless movie (save for one mistake toward the end) about baking, immigration, forgiveness, and love. It's unbelievable to me that the actor in the lead, Tim Kalkhof, won no awards for his beautifully understated performance.
4. Babette’s Feast (Denmark, 1987) A French woman takes refuge as a servant in a Danish Puritan village. It’s a strange movie that unexpectedly respects the austere, Puritan culture it depicts. Babette makes a French feast for her Danish townspeople for reasons unclear—is it a big “thank you” or a ceremonial goodbye to her life of sensuality? The movie can feel slow and it shows its age. But it’s also a fascinating relic worthy of examination.
Honorable Mentions: Ratatouille (USA, 2007); The Trip (UK, 2010).
Some political thoughts for the 2024 U.S. election season
Like most progressives/liberals/Democrats/not-utterly-deluded voters out there, I am quietly watching American political developments in a state of horror.
I usually withhold political commentary from these pages for mundane reasons: 1) None of what I have to say is all that original. 2) The political scene seems to change by the day, so whatever thoughts I have on Monday may be obsolete by Tuesday. 3) My thoughts have zero impact, so why bother possibly alienating what rightwing readers I have?
But I’m compelled to share the following if just because I’ve tried to make these thoughts more “high-altitude” than the standard fare, and because I don’t want to go this whole campaign season without publicly registering my wholesale opposition to Trump.
Let us not forget that the most bizarre thing about this election is not Biden’s age or Harris’s suitability; it’s that an incompetent, nonsensically rambling, criminally-minded charlatan, who couldn’t care less about the voters he purports to champion, and who goaded on an insurrection — that very well could have resulted in political decapitations and impaled heads — has been chosen as a nominee. This fact speaks, most of all, to many Americans’ moral vacuousness, their bewildering inability to appraise character, and a pathetic self-sabotaging streak. This fact should be prefaced before any airing of concern about Biden/Harris.
All questions about Biden’s cognitive aptitude are reasonable and necessary, but so many left-of-center people seem to be forgetting that the Biden administration was fine! Why are so few people saying this? His administration helped pass some inspiring legislation, held steady in its support for Ukraine, and brought an air of boring technocratic normalcy to a country that, I thought, needed it. Of course the administration could be criticized for x, y, and z, but why does it seem we’ve become blind to the last four years of general competency and incremental progress? Does Biden’s mostly boring tenure really deserve the extreme reaction of Trumpism?
The last thing I want is Trump as president, but, taking the 100-year view of America, cynics, pessimists, and doomers should take comfort in the probability that “in the long run, America will be fine.” Consider the hypothetical scenario of a genocidal genius and a murderous political party taking dictatorial power for ten years, killing 17 million people in concentration camps, and subjecting the world to years of brutal warfare. This country would be eternally fucked, right? Of course I’m talking about Germany, whose chapter of regrettable history is well told in the recent Netflix miniseries, “Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial.” A country could have no worse of a chapter, yet Germany, today, is, one might claim, the greatest country in the world with its progressive values, strong economy, draft-proof windows, and beautiful people (I’m married to one). A Trump/Vance chapter will not be so bad (enough about the nuclear buttons). It’ll suffer from stiff resistance, and it will probably be ineffectual in its aims and short lived in its tenure.
Other things I’m consuming
Radio
The Howard Stern Show’s 9-hour saga about Gary Dell’Abate’s hilariously botched 2009 “first pitch” at a New York Mets game. Listening to someone have their masculinity continually stomped on is a sick and utter joy. I hesitate to share something with so much homophobic language, but I feel okay doing so if just because, halfway through, Artie gets called out for his use of the “f” word, making homophobia an interesting and unexpected subplot with something of a “come to Jesus” moment. This banter all feels very “2009” with its filthy pre-cancel culture language. Apart from lots of baseball-related laughter, the saga generated a few stray thoughts:
A) The conversational style (put-downs, insults) and language used on the Stern show is a reminder of how many people think and talk, and why they’re drawn to the voice of a Trump vs. a Hilary Clinton, regardless of political values. I think it’s important that Democratic leaders always keep this in mind: Don’t be too sanctimonious in the language wars.
B) Two things can be true at once. 1) It is obviously a good thing that homophobic epithets (and their racist and sexist cousins) are in the process of being retired. 2) It is also probably psychologically healthy to be able to let your Id out of the house and let him speak in a careless and uncensored way. The walking-on-eggshell dances we must all perform in polite society can be exhausting and they probably have negative political consequences for progressives.
Movies
Breaking Away (USA, 1979) This is a delightful cycling movie with terrific cinematography, lovable characters, and a socio-economic class theme that is executed to perfection, as it is in its football iteration, Rudy.
Podcast
The Rewatchables — The guys do my 11-year-old self’s favorite movie, True Lies.
Always enjoy your posts. Two people I read every word posted - you and David Dalton. Both of you have a great command of language.