Latest news with #ChristopherStorer
The Sun
2 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
British Gas send dead man's family a letter demanding payment of a penny
BRITISH Gas sent a dead man's family a letter demanding payment of a penny. Christopher Storer, 65, was found dead in his one-bed flat in March. 4 4 4 His relatives notified the firm and were assured his account had been closed. His sister Margaret, 63, set up a ' redirect ' on her brother's post and was sent the bill for the final penny. She said: 'I opened the letter and I was absolutely furious. "I was staring at it for 15 minutes. 'I couldn't believe what I was reading. "It made me bloody angry and upset.' Margaret, of Hinckley, Leics, added: 'It's ridiculous. "I feel like I haven't had time to mourn my brother because of having to deal with this. 'They make hundreds of millions in profit. "Where is their compassion in chasing a dead man's family for one more penny? How to cut energy costs and get help with FOUR key household bills "How low can anyone go? They knew he was dead. "It felt like a sick joke at his expense.' Margaret said she had complained and was offered £20 compensation. British Gas was asked to comment. When a customer dies, relatives should notify British Gas so they can be removed from its database. But there have been multiple examples of the company, owned by Centrica, continuing to send bills. 4
Geek Girl Authority
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
On Location: The Original Mr. Beef on FX's THE BEAR
Welcome to On Location, a weekly feature spotlighting landmarks and establishments seen on screen that viewers can visit IRL. Whether you're seeking a fun selfie, breathtaking vistas, or maybe a show-accurate treat, follow along for some bucket list destinations. RELATED: Travel to a galaxy far, far away with our previous On Location article on Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences which appeared on Andor: A Star Wars Story Every second counts on FX's The Bear. But for Christopher Storer, creator, co-showrunner, writer, and director of the hit show, it all began with his frequent visits to the Original Mr. Beef on Orleans sandwich shop. Friends with Chris Zucchero, the son of the original founder, Storer penned and directed the pilot FX ordered in March 2021. And the rest is history, as The Bear's phenomenal success has also translated to huge growth for the Original Mr. Beef on Orleans sales. The Original Mr. Beef on Orleans on FX's The Bear The O.G. Original Mr. Beef started as a beef stand in 1979, established by Joseph Zuccero to serve tasty Italian beef sandwiches to locals and tourists and everyone in between. Today, the sandwich shop still operates at its first location at 666 N. Orleans St. in Chicago. After The Bear premiered, sales for sandwiches went from an average of 250-300 per day to over 800. RELATED: Five Books Fans of The Bear Have To Read Like Mr. Beef on Orleans, The Bear's Original Beef of Chicagoland serves up a traditional Italian beef sandwich, a dish original to Chicago. Simply, it consists of thin slices of roast beef simmered and served with a thin gravy on French bread. Get it 'hot' with spicy giardiniera or 'sweet' with mild bell peppers. Unlike The Original Beef, The Original Mr. Beef on Orleans offers a wider selection of menu items. Besides the signature Italian beef sandwich, there's the Italian sausage sandwich (served dry), a BBQ beef sandwich, and a steak sandwich. More standard fare includes hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and hot dogs (with chili, cheese, or both). They also have four kinds of sub sandwiches. You can also purchase Italian beef with au jus, Italian sausage, and BBQ beef by the pound or their bread by the loaf. Chicago's Restaurant To-Do List After Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) transforms most of The Original Beef space into the high-end The Bear, on-site filming moved to Ever at 1340 W. Fulton St. In a super-meta twist, the fictionalized version of Ever plays a major role in The Bear Season 2 Episode 7, 'Forks,' as well as the Season 3 finale, 'Forever.' It's also the amazing Olivia Colman's entry point in the series as Ever's head chef, Andrea Terry. Unlike its fictionalized counterpart, the real Ever is still going strong. RELATED: Geek Girl Authority Crush of the Week: Sydney Adamu Some other Chicago restaurants that play themselves on The Bear include Alpana, Kasama, and Elske. Any one of them would check off a bucket-list dining experience. It's worth taking a look at some of the comprehensive lists of The Bear's culinary references if you're headed that way anytime soon.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Bear' Season 4 Should've Mixed Up the Menu — What Worked, What Didn't, and What's Next
There is so much to love about FX's 'The Bear.' From its technical precision to its culinary exhibition and intimate, chaotic character work, this vivid kitchen drama had no business being the megahit that it's become. Season 4 is the show's weakest, if only because Christopher Storer and Joanna Calo set such a high bar in previous seasons. IndieWire's spoiler-free review noted a dulled momentum when it came to key plot development and character growth. The mouthwatering food closeups still work wonders (really, all of the closeups — including those which place viewers so close to an actor's face that you can practically read their mind), the dialogue still flies almost faster than Tina's pasta (Liza Colón-Zayas), and there are more Faks than ever (though, unlike Season 3, it doesn't feel like it). More from IndieWire 'The Bear' Renewed for Season 5 at FX Lena Dunham Took an 'Intentional Break' from Public Life Post-'Girls': 'I Felt Confused' After Media Backlash But even after an objectively solid batch of episodes, 'The Bear' feels stuck. It's doing what it does best, but not doing much more — and that may be the problem. Without further ado (the clock is ticking!), IndieWire's Ben Travers and Proma Khosla take a closer look at 'The Bear' Season 4 and how a potential successor can dig the evolving cooking show out of the two-season rut. Proma Khosla: I can't preface this enough with the fact that I do genuinely enjoy 'The Bear.' It's one of those shows that I got into after the rest of the world had been raving about it (including IndieWire dot com), and that can sometimes turn people away from extremely popular shows. I go through some version of it every season as all TV writers steel themselves for The Discourse. (Is it a comedy? Which season is up for Emmys? Does my coworker have screeners and is contractually obligated to lie to me about them?) But then I dive in and I exhale. It's just excellent writing and performance and production, and you love to see that. You also love to see that go further! We hold good shows to high standards that they set for themselves. Season 2 raised the bar for 'The Bear,' and Season 3 felt like I blinked and it was over with no tangible movement. Season 4 felt the same, and I think it's because, as your review noted, we seem to be treading water for 10 episodes while waiting for a character to make one, maybe two key decisions. Ben Travers: Over the weekend, a disheartening paragraph from an interview with Stripe CEO Patrick Collison was making its way around Bluesky. The featured section saw the A.I. enthusiast complaining that watching 'long-form, lots-of-episodes TV is a waste of time,' but there's an easy solution: Just ask your favorite A.I. bot to summarize it for you. That way, you know what happened, and you're spared the inconvenience of feeling anything, forming your own opinions, or connecting with anyone via a medium literally made to bring large swaths of humanity together for a shared collective experience. Now, I don't think 'The Bear' quite qualifies as 'long-form, lots-of-episodes TV' — there's only 40 episodes, and they're mostly less than 40 minutes apiece — but I do think Collison's anti-human perspective illustrates a pervasive issue in entertainment: prioritizing plot over everything else. 'What happens' isn't the basis for great storytelling. It's how it happens, why it happens, and who it's happening to that really matters, that really resonates, that really lends meaning to the headline actions and events. After all, do we love when Kevin Garvey (Justin Theroux) crawls out of the ground in 'International Assassin,' or do we love all the insane little steps it takes for him to get to a point where he can crawl out of the ground? We're living in an age where TV programmers seek out shows the audience only has to half-watch, which tends to negate any potential emotional connection between viewer and story while encouraging an over-dependency on things happening to shock the viewer into paying attention, and 'The Bear' is living in that age, too. All this is by way of explaining I don't take lightly what I'm about to say: 'The Bear' lost the plot. Or, if it didn't quite lose it, it's grown too comfortable living without it. Season 4 is the second-half of a two-season arc, and there's no evidence 'The Bear' needed two seasons to get from Carmy insisting they change the menu every day (non-negotiable No. 4) to Carmy admitting maybe they don't have to do that, actually. But more vexing to me than the prolonged character arcs — these are good characters, portrayed through great performances, so they can carry a little extra water — is the show's growing comfort with denying closure. Leaving so much up in the air at the end of Season 3 was annoying and illustrated how little 'The Bear' cooked up in those 10 episodes, but at least it had the excuse of 'to be continued'; Storer and Calo knew it was a half-season, and admitting as much bought them time to wrap things up in Season 4. Then… they didn't. Season 4 starts with, as you alluded to, a literal ticking clock. When Computer's digital timer goes off, the restaurant is screwed. That's it. That's the ballgame. The stakes are clear, and the endpoint is even clearer. So why, oh why, does the season end with the timer going off and no actual answer to whether or not Syd (Ayo Edebiri), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and Natalie (Abby Elliott) have a restaurant to co-own or not? The ending we'll get to a little later, but it's just one example of Season 4's incomplete courses and sweet (maybe saccharine?) vibe shift, so please, Proma, take the mic: What else frustrated you about the latest edition of a show we both very much enjoy? Proma: To your point about the characters: I love them and I love spending time with them. I would also love to see them perhaps do something, apart from yelling at each other in various locations and the bare minimum of self-reflection. We both agree that 'Worms' was a missed opportunity to let Edebiri really soar (and Danielle Deadwyler — if you have her, you use her!); while she's still delivering a great performance, I just wish it wasn't the fifth time she had to portray Sydney dithering over a big decision that we could all predict from a mile away. Conversely, I was electrified the one scene she shared with Will Poulter as Luca, rekindling a chemistry we saw at the end of Season 3 and which is begging to be explored — but it was once again limited to that single scene. The same goes for sparks between Richie and Jessica (Sarah Ramos), who deserve for their sexually-charged tie-adjusting to lead to something more. Why was Ted (Ricky Staffieri) the romantic hero of the season? I'm happy for him, but even that arc took place entirely off-camera and left the audience with no choice but to just get on board. This specific qualm I think stems from the larger issue here that was not an issue at first: 'The Bear' is not like other shows, certainly not other half-hour shows (comedies). Over the course of four seasons, Calo and Storer have leaned into what their show does best, but it's starting to feel like active rejection of other storytelling techniques that wouldn't necessarily hurt the quality. Allow yourselves a little workplace romance, as a treat! Give us more of the characters' inner lives like with 'Napkins,' and use the guest stars to build out more than just the Berzatto-Fak extended universe. Ben: After spending five minutes piecing together who 'Ted' is based on context clues and a quick Wiki search, I can now wholeheartedly agree with your points before proffering another: The monologuing has to stop. By that, I don't mean 'The Bear' has to jettison every lengthy speech or chat the writers pen for their talented cast. I just mean the episodes don't have to wildly vacillate between moody, music-driven montages and concentrated, one-sided conversations. Season 4 has Syd's strained 'sleepover' debate with herself in Episode 4; Kate Berlant's opening Al-Anon monologue that builds to a joke you could see coming from the start; Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis) laying it all out there while making amends to her son; Syd's hospital confessional to Claire (Molly Gordon), and Carmy and Claire's confrontation on the stoop — which is technically a hefty piece of dialogue, but when your dialogue sounds like a monologue, that's probably the first sign it needs a good edit. Whether there was more monologuing this season than in the past is a question for someone with a better memory than myself, but even if the total was similar, the tone was too lopsided. Nearly all the aforementioned dense talks were delivered with unchecked sincerity, and while Season 4's shift into heartfelt-mode largely worked to its advantage — I love the wedding episode, 'Bears,' in part because it's the unabashed bizarro version of 'Fishes,' which it invokes at the start before veering in the opposite direction — vulnerability goes a long way in small doses, and 'The Bear' gave us heaping spoonful after heaping spoonful. With that, Proma, I have to ask about the ending: After the mixed response to the last two seasons, as well as Carmy's so-called 'retirement' in Episode 10, 'Goodbye,' there have been plenty of people arguing it's time for 'The Bear' to close up shop. Personally, I couldn't disagree more. Too much is left unfinished, and too much is left unresolved. ''Unfinished' goes back to the relationships that have or haven't come to fruition and the fate of the restaurant itself — plot details, if you will — but 'unresolved' applies to how much Carmy & Co. have grown, changed, and done right for themselves. Richie mocking Carmy for using the phrase 'retired' might be the most I've laughed all season, in part because 'Good luck, Admiral. We'll send you your watch' is a great quip, but also because I kinda believe him? Carmy may have to leave the restaurant for a while in order to gain perspective, find peace, and move closer to the unattainable goal of a work/life balance, but there's no way one of the top chefs in the world with a deeply personal connection to food is going to simply stop cooking. Nor do I think abandoning his family to start over with Claire (as Carmy obviously intends) is the right thing for a guy who, as Richie says, is constantly running away. Technically, the finale addresses these complaints, so maybe I just need to shut up and respect people's choices. But we literally don't know whether Richie, Syd, and Natalie have jobs, nor do we know if they'll be happy in their new intended positions at The Bear. Those aren't intentional stopping points. This isn't a series meant to end with that level of ambiguity, and it's also not a series that has to punt on a legitimate series finale just because it delivered another dissatisfying season finale. 'The Bear' may be headed toward an ending, but it's not there yet. Tell me I'm wrong? Proma: Listen when you're right, you're right — and I'm not just saying that so that Luca and Sydney can kiss (not entirely). When pitching a series, creators are asked about the overall arc of the story and what future seasons might look like. I can't imagine these very talented writers went into those meetings waxing about ownership agreements and giant clocks. There had to be a vision — if not a map — for where Carmy, Richie, Sydney, and the rest were going, and my hope is that this protracted season is in service of that vision. Carmy's incremental growth is triumphant even as he inches along, and a highlight of Season 4 was seeing just how far Syd and Richie have come since being party to a workplace stabbing in Season 1. So let's not stop there! This is a massive ensemble and while I don't expect everyone to have their story tied up with a bow — excuse me, garnished with an edible flower — nearly everything ended in a place that left us wanting more. Yes, Richie and Carm finally talked about their tension and Mikey's funeral, but can't we see how their dynamic shifts? Marcus texted his father and got a 'Food & Wine' shoutout, but what does that mean for their relationship, and his place at The Bear moving forward? Is the Michelin star really in the bag, as Episode 3's snowy climax would suggest? Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) is going to franchise the Beef window, but can't we see how it does? And is Tina going to get a medal for winning the pasta Olympics? Voracious viewers need to know! There's a difference between leaving something open-ended and ostensibly giving up on resolution, and Season 4's individual endings fall scattered across this spectrum. So despite having too much of 'The Bear,' I hope we get more of 'The Bear.' Maybe I'm just not ready to say goodbye, and if I've learned anything from this show it's that you often don't get to — not on your own terms and not neatly. But TV creates chances we don't get in life, and these characters deserve a final course for the ages. And also Luca and Sydney should kiss. 'The Bear' is now streaming on Hulu. 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Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Bear' Review: Season 4 Is Another Sweet, Stirring, and Inconsistent Dish
'Here's one way to look at it: It's really fun.' So says a best-left-unnamed guest star in a best-left-unidentified episode of 'The Bear' Season 4, by way of describing time spent with the Berzatto family. And really, our mystery speaker is right. For all the grief given to Christopher Storer and Joanna Calo's FX restaurant drama after its down year — a succinct and undeniable description that would still spark at least two separate social media feuds (one for calling it a 'drama,' of course, and the other for saying it's an FX series even though it's only available on Hulu — have fun hashing that out, TV nerds) — the third season was still just a bit disappointing, not an outright disaster. The second season remains a triumph, and the first season, well, without it, we wouldn't be here, now would we? More from IndieWire Unpacking That Bleak and Blistering 'Squid Game' Ending 'Smoke' Review: Taron Egerton's Apple Series Is a Sicko Pulp Thriller Driven by Dark Truths To some sickos out there — the quoted speaker very much included — all of this, everything from fighting over how many awards 'The Bear' should win to celebrating the highs and lows of each season, could be looked at as 'fun.' The show itself, while not firstly 'funny,' is also often fun. At its core, 'The Bear' is an underdog story about a ragtag group of restaurant workers who all want to be better at their jobs so they can also be better at their lives. They follow their passions. They level up slowly but deliberately. They share in their victories and their defeats. They're a team, or a family, that's easy to root for. And they're also, quite often, a very loud mess. The unspoken implication of our unnamed character above — OK, enough is enough: It's Stevie, aka John Mulaney — is that while hanging out with the Berzattos can be fun, it can also be intense and upsetting. As evidenced by the panicked, frenzied, lighting-your-clothes-on-fire nature of Season 1, Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and his family have a lot of issues to work out, some of which are rooted in personal loss and mental illness, some of which are rooted in cooking culture and capitalism, and some of which spring forth from the potent combination of all the above. Looking back, Season 2 may have been the series' high point in part because it marked the exact juncture in the narrative when The Beef became The Bear; when the Berzattos (et al.) tore down their damaged past to try to build something new and pristine; when their established brand of chaos first had to be reined in, not only for their own individual sanity but for the betterment of their collaborative creation. The clash between old and new, between their inherited insanity and their push for newfound serenity, stirred up strong drama, balancing a dark-and-stormy kitchen with bursts of blessed light. Now, entering the back half of a 20-episode arc split into two seasons (😬), 'The Bear' isn't as severe as it used to be, but it isn't as propulsive either. Season 4 too often embodies its lead character in that it doesn't know what to do when it's not enmeshed in mayhem. By now, Carmy can recognize the chaos in his kitchen is bad — a symptom of obsessive, oppressive head chefs (and his own explosive family life) that he now can't help but inflict on his team — but chaos is also a requisite when running a restaurant. Thus, our lonely boy chef is left in limbo: With a lot of help from Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), he might be able to find harmony in the kitchen, but can he ever find it at The Bear? Or any kitchen? It's a fair question, but one the series only approaches in fits and starts. Season 4 thrives in almost all the expected places: The cast remains exceptional, with showcase scenes for Edebiri, Jamie Lee Curtis (as Carmy's volatile mom, Donna), and Molly Gordon (playing Carmy's dream girl, Claire). Oliver Platt and Bob Odenkirk are quietly triumphant, lending gravitas to sneaky-serious conversations that feel all the more potent for being treated like a common occurrence, and the surprise A-list guests are wisely limited to a few (gratifying) new stars. (The Faks also see their presence curtailed, after going a bit overboard with Season 3's comic relief, while Edwin Lee Gibson's Ebraheim gets his richest material to date — and makes the most of it.) A few smart decisions pay off without reaching their full potential. Exciting additions in the premiere go underdeveloped. Returning favorites bring sudden sparks without standing to reason. A few weepy monologues tie up loose ends, even if they're a little too loose with their language to hit as hard as they should. As often happens with someone, supporting characters aren't given enough to do, and this year Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) gets a particularly stilted arc, while Marcus' clear progression is mired by a bland build-up. Still, these are forgivable flaws when surrounded by so much that's easy to enjoy, and 'The Bear' is often easy to enjoy. (Lest we forget, it's the rare half-hour drama, even if episodes do regularly run five minutes long.) Where Season 4 noticeably falters is, oddly enough, where past seasons thrive. Later in the season, there's an inverse vision of the acclaimed, all-hands episode 'Fishes,' which is lovely, but the other attempt at a departure episode falls uncharacteristically flat. 'Sydney's day off' sounds like an appealing enough premise (and leaving her to explore Chicago in 'Sundae' worked out great), but Season 4's version spends far too long on a single choice — the same choice Sydney struggles with for most of the season, and a choice with an answer that's all too obvious for quite some time. Carmy, once again, suffers a similar fate. While Season 1 asked whether he could keep his late brother's greasy spoon afloat and Season 2 questioned whether he could turn it into a fine-dining destination, Seasons 3 and 4 are built around whether The Bear is actually a sustainable business and lifestyle. The latter weighs more heavily on Carmy, given his recent tantalizing experiments in joyful wandering (mainly with Claire, mainly by not working), and Season 4 sees him creep toward a foreseeable decision that's nevertheless saved for the finale (and treated like a twist). His intermittent dilly-dallying doesn't always feel egregious. There are big emotional talks that need to be had, and there's a literal ticking clock on his restaurant's solvency, which add dramatic heft and a dash of that old urgency, respectively, to Carmy's 10-episode deliberation. But despite making a definitive choice, Season 4's ending still feels like kicking the can down the road. There's no 'to be continued' after Episode 10, like there was last season, but too many storylines meant to be resolved are left dangling, and the finale itself is too constricted by its design to convey what little closure it does offer. The ending saps so much momentum, it makes you wonder if this was once meant to be the series finale, despite the lingering prevalence of those unanswered questions. Seen one way, 'The Bear' Season 4 is still pretty fun; an emotionally rich restaurant drama with great food, a few laughs, and lots of heart. Seen another way, though, and it's our second straight disappointment; a prolonged story propped up by its talented cast and dragged out for reasons that remain unclear. Revisiting 'The Bear' will likely always leave you nourished. But it's drifting further away from a Michelin-level hang. 'The Bear' Season 4 premieres Thursday, June 26 on Hulu. All 10 episodes will be released at once. Best of IndieWire The 25 Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies, Ranked Every IndieWire TV Review from 2020, Ranked by Grade from Best to Worst
India Today
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
The Bear gets renewed for Season 5 by FX, fans react
FX has officially renewed its critically acclaimed series 'The Bear' for a fifth season, reaffirming the show's status as one of television's most beloved dramas. The announcement comes as Season 4, streaming on Hulu since June 25, continues to garner praise from fans and critics announcement was made by its creator Christopher Storer during a press meet on Tuesday. Excited fans reacted to the news and shared their reactions on social media. "This is great news. Absolutely loved Season 4. Jamie Lee Curtis is an Emmy lock for episode 9 (sic)," wrote an X a few reactions here: The latest season follows the intense journey of Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as they navigate the high-stakes world of fine dining. Known for its sharp storytelling and emotionally grounded characters, 'The Bear' has resonated deeply with viewers, becoming a cultural against a backdrop of widespread acclaim, the show has built a loyal global audience thanks to its gripping narrative and powerhouse performances. FX Chairman John Landgraf remarked, "The Bear continues to be a fan favourite worldwide, and the response to this season - in terms of viewership and impact - has been as spectacular as ever."Created by Christopher Storer, 'The Bear' is produced by FX Productions, with Storer serving as executive producer alongside Josh Senior, Joanna Calo, and Hiro Murai. The team's commitment to storytelling excellence and character-driven drama has been central to the show's series made history with Season 3, earning a record-breaking 23 Emmy nominations and winning 11 - making it the most-awarded comedy in a single year.- EndsMust Watch
