Latest news with #Dickensian
Graziadaily
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Graziadaily
I Watched The Bear S4 To See How Many Times I Laughed - The Answer Will Surprise You
Last year, I made the mistake of starting season three of The Bear after returning home from Glastonbury. Why I felt compelled to do such a thing I can't be sure, but it quickly sent me into a state of discombobulation, which wasn't helped by the fact the first episode played as a long, sad, panic-ridden music video. The Bear is the type of TV show that makes you want to press pause and willingly unload the dishwasher. Watching it feels like the sky has never been blue. I'd go as far as to ascribe it an almost Dickensian quality of bleakness. Yet, in 2023, it picked up six Emmys in the comedy category, including best comedy series and outstanding writing for a comedy series. It beat Ted Lasso , The Marvelous Mrs Maisel , Jury Duty and Abbott Elementary amongst other shows. The FX series has won 21 Emmys and five Golden Globes as a comedy in total. Naturally, given the reasons just laid out, this is perplexing to a lot of people – including fans of the show. The Bear is an undeniably engaging drama, even if the dishwasher still beckons at certain points, but a comedy it is not. In fact, I'd argue it's become less and less funny as the seasons have gone on. To prove my point, I conducted a laugh count experiment while watching season four of The Bear , and the results may or may not shock you. What they won't do, regrettably, is make you laugh. Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Ayo Edebiri at the premiere of season 3 of FX's The Bear. (Photo: Getty) Episode one: Groundhogs Laugh count: 0 The title of this episode neatly sets up the narrative for the rest of the season – a rinse and repeat of season three storylines that will leave you with a heavy feeling in your chest. Despite successfully reopening as a fine dining restaurant, The Bear (the restaurant) received criticism for its inconsistent menu and chaotic atmosphere in a Chicago Tribute review and the team has two months to turn things around to make the business viable. There is a character called Uncle Computer, but that's about as close as we got to a crack of a smile. Episode two: Soubise Laugh count: 0 The sterile kitchen lights are on, but comedy isn't home. The second episode sees Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) begin to simplify the menu as she grapples with another job offer. All staff remain miserable and stressed. There is little relief except for Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) who quotes Polish mathematician Jacob Bronowski in his pep talk to the chefs: 'The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.' At the end of the episode, Carmy is on the phone to his sister Natalie, who has recently given birth, and she pleads with him to come and meet the baby. It doesn't take long before it's post-partum Natalie consoling Carmie because, after subjecting his family to years of stress and chaos to turn their sandwich shop into a Michelin-chasing restaurant, he's realising he's falling out of love with cooking. Episode three: Scallop Laugh count: 0 Each character's inner turmoil continues, albeit slowly, to thud along in the third episode. Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) discusses how to franchise The Bear's sandwich window, the only profitable part of the business, while Marcus (Lionel Boyce) asks Carmy for more help on the dessert station despite the no-hire policy. It climaxes with Carmy running to the house of his ex-girlfriend Claire (Molly Gordon) – who broke up with him after overhearing him call their relationship a 'waste of time' during the soft launch of his restaurant – to confront his past. They both cry on the doorstep outside her house on a dark, rainy Chicago evening. Pathetic fallacy. Episode four: Worms Laugh count: 0.5 (a titter) Unsurprisingly, given that it centres Sydney, episode four brings some much-need light to the series. The chef visits her cousin Chantel to get her hair done and is left along with her daughter TJ while Chantel runs errands. It's an endearing, smile-worthy interaction as Sydney slowly disarms TJ, cooks her the best pasta dish of her life and encourages her to attend a sleepover with her friends from her old school. Sydney also uses an extended sleepover metaphor to ask TJ whether she should stay put at The Bear or accept the other job offer. TJ says the house she's in now sounds 'stinky' and Sydney says, 'I'd say it's energetically musty'. This earned one titter. Episode five: Replicants Laugh count: 0 Episode five seens the return of Luca (Will Poulter) to assist Marcus on desserts, which brings a bit of excitement to the kitchen, including some flirting from Sydney and a few playful attempts at his English accent. Still no actual laughs though. If things weren't hellish enough at work with smaller budgets, fewer ingredients and an erratic, depressive boss, Sydney receives a call just before service to say her dad had a heart attack. That's The Bear for you. Episode six: Sophie Laugh count: 0 In this episode, Edebiri delivers a heartbreaking performance in the hospital waiting room as she confides in Claire, who helped her father recover, about the guilt she feels for making him worry about her. It's an agonising, relatable and a stark reminder of how fragile life can be and how we could all do more to appreciate our parents. Not exactly full of gags. Elsewhere in the episode, the staff debate whether to go to Richie's ex-wife Tiff's wedding. Episode seven: Bears Laugh count: 0 In between heavy conversations, emotional heart to hearts and explosive arguments, there is a cute moment when everyone gets under a table to convince Tiff and Richie's daughter to stop hiding. That's all there is to say on the comedy front. Episode eight: Green Laugh count: 0 Sydney decides to call Shapiro and reject the superior job offer and he tells her she's making the biggest mistake of her life. Otherwise it's more of the same, in other words, not particularly ha-ha. Episode nine: Tonnato Laugh count: 0 In the penultimate episode of the season, Carmy pays his estranged mother Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis) a visit to drop off a photo album and, one year sober, she breaks down in tears to say she feels responsible for her other son Mikey's suicide and that she's sorry for everything she's done. It's about as funny as you'd imagine, but both performances from Curtis and Allen White are gut wrenchingly good. Doughnut pioneer Marcus receives the news that he's been added to the class of Best New Chefs by Food & Wine . Validation at last. Episode ten: Goodbye Laugh count: 0 A slow, brutal finale that moves the story along for the first time in ten episodes. Sydney finds out Carmy changed the partnership agreement to remove his name, revealing his plans to leave the restaurant and, he claims, stop cooking altogether. In a post-shift argument out the back door of the restaurant, Sydney confronts him and they have an emotional, overdue conversation about their future, resulting in Sydney accepting that the kitchen will soon be hers to run alone. Richie then joins them and he and Carmy address the tension that's been bubbling between them since Mikey's death. Sydney asks for Richie to be made a partner and Carmy and Natalie accept. It becomes clear that season five will be preoccupied with Carmy's decision to leave the profession, but the fate of The Bear is still unclear. What is clear is that there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Total laughs throughout entire season: 0.5 Is The Bear billed as a comedy because it's scared of the competition in the drama category? Who knows. But awards shows as well as their boards and voting members have a lot to answer for. If one titter in ten episodes is a comedy, then I'm the Queen of Sheba. Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across entertainment, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things pop culture for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow with equal respect).
Malaysiakini
21-07-2025
- General
- Malaysiakini
A soldier's harrowing memoir of service to country
My platoon commander said, 'Sir, the operations officer told me not to follow your orders and not to return fire if fired upon the patrol, that they are all our saudara (relations by virtue of them being Muslims).' - Somalia (Chapter 56 - World food programme) COMMENT | The quote that opens this review happens towards the end of Major D Swami Gwekanandam's (henceforth the major) career in the crucible, which was Somalia. The quote exemplifies 'the orang kita' mentality, which crept into the armed services and demonstrates how destructive this agenda is to the Malaysian security forces. The fact that it came from a convert is even more depressing. Readers will discover this and much more in a memoir which can only be described as Dickensian in its portrayal of social order and Kubrickian in its depiction of warfare and military dysfunction. This is a politically incorrect memoir. The major not only highlights the systemic racial dysfunction in the army but also does not spare himself from scrutiny. Being a good officer does not mean you are a civilised man.
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Constituents critical of York MP's suspension
On Wednesday, York Central MP Rachael Maskell was suspended from Labour, along with three other MPs, for repeated breaches of party discipline. It came after she was a key figure in organising a rebellion against her party's welfare reform bill, which she said would introduce "Dickensian cuts belonging to a different era and a different party". Maskell defended her decision as standing up for disabled people but the prime minister argued the MPs were "elected on a Labour manifesto" and so should back the government's agenda. But what do Maskell's York constituents think? People in Acomb have spoken to the BBC about their reaction to the news. 'Absolutely disgusting' Richard Lowe, from the Huntington Road area of York, is visiting shops on Front Street with his wife. When quizzed about Maskell's suspension, he says this is a topic the couple has discussed in depth, due to their careers in healthcare. "Rachael Maskell, for me, embodies what the Labour movement should be," the former mental health nurse says. "My thoughts are that the suspension is absolutely disgusting. "As she says, she's been a Labour member for 34 years, she's stood up for disability rights, she's a disability campaigner." As an ex-nurse, Richard says he has always had a duty of care to his patients - and that Maskell has a duty of care to her constituents. "I won't be voting Labour at the next general election," he says. "If Rachael Maskell is still an independent MP, I'll vote for her but I'm not voting Labour. "I hope she's retaken into the Labour Party very shortly. I can't see it happening myself, but there you go." 'Where are the lines?' Sat on a bench alongside their dog are Angela and her mother-in-law, Carole, who both live locally. They explain they do not share the same political views as Maskell but were on the fence about Sir Keir Starmer's decision to suspend her. "It's difficult, isn't it? Everybody's entitled to their own opinion but where are the lines?" Angela asks. "I think Labour has made a lot of terrible choices in the past year or so. "They're not doing themselves any favours." However, they both thought the welfare system needed an overhaul. "If you're a disabled person, you should be entitled to a benefit if that benefit is appropriate for your disability," Angela says. "But I think possibly there's been a bit of a trend of people claiming disability benefits and I don't think there's been enough checks into the background of what's actually needed for some people." Carole believes more "double checks" should be made to see what benefit is fair for each claimant. 'Over the top' Further down the street, Carolina Ficco, 62, also stops to chat. She believes that no matter the political party, MPs should not be punished for representing their constituents. "I think it was extremely harsh and over the top that she's been suspended," Carolina says. "Everybody is entitled to an opinion and if she's representing people, why should she be dismissed for that? "That's what politicians are supposed to be about, they're a voice for us. It's bang out of order." She says Maskell's suspension is "absolutely, totally wrong". The prime minister defended his decision to suspend Maskell, along with Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff. He said: "I am determined we will change this country for the better for millions of working people – and I'm not going to be deflected from that. "Therefore, we have to deal with people who repeatedly break the whip. "Everyone was elected as a Labour MP on a Labour manifesto of change and everybody needs to deliver as a Labour government." In a statement, the York Central MP said she wanted this Labour government to be the "very best ever" and said she had "used every opportunity" to reach into government to be an advocate for disabled people. "I am, of course, sad of the decision to suspend me for simply seeking the very best for others," Maskell said. "As someone of deep conviction and faith, I bring these values with me in all I do in representing my constituents and ensuring that I advocate for them, keep them safe and ensure that their voices are taken into the very heart of politics." Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. More on this story Starmer says he had to 'deal with' rebel Labour MPs Labour suspends four MPs after welfare cuts rebellion
Hindustan Times
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Andrew O'Hagan on the Dickensian dark web of modern London
For months I resisted reading Caledonian Road. Never mind the rave reviews, the prizes it was picking up, and that it was plastered over the window displays of all of London's Waterstones bookstores as Book of the Month. Because did I really want to spend 600 pages reading about the angst of a middle-aged intellectual white man? Despite this, something beckoned— here was a social novel in the tradition of Dickens that looked at the murky money connections between Russian oligarchs and the British aristocracy. Set in London, it dug deep into politics, immigration, street crime and the dark web. With the very human story of Campbell, an art critic, a self-made intellectual who rises from the ranks and then inevitably starts to fall. And so I began, and in doing so, was drawn in deeply. I met author Andrew O'Hagan soon after, at this year's Jaipur Literary Festival. A slender Scotsman with a melancholy resting face and a wry sense of humour, Andrew spoke to me about why the social novel matters. We met more recently, this time on Zoom. On a recent Friday afternoon Andrew is hunkered down in his Scottish seaside writing den, surrounded by the detective-like charts that fuel his Dickensian cast of 60. Here are edited excerpts of our conversations. Caledonian Road The youngest of four boys, you grew up a feminist? I was the only feminist in my family, including my mother. My father was a tough man who lived according to old-fashioned, very macho rules—you just earned the money and drank a lot, and the boys were supposed to be tough and the girls were supposed to be sort of servants. My mother was a cleaner. She cleaned schools, she cleaned chip shops, and then she would come in and do all this work at home for free. And all these men just expected to have their mother running around, producing bread and soup and, I mean, it was amazing, and it was amazingly objected to by me. But my mother would say, I enjoy doing this, and this is my life. Over the years she seemed to enjoy it less, and became much more feminist afterwards. But, yeah, I wanted to get that energy into the book, because that was what I grew up with. Not just in our house, but in all the houses in our housing estate in our town, women were slightly subjugated by men, and the stories about how they achieved a revolution in their own lives are still arriving in novels and plays and poems today. Your father was a strict man? He was a very strict man. He was an addict, an alcoholic, a violent person—a social problem that was almost commonplace in the world I grew up in. Often, the people suffering in those circumstances are not only the addicts, but their partners and their children, and this is part of the social fabric that I've always tried to write about—as generations grow up in difficult circumstances and then try to use their experience and their imagination to look at the exploitation and disadvantages of other people. That is a Dickensian impulse, almost. Dickens grew up poor, working in a blacking factory, abandoned by a father who'd been in prison for debt. And what did he do when he grew up? He wrote about children living in families who were in debt. It doesn't happen to every writer, but it can happen, and it happened in my case. You've spoken earlier of how reading as a child helped you make sense of the world? My life was saved by reading. I don't know what would have happened otherwise. I was feeling around in the dark for a long time as a kid, and then suddenly my eyes began to open, and I was blinded by the light, and I've been blinded by the light ever since. The opportunity to read those wonderful stories—that's the great thing about literature. It's not just that they turn a light on so that you can see how brilliant other people are. They turn a light on in you and allow you to fully live. They replenish the imagination every day. Good books are as essential as protein in any well-lived life. And I would shout that from the top of any building. A person who doesn't read is at a distinct disadvantage in their life. That may sound like a harsh thing to say, because some people may be so distracted or preoccupied, or they can't get to books, and I feel sorry for those people the same way I would feel sorry for any malnourished person. And I do put it in those terms. It's not a moral decision to read a book. It's a practical decision, very often. Can you get to a library? Can you buy a book? Do you have a friend who you can talk to about what you've read? Where did you get your books from? It was quite a lonely journey being a solo reader in a house without books. But I had friends in the library. That is to say, the librarians—all women, all brilliant—doing what was called interlibrary loans. They would order books for you from other libraries that they didn't have. And they changed my life, these women. They spotted kids from houses where there were no books, where there were social problems or maybe alcohol abuse, and they said, 'We're going to create opportunity for you and distance and freedom.' I read Robert Louis Stevenson and Charles Dickens and all the children's books like The Little Prince and The Secret Garden—all those classic children's books which were really about how to live and how to use your imagination. And then you moved to London, joined the London Review of Books at 21, worked as a reporter and have written ten novels. Tell us about your 10th novel that took you ten years to write—how did Caledonian Road happen? As a reporter, I'd been working in crime, cryptocurrency, in fake identities and online personalities. Those stories gave me a wealth of curiosity about the modern world. And then two things came together in my head—the Victorian model of the social novel and this very non-Victorian subject matter. I realized that I could have a Dickensian novel about very non-Dickensian things, but where the same human problems would emerge—the gulf between rich and poor, between men and women, between truth and lies, between exploitation and decency. All these oppositions that existed 200 years ago still exist, but they express themselves through new technologies and new forms. This happened ten years ago and I thought, bloody hell, if I'm ever going to do the big social novel, I need to do it now. That meant looking at some of the great schisms and separations that exist in modern life and getting them into one book. So the one-word answer to your question is: ambition. I was in my forties, I suddenly realized that I had enough ambition and had enough energy. I knew it would take maybe 10 years, because 60 characters based on real social phenomena in one book—you don't pluck them from the air. Writing this novel for you meant years more of research into these disparate worlds of haves and have-nots—was it hard to move from one to the other? I wanted my novel to have the comedy and the sadness of modern London—all the corruption and all the colorfulness of a modern city in the age of the internet. So the research was crazy—craziest research of my life. But if you're working in the Charles Dickens tradition, you're trying to reinvent reality from the inside, and that means you have to go inside and get to know the thing that you're trying to depict. Sometimes, one part of my day was going to Windsor Castle to have lunch with the Queen and the aristocracy and Russian oligarchs. And then another part would be hanging out with young street guys and going to court when they've been accused of knife crime. And the world of DJs and fashion and film. I did find it easy to move from one world to another. I think I was born an adaptive—I'm one of those shapeshifters. I've been like that in my own life, and I've been like that as a writer. The two things are very close instincts for me. And you researched the world of sweatshops and of immigrants dying—was that hard? It was almost overwhelming doing some of that research. When you write a novel, you're dealing in invented characters—you can control the story. But these people are real. The forces that are operating on them aren't controlled by me. And I would get overwhelmed by a sense that I was about to leave them there, walking away with a very thick notepad. And of course, I'd done that with their understanding and with their permission, but nonetheless, I was leaving them behind. They were people whose lives I could neither control nor in any straightforward way improve. And that's a kind of agony. You also spent months on the dark web—was that scary? Horrendous. The dark web is a sort of bazaar of the dangerous, the despicable, the narcotic, the violent. The things that can't appear in public will appear on the dark net. It's a dehumanized place, but I had to get to know it as a novelist for this book. So yes, I was conscious of it as being dangerous, conscious of going in too far, but because it was going to lead to a place where (my protagonist) Campbell would lose himself in the dark web, I had to lose myself slightly in the dark net to be able to tell this story. Caledonian Road has an amazing audiobook version as well. Michael Abubakar (the narrator) is brilliant. He's at the Globe at the moment, in a Chekhov play, and he's got a big career ahead of him. He is only in his twenties, and he takes this 700-page novel—with dukes, duchesses, Russian oligarchs and their children, Scottish people and Polish people—and he comes up with a voice for all of them! So what next? I have a non-fiction book coming out this October on friendship. I have a novel set in Glasgow on the cards. For another future novel, I'm working closely with AI scientists. If our children are speaking privately to machines all day—and yes, they are—what will the effect be on society, on human community? These are huge questions. So novelists must begin to understand things better, to imagine scenarios, tell stories in which these problems are addressed. … I come away from these conversations convinced novels still matter. From Russian oligarchs to AI ethics, a social novel like Caledonian Road, with its conflicts and comedies and cast of city characters, has the power to change the consciousness of our times. For that alone it is worth reading. What other social novels in this tradition that you would recommend? (Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya's Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or reading dilemmas, write to her at sonyasbookbox@ The views expressed are personal)
The Herald Scotland
12-07-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Glasgow legal dispute fear as 700 homeless refused housing
Figures obtained by freedom of information (FOI) from the Scottish Tenants' Organisation showed that 8,383 people - including 3,154 children - were living in temporary accommodation on June 9, 2025. That is 4,126 households, with 2,117 homeless people living in a hotel of bed and breakfast (B&B). However, it can also be revealed that 753 homeless people were refused accommodation by Glasgow City Council between April 1 and June 1. Officials in Glasgow spent a total of £7,740,778 on housing the homeless in hotels and B&Bs. Glasgow City Council has also admitted it breached the unsuitable accommodation order 1,465 times between January 1 and June 9 this year, with all of these concerning the 'unsuitable' use of hotels and B&Bs. In the first six months of this year, 567 reported rough sleeping the night before, or three month prior to seeking help from Glasgow City Council. It is likely to be higher as it relies on self-reporting. Read more: Simon Community Scotland (SCS), a charity engaging with rough sleepers in the city, reported another 119 people on the streets this year. Sean Clerkin, campaign co-ordinator for the Scottish Tenants' Organisation, told The Herald: 'The disastrous state of homelessness in Glasgow is laid bare for all to see in these figures which should shame Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government. 'The fact that Glasgow City Council breaks the law wantonly refusing to give emergency accommodation to 753 homeless people, while 686 have slept rough on the streets of Scotland's largest city this year shows the extent of human misery being caused during this housing emergency. 'Glasgow's social housing budget of just over £115 million for 2025-26 is lower than the same housing budget in 2021-22. This is unacceptable.' Read more: The Scottish Government declared a national housing emergency, following a dozen councils including Glasgow and Edinburgh, in May last year. Mr Clerkin added: 'The Scottish Government led by the new housing secretary Mairi McAllan has got to make Glasgow a special case and give a massive cash injection now to Glasgow City Council to build thousands of new social rented homes in the city to remove the shame of record numbers of homeless people being left in Dickensian destitution." Alison Watson, director of Shelter Scotland, said: "This is the devastating reality of the housing emergency in Scotland and these figures expose the grim reality of Glasgow. "With prevention services being cut, thousands of children are being forced into the homelessness system and a large amount of taxpayer's money is being spent to cover B&B and hotel accommodation – all while Glasgow City Council continue to break the law. This cannot carry on. 'With a sheer lack of social housing, the Council does face an impossible task without serious support from both the Scottish and UK governments. "Everyone deserves a safe, secure and affordable place to call home. 'That's why we need bold, radical action: more investment from the Scottish Government in social housing, the purchase of larger homes for larger families, and stronger backing from the UK Government must all be part of the plan.' In January, it was revealed that Glasgow City Council receives around 200 legal threats each month for refusing emergency accommodation or providing unsuitable temporary homes. A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: 'We're duty bound to find and provide emergency accommodation to those affected by homelessness. Unfortunately, the increasing demand for homeless accommodation in Glasgow means there are times when we haven't been able to do so. This happens when there is no accommodation available despite using more than 50 hotels to accommodate those who we have a duty for. 'We purchase a high number of hotel and bed & breakfast accommodation as we attempt to meet the extraordinarily high demand for accommodation to avoid people having to sleep rough. We also use in excess of 2600 places of emergency accommodation within temporary furnished flats and supported accommodation. 'There is no quick alternative. We are in continual dialogue with both Governments about these challenges and to seek the additional resources necessary to address the challenges we are facing.' A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: 'Having a safe, warm and affordable place to call home is critical to a life of dignity and opportunity. We are determined that everyone in Scotland should have that and so are focussed on tackling the housing emergency head on. This is essential to ensure everyone, and in particular our children, have the opportunity to thrive and we are focussed on delivering that real change. 'We are making available £115.565 million in Glasgow to support the delivery of more social and affordable homes, which includes more than £11.9 million targeted for acquisitions and voids. This takes our investment in affordable housing to £768 million across Scotland. 'We recognise that Glasgow has come under additional and unique housing pressure following the previous UK Government's decision to streamline asylum process over a short period of time with no additional resource. This has shifted an unreasonable burden onto local authorities and the Home Office must urgently provide financial support.'
