Latest news with #SeriesOne
Metro
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
TV fans vow to 'never watch again' after drama makes controversial twist
Viewers have turned on The Bear as the critically acclaimed drama returned to Disney Plus for its fourth season, amid the continued presence of one particular character. As the third episode of the latest series played out, Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) issued an apology to old flame Claire Dunlap (Molly Gordon). In this moment, the show revisited one of its more memorable episodes – Carmy being locked in the fridge during a nightmare shift at the restaurant. In scenes which first aired in Series Two, Carmy had driven away Claire (on the outside of the fridge), by ranting that his relationship with her was distracting him from his restaurant duties. It took two more seasons after that, but Carmy finally apologised to Claire for his behaviour in the fridge, albeit very clumsily. However, the decision to revisit the events of this episode has alienated some fans, many of whom have reached their limit with Carmy and Claire. Writing on X as these scenes aired, some viewers shared their dismay at the emphasis on the star-crossed lovers. 'I can't bring myself to watch season 4 of The Bear. Claire ruined the show for me,' wrote kimseokjinsday1. 'Honestly, they could've never written another word about Claire in the script of the bear and I would have been totally okay with that,' said draft_x_. 'Why is claire still on s4 of the bear like wrap it up,' begged bloodrinkcheri. 'I turned off the bear szn 4 as soon as i saw claire,' said mags_pdf. This backlash marks a continued downward trend for the once universally beloved drama – Series One of which still holds a 100% 'fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The second series, by contrast, remains nearly as highly-rated, at 99%. This was followed by a respectable 89% for Series Three, and a lower 82% for Series Four. While most still recognised it as 'the best series on television,' its detractors have called out its lack of focus and slow pacing – especially compared to the more breakneck, panic-inducing earlier seasons. 'The Bear's failure to pick up the pace in a meaningful way this season has soured things,' wrote The Ringer, while Digital Mafia Talkies described it as 'really bad.' own Sabrina Barr was more positive, praising its character progression and, in particular, an episode co-written by star Ayo Edebiri. With all ten episodes of the show now streaming, viewers have been tuning in (and out) to make up their own minds, contributing to a 70% positive audience score on the review aggregator. The complicated relationship between Carmy and Claire may have proved controversial onscreen but, behind the scenes, their chemistry is going from strength to strength. More Trending Last year, Carmy and Claire stars Jeremy and Molly were spotted in a steamy clinch on the street – seemingly confirming rumours that they had begun dating. This came in the wake of his split from Spanish singer-songwriter Rosalia, who he is believed to have dated from 2023 to 2024. View More » The Bear season 4 is available to stream on Disney Plus. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: What happened at the end of The Bear season 3? Ending explained MORE: TV fans hooked on 'banging' sci-fi series after bingeing first 3 episodes MORE: Classic 80s sci-fi thriller removed from Disney Plus over 'unacceptable' scene
New York Times
19-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
From building stadiums to selling trading cards, baseball biz is different in Japan
TOKYO — The business of baseball looks a little different in Japan than it does in the U.S. One of the most popular sports souvenirs? Towels. Many varieties of towels, with printed images of top players or team logos. For Major League Baseball itself, there's an increased emphasis on businesses other than baseball. Six Pikachu mascots, the character from Pokémon, were on the field at the Tokyo Dome both before and after the Los Angeles Dodgers' 4-1 win over the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday, the first game of the 2025 Major League Baseball season. Advertisement In its effort to push further into Japan, MLB is tapping into longstanding properties to connect with fans in Japan — customers whom the league very much wants to court. An illustrated version of superstar Shohei Ohtani was just featured in a video created with Demon Slayer, an immensely popular manga franchise. The artist Takashi Murakami threw out a ceremonial first pitch over the weekend, and Topps, owned by the merchandising behemoth Fanatics, had Murakami co-sign two cards along with Ohtani. 'We're really purposeful in some of the collaborations that we've done,' said Uzma Rawn Dowler, MLB's chief marketing officer. 'We're really making sure that we're touching fans where they are, how they are.' Here is how three other brands look at the task of growth across the Pacific. What's noticeable to David Leiner, the head of Topps' trading cards operation, about card collectors in Japan is that they're not flipping cards as often as buyers in the U.S. 'Even more broadly in Asian collectors, they tend to buy and hold a lot more than American collectors,' Leiner said inside Topps' pop-up shop in Shibuya. 'A lot of what we find in Asia and in Japan is that when collectors find that cherished card, they keep it. Which actually for us is great. We'll take collectors of any shape and size, but ultimately, these cards, we want to find a destination and find a home among a true collector.' Topps created a variant of a standard baseball card line it prints, its Series One, that it has made available only in Japan during the Opening Series. Many cards are the same, but it includes some specialized ones highlighting Japanese MLB players and the history of the league in Japan. The print run for those boxes (each containing several packs of cards) is about five percent of the overall run of Series One, Leiner said, although the company does not disclose how many cards it produces for most of its lines. In 2024, Topps was north of $800 million in global baseball card sales. Leiner said that in Japan specifically, Topps hasn't yet reached nine figures — sitting somewhere below $100 million — but he believes it's coming. Advertisement 'What's tricky about our market in general is the demand is well exceeding our supply, which is great for collectibles, but we allocate a lot of product,' Leiner said. 'So what we're trying to do is when we grow the market, grow it properly, ensure that the product's being opened, it's being collected, it's being consumed. We want to avoid any junk-wax era. We don't want to oversupply a market.' The word Leiner kept coming back to was 'education.' Topps' pop-up in Tokyo had displays that were intended to explain to customers the different types of cards found in a pack, from the base set to parallels and other inserts. Topps is also trying to focus on entry-level pricing in Japan. 'Collecting baseball cards is kind of complicated. We're part of the complication,' Leiner joked. 'The Japanese market was steadily building, I think, anyway. This (series) just poured gasoline on the fire.' The architecture firm Populous has designed its share of MLB stadiums, from both Citi Field and Yankee Stadium in New York, to Petco Park in San Diego. But it also has led baseball projects in Asia as well, such as Changwon NC Park, home of the Korea Baseball Organization's NC Dinos. 'Particularly with the number of Japanese players that have gone over to the U.S., we're getting more and more inquiries about the work that we are doing in the U.S.,' said Brett Wightman, who leads the firm's Asia business. But it's not exact mimicry at play. The stadiums across the Pacific often come with features U.S. fans might envy: more aisle seating, because rows are shorter. In the U.S., rows contain about 24 to 28 seats, said Nicholas Malyon, one of Populous' lead baseball architects, whereas in Asia, the number drops to 10-14. 'You've got these beer girls that go up and down the aisles passing beers in, and so a lot of It's about accessibility and ease of access and just being polite,' said Malyon, who has worked in both the company's Kansas and Tokyo offices. 'What maybe Westerners believe is a comfortable spacing isn't necessarily comfortable for everybody. People are very respectful in Asia, and people try and give each other space, which is probably a big difference.' Advertisement That doesn't mean ballparks in Asia are universally more spacious, however. Fans in Asia stick to their seats more, buying more of their food from the vendors, rather than doing so at stands. The trade-off, then, is narrower concourses. 'Much, much tighter, and there's this kind of crazy order to them,' Malyon said. 'It's like this flow of a river almost, whereas American ballparks' main concourses are very, very wide in comparison.' Mako Ihara, head of Populous' Tokyo studio, noted that local codes contribute to the shortened rows. In the past, stadiums in Japan were actually often government-led projects. 'It wasn't really geared towards the specific primary sport of baseball,' Ihara said. 'A lot of the fans or the users, when they visit, they feel like there's a lack of access to new types of food and beverage, or variety of seating.' There are efforts today to upgrade and renovate, if gradually. Seungho Lim, who works on Populous' Korean baseball projects, noted fans there prize seating that includes tables, which are often sold out. 'Compared to American snack-type foods, Korean foods are quite big dishes, even in the stadium as well. So the people really prefer to see table seats,' Lim said. Lim's first baseball project in Korea was the NC Dinos' park. On the third-base side, his group designed an open social area. But when he visited the stadium for the first time, he didn't see fans milling about. Instead, there was a Starbucks. 'The operator was explaining that in Korean baseball culture, people don't really want to watch the game standing, that they always prefer to be sitting,' Lim said. 'That's why they gave those spaces to the rental retail. 'I was a bit shocked because I learned how to design baseball stadiums from American baseball stadiums,' Lim continued. 'Taking advanced baseball experience from America is very important, but at the same time, we need to respect and we have to learn the local culture and how they watch the game.' Advertisement New Balance hasn't carried a big roster of sports stars for a long time, but the sneaker maker netted Shohei Ohtani in 2023, and Ohtani's profile has only grown since. 'New Balance only really got back into sport just a little over a decade ago in really working with athletes,' said head of baseball marketing Evan Zeder. 'We had some runners and all that, but baseball was where we truly started to build up our sports marketing department within New Balance.' So what do you do with the biggest star in baseball on your team? Not too much. 'We're not just shoving product out to shove product out. And I think that's really important for who we are as a brand,' Zeder said. Ohtani has a signature cleat and turf shoe, as well his own logo at the company. But New Balance has also worked him into its flagship 990 line. Early in the partnership, New Balance did more repurposing of other items it produced with its Ohtani line, rushing a bit, Zeder said. Today, the apparel more closely resembles Ohtani's own concepts. 'What matters more to us is that it's co-authored with him,' Zeder said. 'So when we're in a room walking through product with Shohei, we have our U.S. team, and we have our Japan team, and they are building and molding this together. So it speaks to both cultures, but ultimately it speaks mostly to Shohei.' When New Balance signed up Ohtani — or perhaps with someone of his talent, it's really vice versa — the company knew Ohtani was already massive in Japan, and he has remained so. The company said that last year, when his signature collection was put on sale, nearly half the inventory on its Japanese site on sold on Day One. But what New Balance didn't foresee is the stateside growth that Ohtani has brought as well. New Balance has found its reach on social media to be four times higher when the post is a collaboration with Ohtani. Advertisement 'I think North America is probably even more surprised than our Japanese team, because North America has seen these numbers from when we put stuff out, the social engagement, product moving off the shelves, and then when you translate that,' Zeder said. 'To be honest, I think North America and the U.S. specifically is still discovering Shohei.' Ohtani is on a long-term deal, Zeder said, declining to disclose the exact length or dollars, but he said the company intends to stick with Ohtani well after he retires. 'It was never about, 'Let's test the waters,'' Zeder said. 'It was always about, 'We're in.'' (Top photo of two Pikachus at the Tokyo Series: Masterpress / Getty Images)
