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Los Angeles Times
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘The Bear': Apologies and reconciliations lift the mood in Season 4
FX on Hulu has asked that a spoiler alert head any detailed reviews of the new, fourth season of 'The Bear.' And while this review is not really detailed, everyone has their own idea of what constitutes a spoiler. So, read on, if you dare. Most television series, and not just the best ones, are organic. You can plan in a vague way, but you learn as you go along — what the actors can do, what characters are going to demand more screen time, what unexpected opportunities present themselves, what the series is telling you about itself. This can make a show feel inconsistent across time, but often better in the end, as much as it may irritate viewers who liked how things were back at the beginning. Early in the fourth season of 'The Bear,' premiering Wednesday on FX on Hulu, the staff of the series' eponymous restaurant finally sees the Chicago Tribune review they were anticipating throughout much of Season 3, and when it comes, it contains words like 'confusing,' 'show-offy' and 'dissonant.' (It's beautiful to see the review represented in a physical newspaper.) The show's third season was accused by some fans and critics of similar things, and whether or not creator and showrunner Christopher Storer is drawing a comparison here, it's true that 'The Bear' doesn't behave like most series — the recent shows it most resembles are 'Atlanta' and 'Reservation Dogs,' both from FX, and going back a little, HBO's 'Treme,' which, like 'The Bear,' are less invested in plot than in character, place and feeling. For all the series' specific detail and naturalistic production, the eponymous Bear is a fairy-tale restaurant, staffed by people who not long before were hustling to get beef sandwiches out the door but, encouraged by Jeremy Allen White's brilliant chef Carmen, have revealed individual superpowers in relatively short time. (Carmy asks Marcus, a genius of dessert played by Lionel Boyce, how he achieved a certain effect in a new sweet; 'Legerdemain,' Marcus replies.) If you want to see real restaurants in operation, there are plenty of options, from Netflix's 'Chef's Table,' to Frederick Wiseman's 'Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros,' a four-hour film about a Michelin three-star restaurant in central France. (It streams from you have until March 2027 to catch it there, and should.) But this invented place, which is real enough for its purposes, is primarily a stage for human striving, failure and success — and love. Come for the food, stay for the people. After the first two seasons, which involved transforming the Beef, the sandwich shop Carmy inherited from his late brother Mikey, and creating the Bear, the third looked around and over its shoulder, flashing back and stretching out and developing themes that are taken up again in Season 4, which begins so hot on the heels of three they might as well be one. (They were filmed back-to-back.) The chaos and expense created by Carmy's 'nonnegotiable' decision to change the menu every night; the prospect of the Tribune review; and a participation agreement for sous-chef-turned-creative partner Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) are still working their way through the story. It begins more prosaically, certainly when compared with the impressionistic montage that occupied the whole of last season's opening episode. And, apart from an opening flashback in which Carmy tells Mikey (Jon Bernthal) of his vision for a restaurant ('We could make it calm, we could make it delicious, we could play good music, people would want to come in there and celebrate … we could make people happy'), it stays in the present, facing forward. Once again, we get a ticking clock to create pressure; installed by the 'uncle' they call Computer (Brian Koppelman), it's timed not as before to the opening of the restaurant but to the point at which backer Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) will pull out and the Bear will 'cease operations.' (It's set to 1,440 hours, or 60 days.) But deadlines come and go on this show, and though we're treated to repeated shots of the countdown clock, it doesn't create much actual tension. There is always something more immediately concerning, in the kitchen or out in the world. For all his messing with the menu in search of a Michelin star, Carmy is stuck in a rut — cue clip from 'Groundhog Day' — and has also become maddeningly inarticulate, almost beyond speech; much of what White does this year is listen and react, doing subtle work with his face and fingers, interjecting an occasional 'Yeah,' while family or colleagues unburden themselves or take him to task. 'Is this performative?' Richie asks a moping Carmy. 'You waiting for me to ask if you're OK?' Some of his self-flagellation feels unearned — which I suppose is often the case with self-flagellation. ('You would be just as good … without this need for, like, mess,' says Syd.) Carmy can be a handful, but he's led his team into this land of milk and honey, and if the Bear is dysfunctional, it nevertheless manages to put food on the table, create delight and pay its people. Still, this is a season of apologies — even Uncle Jimmy is saying he's sorry, through a closed door, to his teenage son — and reconciliations. (You didn't suppose you'd seen the last of Claire, Carmy's on-again, off-again romantic interest, played by Molly Gordon?) Some developments can seem abrupt, possibly because so many of these characters are bad at communicating or lie about how they're feeling, saying that everything is OK when everything is not OK. But in the long view, the view that extends even beyond the end of the series, whether it comes sooner or later, everything will be OK. Whatever Emmy nitpickers might have to say about its category, 'The Bear' is most definitely a comedy; there'll be obstacles, but everyone's on a road to happiness. A double-wide episode, set at the wedding of Richie's ex-wife, Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs), mirrors the calamitous 'Fishes' Christmas-dinner episode from Season 2, with most of that extended cast present again. But here, there is dancing. Richie, running the front of the house, continues on his journey of self-improvement, crafting inspirational addresses to the staff, meditating on a photo of a Japanese Zen garden and dealing in an adult way with his soon-to-be-remarried ex-wife and daughter; the Bear has become his lifeline. Gary (Corey Hendrix, getting some deserved screen time) is being educated as a sommelier; Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) is working to put pasta on the plate in under three minutes; Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) is killing it at the sandwich window and looking to 'create opportunity' with a new delivery app, a robot called Chuckie and a business mentor (Rob Reiner). Come for the food, stay for the people. Above all, this is Syd's year, which is, of course, also to say Edebiri's. She's got decisions to make and has been given long, often intense, two-person scenes, not only with Carmy but with Jimmy and Claire and an 11-year-old girl she suddenly finds herself babysitting, and with whom she spends most of an episode; Syd describes her dilemma in terms an 11-year-old might understand and receives the blunt advice an 11-year-old might give. Carmy, for his part, thinks he knows how to fix things, which he will finally get around to sharing. Is it a good idea? Will it work? Will we ever know, and do we need to know? Is this the final season? (No one has said.) It closes on what is not quite an end — that not everything ties up feels very on brand for the series, and like life, which doesn't run on schedule — and a sort of beginning. (I would just point out that R.E.M.'s 'Strange Currencies,' or as I have called it, 'Love Theme From 'The Bear,'' playing very quietly in a scene behind Richie and highly evolved Chef Jessica [Sarah Ramos] may be a gentle nod to their unseen future.) It can be corny, it can be obvious. It indulges in gestures as grand and unlikely as creating snow for a guest, and as small as a sandwich being cut to make it a little more friendly, a little more fancy. Both are moving. Good restaurants serve a reliable version of familiar food, food anyone can like. Great ones do something peculiar that won't be to everyone's taste, won't even make sense, but might inspire love. So it is with television shows.
New York Times
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Makeup Artist Who Gives the Stars More Than a Touchup
Debi Young nodded in her maternal way, validating Jamie Hector's concerns. Hector was nothing like Marlo Stanfield, the sociopathic shot caller he depicted in 'The Wire' nearly a generation ago. But the latest script had called for Stanfield and a woman to be intimate in a car. Hector, then 28, mentored young actors and fretted about promoting promiscuity. He voiced his problem to Young, officially the show's makeup artist and unofficially its moral compass. 'There will come a day when you can say what you want to do and what you don't want to do,' Young told Hector. She knew the sex scene was important for the character and that Hector needed to trust the writers. 'Right now? You're trying to bring people along with you,' she added. Then, the woman cast and crew referred to variously as Big Sister, Den Mother, Divine Mother or Mama Debi topped her advice with instructions that dropped Hector's jaw: 'So, you go into that scene and you just bang the hell out of her.' Hector, now 49, laughed at the recollection. 'What she has to say is always on time, always important and always sincere and coming from a righteous place,' he said. Young is a youthful 71 whose most common credit is department head of makeup. She is a mainstay of HBO with credits on 'Watchmen,' 'Treme,' 'True Detective' and 'Mare of Easttown.' She has received four Emmy nominations. But it's her deft advice, bendable ear and ability to cultivate trust that has made her a go-to for a constellation of Oscar-winning stars, many of whom are appreciative of seeing a Black woman in a position of authority. 'You're going to find a world of people who want to talk about Debi,' Hector promised. 'You're going to find Regina. Mahershala.' The two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali: 'Ms. Debi's chair is where your day begins. It's the safest place on the set. I'd even say something like a boxer's corner. She whispers things that impact your perspective on life, and therefore you can't help but think about a character differently.' The Oscar winner Regina King: 'She's like your Yoda.' The Oscar winner Da'Vine Joy Randolph: 'It is her spirit, her heart. Her spirituality. Her decorum. Her morals.' Young said, 'I know they always call me for makeup, but I always know I'm there for so much more and God reveals it to me each time.' 'I'm here to cultivate a space where you can do your best work,' she said. Young's chair is variable and mobile. It can be a salon on wheels with a headrest. It can be a park bench, a brick wall, a boulder, a tree stump, or a tall director's chair. The people she tends to can be excited or depressed, tired or alert, happy or sad or some mix of all of those feelings. 'It's a movie set,' Randolph said, 'There's always going to be something. There's always going to be confusion or, 'What are we doing here?' Or frustration. Or long hours. And she was just the maternal figure who was always there.' Young's break arrived on 'The Wire,' the gritty depiction of the Baltimore that she grew up in. She was raised in the Lafayette Courts projects in East Baltimore during the Civil Rights movement. She felt incubated by parents who spread their altruism. Her father, a barber, sometimes spent the day ferrying children to the beach until everyone from the neighborhood could dip their toes in water. Occasionally, she and her siblings attended the movies while their parents worked. Young rushed home, hoping to recreate the looks she had seen. She didn't have many options of lipsticks or powders or get awfully close to what she had seen onscreen. But her father predicted that one day his daughter would be in the credits. Young worked at a police call center before deciding to earn an esthetician license and join a cosmetic boutique. A client told Young that she'd be hosting a television show and asked Young to do her makeup for it. Soon, Tim and Daphne Reid, married actors who were hosting a talk show, asked Young to join. Stars like Eartha Kitt, Pam Grier and Georg Stanford Brown appeared on the show. In 2001, Young received a call asking her to lead the makeup department for a new cop show. Usually she read a script twice, once to follow the story, again to envision which characters and scenes require makeup. She found herself tracing through 'The Wire' scripts a third or even fourth time, catching new descriptive details each time. Each brought along its own Rubik's cube set of challenges. Young remembered David Simon from his days as a cops reporter. His co-creator, Ed Burns, was a longtime homicide detective. Young had spent years making people look better on camera, but this show offered a new challenge: preparing actors— sometimes depicting murder victims— in makeup as descriptive and realistic as the comprehensive writing called for. 'The Wire' was, on its surface, a cop show but was really a portrayal of individuals pitted against institutions. It struggled for viewers and quick green lights for subsequent seasons from HBO executives. Now, it is heralded as one of the driving forces of television's peak era. 'Debi understood the historical and spiritual significance of the place she held within that show,' said Sonja Sohn, who played the character of Detective Shakima Greggs. 'She was from Baltimore. Baltimore's story was being told. ' Wendell Pierce, who worked with Young on 'The Wire,' said she should be known as one of the show's creators. 'Her humanity and her understanding of human nature was helpful for me understanding the characters,' Pierce said. 'Her knowledge of Baltimore helped how I would develop my character of Bunk, where he was from, who he would be hanging out with, the places he would go.' Long before Michael K. Williams transformed into the shotgun-toting, run-if-you-see-him Omar Little on 'The Wire,' the character did not have a permanent role, let alone a name. On his first day, Young observed Williams's nervousness, placing a hand on his shoulder. 'You're not here by accident,' Young said. 'You're here by divine order. I want you to go out there and dance as hard as you can.' He was self-conscious, she ascertained, about the long scar that ran across his face. 'We know maybe you didn't like what happened during that time, but it's there,' she told him. 'It's part of you. And it's going to take you places.' Young decided she would not do much with Williams' skin beyond treating it. 'Then at night, when he had his long cloak on with the gun underneath, I would put baby oil gel on his face, so that when the light hit him, it would hit his cheeks and his nose,' she said. 'If he's peeking around the corner, you're going to see his face because of the shine in that light.' 'The Wire' even led to Young working with her future daughter-in-law, Ngozi Olandu-Young. Young first met Olandu-Young while she worked at a mall cosmetics counter. Young noted her patience and began mentoring her. Olandu-Young joined 'The Wire' as an assistant and married Karlo, one of Young's two sons. 'She just makes everyone feel like family,' said Olandu-Young, who has gone on to receive two Emmy nominations for her work. With Young, one job begets another. First there was 'Homicide: Life on the Street,' which led to 'The Wire' which led to 'Treme,' which is where Young met the future Oscar-winner Ali. He told her he would try to hire Young if he was ever in a position to land a personal makeup artist. Ron Schmidt, a producer on 'Watchmen' recruited Young while she worked with Ali on 'True Detective.' In the anthology crime drama, Ali played a character whose life is unspooled across three different time periods. 'That role challenged me like nothing I'd ever experienced,' Ali said. 'I really struggled to keep going some days. Whether I spoke to what was troubling me or not, every time I seemed to need it, Ms. Debi would whisper before a take, 'I'm praying for you, baby.' I can't articulate what having an ally like that means. But it makes all the difference.' King, who starred in 'Watchmen,' said Young was a leader. 'I recognized how the producers actually leaned on her for, I guess the best way to say it is, for advisement,' King said. 'That was the first time I had ever seen that.' Sister Knight, King's 'Watchmen' character, often wore an airbrushed mask. Young noticed King's sensitivity to the mask and suggested the shooting schedule be rearranged so that she wouldn't wear it on consecutive days. 'There were decisions made based on her suggestions because of how much she was dialed into not just the needs of hair and makeup that the actors needed, but just the personalities that we had,' King said. 'We're all different and she's tuned into that.' Halfway through 'Watchmen,' Schmidt asked her to work on 'Mare of Easttown.' And the cycle continues. Jamie Hector, who all those years ago heeded her advice as a young actor, is now trying land Young for a project he's working on. It's one of his highest priorities, and he knows he has competition. 'Everybody wants her,' he said. 'She sets the tone.'
Khaleej Times
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
'The Walking Dead' actor Chris Coy joins 'Lanterns' cast
Treme and The Walking Dead actor Chris Coy has joined the cast of HBO's upcoming drama series Lanterns, based on the G reen Lantern DC comic, reported Deadline. In a guest-starring role, Coy will play the new character of 'Waylon Sanders,' an intelligent survivor or nervous truck driver. His age and real name are unknown, but he's unbound by the laws of nature, reported the outlet. The actor joins the previously announced cast of Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly MacDonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Ulrich Thomsen, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Sherman Augustus, J. Alphonse Nicholson, Jason Ritter, and Nathan Fillion. According to Deadline, the series, from Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King, follows new recruit John Stewart (Pierre) and Lantern legend Hal Jordan (Chandler). They are two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, Earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland. The eight-episode series is being roduced by HBO in association with Warner Bros Television and DC Studios. According to the outlet, the drama series is directed and produced by James Hawes. Filmmakers Stephen Williams, Geeta Vasant Patel, and Alik Sakharov have also been tapped to direct some episodes of the TV series. Coy will next be seen supporting Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor in Bad Robot's upcoming Flowevale Street, followed by his series regular role opposite Jason Bateman and Jude Law in the Netflix limited series Black Rabbit, reported Deadline. Coy's acting portfolio includes David Oyelowo's Bass Reeves, Amazon series The Peripheral and Billy Porter-directed episode of Fox's Accused. The actor has also starred in the ABC miniseries Women of the Movement and was a series regular for David Simon opposite Maggie Gyllenhaal on HBO's The Deuce, reported Deadline.
