The best streaming services are so abundant right now that there's simply too much to watch. As such, I seem to have a habit of repeatedly arriving late to the best new shows.
There was that Tom Hanks movie, Finch, which I arrived at a full 3 years late. Oops. Even with Silo, somehow I was behind by a full season-and-a-bit when I finally got into it. Maybe I should blame Apple TV+ for just being so darn good at the moment.
Either way, all these great shows have seen my Disney+ viewership fall by the wayside. My own fault, really. I knew months ago that The Bear was returning for season 4, but, yet again, here I am, super late to tuning in!
Last night something clicked, though, as I fired up Disney+ to get back into its best drama – almost 3 months after it became available. The FX show is on Hulu for US-based viewers.
The Bear is drama in its rawest form. The show purports to be a comedy, but those moments are fleeting and far between. It's about a young chef, 'Carm' (Jeremy Allen White), who breaks from his world of fine dining to return home to Chicago after a death in the family.
He's left looking after the family-run sandwich shop, The Beef, and all the chaos that swirls around it. He wants to make changes, big changes, which the first few seasons handle in an uphill battle. There are small wins, spurs of new life in growing relationships. But then chaos; always chaos.
The way the show is shot is what really heightens this drama's impact. I don't think I've ever seen so many big close-up shots in a series. It puts you face-to-face with awkward conversations on repeat, often feeling like a lobster in the boiling pot. But there are moments of release, too, these small pleasures that mean so much more as the show trudges on.
I'm calling The Bear the best drama on Disney+ because its Rotten Tomatoes score for season 1 remains at 100%. That's a super-rare feat. It's not maintained that, season to season, though, and the latest has waned somewhat.
Perhaps audiences are getting a little tired of the stress. The stress is compelling, though. You want to help fix it, you want everyone to be okay. It's as though these giant close-up characters on screen are a sort of family.
It's not as though Disney+ is short of quality content, mind, with recent Alien: Earth impressing on the sci-fi front. Andor is much-loved, too. But I don't think sci-fi, even with its dramatic elements, quite compares on a like-for-like level to The Bear.
Having now just started The Bear season 4, I'm sure I'll be whizzing through the remainder of 30-ish-minute shows in little time. It's compelling stuff that's got me eager to sign into Disney+ on repeat again already. Which was much needed, given there are too many streaming services – and something's got to give.
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