Sophie

Could it be? Is this..... an episode? Where things happen and storylines progress and character development ensues.

As rare as the Mexican staring frog of Southern Sri Lanka. At least in this series anyway.

So yeah, the exchange between Claire and Syd was too long. I did like the scene between herself and Father.

It was nice to see people working together for a change, that's kind of the ONLY way a restaurant survives. (Take notes here millenials)

I'm getting tired of the whole stopwatch and not getting the time in under 5 minutes. I have to say that is absurd. Because you aren't doing single serve portions and if you are; getting it in under 5 mins, I wouldn't trust that food. What kind of narrative are they trying to sell us here???

Its this kind of bullsh¡t that I cannot abide. They did some things decently. But not as good as Lasgo's 2001 album "Some Things". Some real bangers on that one. And considering ms.ayo looks like she was probably born in 2001, they made a huuuuuge mistake in casting her. But this might be the one and only episode where she appears resonably human enough to fill the role.

It doesn't excuse the entire series so far that she's been absurdly; innapropriately cast. However this episode I feel she did a good job. Maybe it because of her surroundings. She has NO chemistry with the rest of the cast. None what so ever.

So, despite the innevitable back-to-arguing-because-we-have-no-ideas approach, this episode didn't completely suck like most of ....everything after season 2 til now, save for ONE episode last season.

I give this a 6 and that's a passing grade for me. Whoever would have thought in a show that gives so little, that a less-is-more approach might work.

Less Ayo, is more of a good thing. See how that works?? (Hope you're still taking notes)

Because I'm Me™, I compared the list of writers from Seasons 1 & 2 to the list of writers from Seasons 3 & 4. Whoever Sofya Levitsky-Weitz is, they were apparently VERY integral to The Bear's pacing, dialogue, and overall storytelling. Seasons 3 & 4(so far) have been meandering moment to meandering moment, trying to replay the hits of Season 1 & 2 by constantly bringing back characters like Donna and Mikey, introducing somehow MORE Faks, and attempting to create tension through manufacturing drama related to the restaurant. It's obvious Chris Storer is more interested in the drama of the characters and showing off his directing, but my god, a writer he is NOT. Every dialogue scene is overly long, lacking the heat (pun intended) of the first two seasons' fast-paced dialogue AND the slower, character-driven gut-punches. Also the editing...I have to imagine Christ Storer is in the editing bay saying "No, no, don't cut any of my shots..."

Perhaps this is supposed to be a meta thing-much like The Beef has gradually morphed to a boring high-end restaurant, The Bear will now morph in a boring pretentious piece of television. Oh well. I hope the next episode isn't a pale facsimile of S2EP7.

The clock on the wall of the restaurant (not the countdown clock) advanced about an hour during this entire episode. This gives you an idea of how much the plot progressed in this episode. The plot doesn't always need to progress to something in every episode, but hanging out in the same spot for too long is just making the viewer marinate too long.

The pasta won't be cooked in less than three minutes. Crunchy.

The camera is getting closer and closer to the characters with every episodes. Quite a few members of the cast need their pores vacuumed.

I don't ever want to see the pores of one of the Faks.

The Syd and Claire scene went on for way too long. The Syd and dad scene was good.

I don't know why this gets classified as a comedy. It's not a comedy. There are comedies out there and this ain't one of them.