THE BEAR

Over the past few months, “The Bear” has been one of my favorite conversation starters. I’ve brought it up with friends and begged them to watch it so we can gab about the character development and general plot. I had an hour-long conversation with my hairdresser about the show and its complexities while she was massaging shampoo out of my hair.

“The Bear” has morphed into one of my favorite pieces of media and absolutely earned this year’s Outstanding Comedy Emmy.

Season two of “The Bear” takes a turn compared to its earlier counterpart, following its robust cast through the opening of a new restaurant named The Bear in hopes of earning a Michelin star. Where the first season shows a budding family falling apart, the second focuses on rebuilding.

Ayo Edebiri, who plays sous chef Sydney Adamu, comes into the limelight this season, balancing lofty ambition with a looming fear of failure.

The rippling impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on the restaurant industry was a key idea contributing to Sydney’s worries, combined with her former catering business failing — striking a blow to her financials and confidence.

Generally speaking, most media I’ve watched that brings up the COVID-19 pandemic does so in a very disingenuous way, relying on the shared experience to do the heavy lifting of connecting with audience members. “The Bear” is one of the few shows that shows an accurate, nuanced representation of a post-pandemic world.

The highlight of this season for me, however, was Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s portrayal of Richard Jerimovich. Season one Richie was my least favorite character, and it wasn’t even close. At the start of the second season when he decided to turn over his new leaf, I had no faith that he would actually change and was ultimately surprised in the most pleasant way.

Throughout the course of season two, each character had their own vignette episode as the collective plot built toward the opening of The Bear. Richie’s episode demonstrated how a carefully crafted character can transform from someone who is complicit and angry to a complex person who wants to get better.

This culminates in the final episode, a parallel to the penultimate episode of season one. During the “friends and family” soft opening, main character Carmen Berzatto — played by Jeremy Allen White — and chaos almost ensues. With orders piling up and two employees out of commission, The Bear could have been over before it even started.

Utilizing the skills he learned earlier in the season, Richie stepped up to the plate to run the front of the house, making calls and communicating what is needed from the rest of the staff. Season one Richie wouldn’t have the skills or the respect necessary to make those calls. Season two Richie had grown in a realistic way, which is a wildly impressive feat from the writers. In an additional layer, Carmy acts as foil to Richie, regressing on his emotional growth that culminated over the course of the season.

“The Bear” is a masterpiece of writing and acting, balancing humor, tension, tragedy, and hope — an absolutely deserving winner of this year’s Outstanding
Comedy Emmy.

JURY DUTY

Although “The Bear” has had an incredible fan reception since its release, the true winner of this year’s Outstanding Comedy Emmy should have been the reality TV sitcom “Jury Duty.” I’ve never been summoned for jury duty, but if the real deal is anything like the Amazon Freevee series, it should be a hilarious, over-the-top, and strangely heartfelt experience.

Think “Impractical Jokers” meets “The Office” meets “Judge Judy,” except that no courtroom drama or prank show has come anywhere close to the entertainment provided in “Jury Duty.” The sitcom has totaled four Emmy nominations and undoubtedly deserves the win for Outstanding Comedy.

The show is presented as a type of “mockumentary,” following a select group of regular people summoned and sequestered for jury duty, but with one catch: everyone is an actor, and everything is loosely scripted. That is, except for one carefully selected participant who thinks it’s all real, and being filmed for a real documentary.

Most of the cast are fairly unknown stars — though absolutely masterful at keeping to their crafted personas — except for actor James Marsden, who plays a snobbish, stereotypical celebrity version of himself, annoyed at being sequestered and constantly mentioning the next big acting project he’s working on.

Other standout characters include Todd, an intensely awkward and geekish guy with a passion for inventing, played by David Brown; Jeannie, a witty, flirtatious woman who gets into trouble with one of the other jurors, played by Edy Modica; and Officer Nikki, the bailiff responsible for keeping the jurors in check, albeit with constant dry remarks, played by Rashida Olayiwola.

Ronald Gladden, the true star of the show, had no idea that these people he met and befriended were actors. Up until the very last moments of the series — which honestly made me emotional — Gladden truly believed it was all happenstance, and treated everyone with legitimate kindness and respect through all the show’s ups and downs. For his heartfelt participation, he was awarded a total of $100,000 and broke into tears of disbelief and awe.

I’ve never seen a premise like that of “Jury Duty” executed so flawlessly. Every episode has some strange situation that tows the line of believable and left me wondering multiple times how they managed to find such a good cast of improvisers, and a non-actor so good at adapting to suspiciously bizarre or uncomfortable interactions with his fellow jurors.

Even I questioned the reality of what I was watching, especially as scenarios got more and more ridiculous by the episode. Especially when I imagine the extensive planning that it all must have required, the sheer behind-the-scenes effort that went into “Jury Duty” alone could earn it the Emmy.

I would adore a second season of the show, but with its fan reception and critical acclaim, it would be difficult to pull off the same stunt with another random unassuming individual, especially in another courtroom setting. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experiment and a deeply humorous one at that.

For its unique premise, its brilliant cast and crew, and its mundanely absurd style of humor, I believe “Jury Duty” deserves this year’s Emmy for Outstanding Comedy.