The Bear Is One Big Ad
“Chef, I had my first McGriddle.”
I have been slowly making my way through the latest season of The Bear (no spoilers), which dropped last Friday on Hulu. For a final season — especially one that’s supposed to be depicting one tense day a la The Pitt — it’s a slog.
As Delia Cai put it in Deez Links, “What are any of these characters saying to each other? They’re just making the same faces they always make, emitting noiseless vibes and sighing with such vague discontent.”
For me, this dragging pace made it all the more surreal when I started to notice characters dwelling on their love of certain international corporate entities.
In one rainy car scene in the first episode of season 5, Marcus takes Luca for his first ever McGriddle. The Noma alum pastry chef calls it “kind of perfect” and declares that McDonald’s should win a Michelin star.
A few scenes later, back in the kitchen of The Bear itself, it gets weirder:
Luca: “Chef, I had my first McGriddle.”
Carmy: “Yeah? How was that?”
Luca: “Yeah, it was fire.”
Carmy: “What’s the, uh, line like over at McDonald’s? Is that chaos?”
Marcus: “Hell no. That shit is smooth. It’s dialed like a Rolex. Assembly line.”
Carmy: “Consistent.”
Marcus: “Exactly.”
