Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
[Manage newsletters]( [View in browser]( [The logo for Daily Beast's Obsessed]( Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. with Kevin Fallon Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. with Kevin Fallon This Week - [The Bear is back](.
- Jiminy Glick is back.
- Lucky Spencer is back.
- David Archuleta is back.
- Utter confusion is back. My Favorite Comedy to Cry to While Watching People are divided over whether [The Bear]( is a comedy or a drama. Regardless, I will say this: It is absolutely the best show on television that always gives me a migraine. After several aspirins, Iâm working through what I admiredâand was put off byâin the first batch of episodes I watched of Season 3 of the Emmy-winning series, which [returned this week](. (I cannot handle binge-watching this series; if you can, you have a stronger constitution than me.) The Bearâs greatest strength, and the reason why I think so many people from so many different demographics have come to champion it, is that it is the rare TV show that doesnât treat viewers like theyâre stupid. It trusts them to understand every tonal shiftâwhich, on this show, is a wrecking ball swinging like a pendulumâand narrative departure. It certainly has faith in viewersâ strength and fortitude, parachuting us into the relentless, loud intensity of The Bear kitchen with no easing in or buffer. Reviews for Season 3 have ranged from [ecstatic]( to [pans](, a spectrum one should expect from a [show this popular]( and, thus, this scrutinized at this point in its run. But thereâs no denying that this is an undeniably audacious TV show. Case in point: the Season 3 premiere. After a second season that won just about every TV award it was eligible for, was lauded for the bullet train of stress that was its âSeven Fishesâ episode, and had a finale that ended with a calamitous screaming match at a restaurant opening, The Bearâs return episode features almost no dialogue. [The cast of Hulu's ''The Bear'']( Given the bedlam The Bear is known for, launching Season 3 with a poignant, montage-filled tone poem is a ballsy swerve. Yes, some of the best episodes of the series have been on the quieter side, like last seasonâs spotlight on Lionel Boyceâs Marcus, âAmsterdam.â But to launch a new season in such a manner, with a depressive, hyper-emotional lilt, is a fascinating way for a series to meet a moment of so much hype and anticipation. Through a patchwork of moody, largely wordless flashbacks, we see how Carmen (Jeremy Allen White) got to the point where we last witnessed him: in the midst of triumph at the restaurant opening, yet still painfully self-destructive. We see the support of his sister, Sugar (Abby Elliott), and the emotional abuse of other family members. Itâs revealed how the antagonism and, eventually, belief in him from mentor chefs shaped his culinary passion. And we get more insight into how his brotherâs death and breakup with his girlfriend irrevocably damaged him. I found it to be a stunning episode of television, but jarring as a season opener; in fact, thatâs part of what impressed me the most about it. The outing will surely rankle those who are most outraged over The Bearâs categorization as a comedy. (Their argument doesnât get any less strong as the season progresses; in the first three episodes alone, I wept my way through glimpses of two different funerals, and winced through an excruciating-to-watch anxiety attack.) But thatâs where the showâs audacity comes in. Itâs not long into Episode 2 that weâre ricocheting between a seven-person screaming match like a pinball with a rocket attached, an example of outlandishh chaos that might be one of the more humorous sequences in the series so far. Although, that might demand on how much of people shouting âfuck youâ at each other in rapid succession you can take and still call it funny. That tonal dance is why I think so much of what Iâve seen of the season so far is so bold. Thereâs familiarity to the early episodes, which is to say ear-splitting, pulse-racing chaos. But the show seems to sense that such a harshness becoming familiar, when it was once so novel and groundbreaking, isnât a good thingâthat it could even become a rut. Did I marvel at the editing, the choreography, and the pandemonium of Episode 3, âDoorsâ? Yes. Did each time someone shouted, âDoors!â amplify a growing headache as I watched? Immensely so. I admire a meandering season that doesnât do the same thing fans expect, and I admire that it trusts our intelligence to go along for the ride of thwarted expectationsâfor the sake of a series that continues to evolve. Now Iâm going to put an icepack on my head and turn on the next batch of episodes. Advertisement
Finally, a Good Laugh Thereâs nothing better than laughing so hard that you feel like youâre screaming, youâre running out of breath, and tears start falling. The best is when, after, you say out loud, âI havenât laughed this hard in such a long time.â And for that, I thank Martin Short. This week, Short resurfaced his iconic interviewer character, Jiminy Glick. I have to reiterate: I havenât laughed this hard in such a long time. Glick began as a recurring character on 1999âs The Martin Short Show before gaining the spotlight in his own 2001 series, Primetime Glick. The gimmick is that Short-as-Glick, in a fat suit and prosthetics, was both boorish and utterly silly as he interviewed celebrities âexpectingâ a normal junket interview. Heâd ask ludicrous questions, slyly insult them, and, often, chow down on a tower of donuts in the middle of conversations. [Jiminy Glick](
This week, Short revived Glick in interviews with [Bill Hader](, [Sean Hayes](, and [Melissa McCarthy](. The shade on their careers were as hilarious as the random questions heâd interjectââWere you for or against drones to take out the late Mickey Rooney?ââand otherwise left-turn statements: âSo Willie Mays just diedâ¦â None of the celebs being interviewed could keep a straight face, and neither could I. What stuck out to me, though, is how perfect a counter-argument these segments are to those [crotchety comedians]( who say âyou canât be funny anymoreâ because everything is too woke and people are too sensitive. This is a character who, truly, should be canceled; Jiminy Glick is very much a byproduct of the Y2K era where âguy in a fatsuitâ constituted the funniest joke anyone could imagine. But here Short is as Glick, still in the fatsuit, delivering some of the edgiest lines any comedian has given in recent years, and earning the laughs because they have a point of view and a perspective on the cultural attitudes of the current moment. Case in point: a man, again, wearing a fatsuit, making gay jokes to Sean Hayes. But they are smart. They are evolved. They are still crude and ribald, but reflect evolved taste. Anyway, watch them for yourselves for a good time this weekend. Bill Hader, [watch here](. Sean Hayes, [watch here](. Melissa McCarthy, [watch here](. A Huge Return Sometimes, there is entertainment news that is absolutely seismic to a certain segment of people, while probably not registering to most of the population. The announcement that Jonathan Jackson is returning to the soap opera General Hospital [to play Lucky Spencer]( is to many peopleâincluding my mother, my Aunt Ruthie, and myselfâthe equivalent of a 6.1 on the Richter scale. [Lucky Spencer as seen on General Hospital]( I grew up in a household where I knew who Luke, Laura, Sonny, and Carly were before I knew about John, Paul, George, and Ringo. General Hospital was foundational to my upbringing, and, if Iâm being honest, Jacksonâs Lucky was a start of my sexual awakening. (Kudos to him and Boy Meets Worldâs Rider Strong.) This is such a fun update for the long-running show, and I apologize to my bosses in advance for being absent every day from 3-4 pm when his comeback starts. How Old Am I? I have vivid memories of David Archuleta performing on [American Idol](, and have read over the years about his journey coming out and how difficult it was because of his Mormon upbringing. Those Idol days seem like a million years ago, yet seeing the videos of him performing the Song of the Moment, Sabrina Carpenterâs âEspresso,â made me feel like it was just yesterday. Such a wild confluence of pop-culture time periods. (Also, the performance is great. [Watch it here](.) [David Archuleta]( Huh? The world is such that, by this point, any random Mad Libs of names in a headline should be greeted with a shrug. Still, [this one]( made me wonder if I had somehow woken up in the middle of a melatonin-induced fever dream and started reading the news. What in the world? More From The Daily Beastâs Obsessed People thought the presidential debate was so stressful that they turned it off to watch The Bearâ¦famously TVâs most stressful show. [Read more](. Everyone hates this House of the Dragon character so much that the actor playing him had to turn off his social media mentions. [Read more](. If youâre ever having a bad day, I highly recommend you talk with June Squibb about becoming an action hero at age 94. [Read more](. [See This] - Last Summer: The hottest movie of the summer also happens to be [sorta incestuous](. (Now in theaters) - Family Affair: Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron are [an absurdly sexy pair](. (Now on Netflix) - A Quiet Place: Day One: Lupita Nyongâo [is the best part](. (Of the movie... Of everythingâ¦) (Now in theaters) [Skip This] - Horizon: An American Saga: A three-hour [Kevin Costner horse movie](. If thatâs for youâ¦God bless. (Now in theaters) [The logo for Daily Beast's Obsessed]( [TV]( [Movies]( [Reviews]( [Previews]( [TV]( [Reviews]( [Movies]( [Previews]( [Daily Beast Obsessed Facebook]( [Daily Beast Obsessed Twitter]( [Daily Beast Obsessed Instagram]( Advertisement
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