Review (The Bear)
7th episode of the 1st season of The Bear
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"Review" is the seventh episode of the first season of the American television comedy-drama The Bear. The episode was written by executive producer Joanna Calo and directed by series creator Christopher Storer. It was released on Hulu on June 23, 2022, along with the rest of the season.
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Episode 7
- "Chicago" by Sufjan Stevens (opening credits)
- "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" by Wilco
| "Review" | |
|---|---|
| The Bear episode | |
Rain clouds open up north of Chicago's Lincoln Park | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 7 |
| Directed by | Christopher Storer |
| Written by | Joanna Calo |
| Featured music |
|
| Cinematography by | Andrew Wehde |
| Editing by | Joanna Naugle |
| Production code | XCBV1007 |
| Original release date | June 23, 2022 |
| Running time | 20 minutes |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
The series follows Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto, an award-winning New York City chef de cuisine, who returns to his hometown of Chicago to run his late brother Michael's failing Italian beef sandwich shop. The episode is set in real time, and follows the characters as they prepare to open the shop, when chaos ensues in the kitchen. The episode is the shortest of the season at 20 minutes, 18 of which are presented as a single take.
The episode received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised the episode's originality, cinematography, Storer's directing, performances, character development, sound mixing and tension. It was named among the best TV episodes of 2022 by many critics, and also received award nominations, including wins for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (for Ayo Edebiri) at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards.
Plot
The episode opens with a clip of WXRT host Lin Brehmer announcing the song "Chicago" by Sufjan Stevens which then starts playing over the opening credits.[1]
With 20 minutes before opening, the crew prepares for their shifts. Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) reads aloud a food critic's highly favorable review of The Beef. The critic highlights a risotto dish that Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) had been experimenting with and then gave him to avoid it going to waste, unaware that she was serving it to a critic. Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) arrives, telling Ebraheim to stop reading the review.
Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) arrives late, being forced to bring her son Louie (Pedro Henrique) after he was suspended from school. She asks Carmy to teach him culinary skills, so he assigns Sydney to help Louie. As they prepare for the opening, Sydney and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) get into an argument regarding her desire to put the risotto dish on the menu. Meanwhile, the staff learn that Sydney accidentally left the pre-order option on for the shop's to-go service, leaving them with hundreds of orders that will be due in less than 10 minutes. Overwhelmed, an increasingly furious Carmy screams at the staff to start cooking everything they have. With everyone's nerves on edge with the rush, the staff's conflicts come to a head as Sydney and Richie continue arguing and Carmy furiously shouts at the staff to keep working. Carmy fuels the animosity between Sydney and Richie by giving them conflicting instructions.
Completely oblivious to the chaos in the kitchen, Marcus (Lionel Boyce) neglects his cake-making duties in order to experiment with his side project of perfecting a donut. When Marcus tries to show his latest attempt to Carmy, he angrily throws it on the floor, prompting Marcus to walk out. Seeing this, Richie and Sydney stop their argument as they try to tell Carmy to calm down, only for Sydney to accidentally stab Richie with her knife. Though Richie resignedly brushes it off while he has Ebraheim treat his wound, Sydney finally has enough and quits with just one minute left before opening. She curses Carmy as she walks out, blaming him for making the already bad situation in the kitchen worse with his behavior. Distressed, Carmy paces around the kitchen and tries Marcus' donut off the floor: apparently impressed by the results, he destroys the receipt machine and storms out of the kitchen in defeat.
Context
- The episode begins with a 93.1 FM WXRT radio personality announcing "I'm Lin Brehmer, your best friend in the whole world. It's great to be alive!"[2] Brehmer died six months after the episode was released, following a long struggle with prostate cancer.[3] WXRT is the local alt-rock station, said to play "an unholy blend of '90s Chicago heyday stuff (Smashing Pumpkins, Local H), modern indie rock that's not too out there, and a lot of support for local bands."[4]
- The Chicago Telegraph restaurant reviewer gives the Original Beef of Chicagoland their top rating, largely on the basis of Sydney's cola ribs and risotto.[5][a]
- This success provokes Richie (who elsewhere claims to be director of human resources for Berzatto family restaurants) to inquire, "Sydney, you blowing somebody down at The Telegraph?"[5] (Later, when Carmy is calling out kitchen questions, Richie's answer is "69 all day, chef!") (Later, he asks Sydney, "Why are you being such a fucking bitch?")
- Richie calls the Telegraph reviewer a mamaluke, which is Italian-American slang meaning a fool or someone who's stupid.[6] Later he calls Sydney's reforms "scustamad millennial bullshit". Scustamad is Italian-American slang for someone with bad manners who is rude or otherwise cannot conduct themselves properly.[7]
- Sydney stabs Richie in part because of a complete breakdown in the kitchen-jargon communication techniques that Carmy has been trying to enforce. As chef Spencer Horovitz told Eater in 2023, "The whole point of efficient kitchen language comes from the hierarchical background of very organized kitchens that are supposed to model a militaristic system. So you'll see in the military it's very similar language, but [in restaurants] we're communicating as our physical bodies move through space to prevent people from getting stabbed, like when that happens in The Bear."[8] Carmy tells Richie after the fact, "you probably fuckin' deserved it."[5]
- When butt-stabbed Richie goes to Ebraheim for urgent care, he asks to be told about "the factions." Ebra begins describing the roles of Siad Barre and Mohamed Farrah Aidid in the Somali Rebellion and Somali Civil War. Richie recognizes the proper nouns in the story from a movie by his favorite director, Ridley Scott: "Wait, is this shit fuckin' Black Hawk Down? Fuckin' Piven!"[9]
- In "System" Carmy told Tina not to wipe her hands on her apron. In between eating Marcus' donut and knocking the ticket printer off the pass, Carmy wipes his hands on his apron.
Production
Development
The episode was directed by series creator Christopher Storer and written by executive producer Joanna Calo. It was Calo's first writing credit, and Storer's fourth directing credit.[10]
Costuming
Set decoration and props
- Pastry consultant Sarah Mispagel-Lustbader made 12 chocolate cakes for use in filming the episode.[12]
- The New York Times wrote in 2024, "...this is not entirely clear, [but] the knife [Sydney] accidentally stabs Richie with looks an awful lot like...the Victorinox Fibrox Pro 8-inch chef's knife."[13]
Writing
Storer told Esquire magazine that the cascade of to-go preorders felt like the other shoe dropping: "For Carmy, in episode seven, the tickets are a perfect opportunity to say, 'Oh, well, here it is. Now we're in hell. And now I have to blow this thing up again.'"[14]
Filming
The episode begins with an opening credits sequence, the first in the series, in the form of a montage accompanied by Sufjan Stevens music:[15]
...demonstrating its amalgamation of the city's authentic histories and its characters' backgrounds in a fully articulated critique of gentrification and the erasure of local culture. The sequence intercuts carefully composed vistas of the city's architecture with individual shots of the characters as they make their way across the urban labyrinth...the montage offers a little over two minutes and 26 seconds of contemporary and historical footage that evokes Chicago's prohibition history, its sports celebrities, and its political moments...The sequence assembles its own version of the city. Frames of trains blazing across the screen and apartment buildings' grid-like facades are interspersed with singular frames of busy citizens as the montage narrows down its focus to the perspectives of Sydney heading to work, Manny (Richard Esteras) travelling on the bus, and Carmen hurrying along the street before it sharply cuts back to the kitchen of The Beef where Marcus (Lionel Boyce) is experimenting with doughnuts. Lost in the urban labyrinth, the characters join the faceless crowds who populate the impersonal non-places of the streets and the city's public transport.[15]
The montage includes short shots of skyscrapers such as the Marina City buildings and Sears Tower, a fire that might be the 1934 stock yards blaze, Chicago police versus anti-war protestors at the 1968 Democratic Convention, images of the Great Migration, FSA portraits of Black Chicagoans on the eve of World War II, mafioso Al Capone, politician/convict Rod Blagojevich, Barack Obama, Michael Jordan basketball jerseys, and Wrigley Field, the home ballpark of Chicago Cubs.[15][16] Restaurants featured in the opening montage include Pequod's Pizzeria, Parky's Hot Dogs, Johnnie's Beef in Elmwood, Superdawg, and Gene & Jude's.[17]
Christopher Storer mentioned that the episode was not supposed to be filmed in any specific manner.[18] The idea of filming in a long take was only conceived two or three weeks before filming began, with Storer and Calo re-writing the script to accommodate the necessities of the episode.[19] Calo said, "Having a penultimate episode where things fall apart is very Structure 101. Our dialogue is so stripped back, you find the need to let your camera do more work."[1] Storer was impressed with the original script, but deemed that a cut would kill the momentum, and he felt filming it in one take was the best way to tell the story.[20]
As Storer explained, the crew "wanted to make sure it was absolutely 100 percent in service of the story and not us showing off." To prepare for filming, Storer, Andrew Wehde and camera operator Gary Malouf calculated the route of the set that would be used for the actors, also filming a version of the route with an iPhone. The crew considered using certain points to make a cut if needed, but Storer was confident that the episode could be filmed in one take.[20] Sound mixer Scott D. Smith wrote in 2025 that the 18-minute continuous shot "contained multiple complications for every department. Thanks to some incredible boom work on the part of my crew, we made it through, with virtually no ADR."[21]
The cast reportedly filmed the sequence in four or five takes.[19] With each take, the cast experimented with their performances, with Ebon Moss-Bachrach portraying his character more resigned, while Ayo Edebiri played her character more furious. According to Wehde, the crew did not use the most perfect version of the takes, settling for the "most intense and immersive": one mistake from the take used for the episode is the pile of relish on the floor while Carmy tastes the donut, which occurred due to Malouf knocking over a container of giardiniera.[1] Storer felt that the first take could be used.[22] They ultimately used either the second take (per film editor Joanna Naugle)[23] or the fourth take (per cinematographer Andrew Wehde).[22] Wehde said in 2023, "We didn't know it was going to work...The 100 or more people who made it happen plus the actors all cheered after every take. It was this eruption of celebration each time we did it, followed by a mad rush to reset the set as fast as they could with the real food and get the kitchen back to its moment before the lunch rush. It was amazing."[22] Per Naugle, "They just nailed it pretty much right out of the gate. And every take was usable, too."[23]
Jeremy Allen White explained, "They still managed to keep all of the important story points in place for episode seven, but they wrote it as a blueprint to allow us to shoot it in one shot. That was very important, obviously, for it to start with the words." White praised the episode, considering it as "it really lends itself to the story and where the characters are at because the tension is building so quickly we don't give the audience a break from it. There's no reprieve — it's consistent."[19]
Sound design
According to supervising sound editor Steve "Major" Giammaria, "The three elements at play [in 'Review'] are really the ticket printer, the score, and the dialogue. Everything else plays around those as they weave in and out."[24]
Music
Color key:
- = opening credits
- = lyrics captioned
- = diagetic (music audible to characters in-universe)
- = closing credits
| Song | Performer(s) | Scene | Year | Album | Version | Songwriter(s) | Nationality of artist(s) | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Chicago" | Sufjan Stevens | Used for the first of four opening credits sequences thus far, along with credits in "Fishes" and "Omelette" in season 2 and "Next" in season 3. "Chicago" has been described as a "baroque folk song."[27] One writer commented about the use of the Sufjan Stevens track, "'You came to take us, all things go, all things go,' sings Sufjan. 'To recreate us—all things grow, all things grow.' The audience is nothing if not hopeful about these broken characters and their possibility for growth and recovery in the face of abuse, trauma, and miscommunication. The irony is that this hopeful track sets up one of the most disastrous days at The Beef, making the much-repeated lyric 'I've made a lot of mistakes in my mind' much more appropriate."[28] | 2005 | Illinois | Demo version | Sufjan Stevens | American | Indie folk |
| "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" | Wilco | All 11 minutes of the 2005 Kicking Television live version play during the to-go orders crisis.[29] The music proper ends about the point when Carmy knocks the ticket machine off the pass; the audience reaction ends about halfway through the minimal credits reel (no cast or exec producers), followed by silence. | 2004 | A Ghost Is Born | Kicking Television: Live in Chicago | Jeff Tweedy | American | Art Rock |
Reception
Critical reviews
"Review" received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised the episode's cinematography, script, tension, performances. Rebekah Valentine of IGN wrote, "'Review' is especially incredible. It's shorter than any of the other episodes, and most of its action takes place over a very small handful of long, uncut shots in the restaurant that perfectly encapsulate the escalating chaos of the season's dramatic climax."[30]
Tim Lowery of The A.V. Club praised the episode, deeming it as "one of the most impressive directing feats I've seen on television this year."[31] Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone wrote, "It is far more panic-inducing than anything to come in the first few episodes, but the difference is that by now, The Bear has made us invested in Carmy, Sydney, Marcus, and all the others. The episode is still a two-ton stress bomb, but now one with people to root for and conflicts we have grown to care deeply about. It's incredible."[32]
Marah Eakin of Vulture gave the episode a perfect 5 star out of 5 rating and wrote, "The Bear's seventh episode, 'Review,' is so good that it should be shown in film school just to show how much tension, backstory, and exposition a show's creators can pack into a mere 20 minutes of television."[33] Nicole Gallucci of Decider praised the episode and compared it to the film Uncut Gems, writing, "'Review' is a remarkable, anxiety-inducing feat that harnesses tension as an art form. The performances are raw, ripe with passive aggression, and at times hard to watch — an especially disturbing truth, since the show has been praised for authentic depictions of abusive culinary workplaces. The dialogue is damning and seamlessly flows like a piping hot plate making its way through a kitchen. And the choice to capture the mayhem in a single shot both dazzles and disorients."[34] Dina Paulson of Collider praised the episode's conclusion, writing "The character tension that boils over in 'Review' is, for sure, between the chefs in this extraordinary kitchen, but it also is about the self feeling self, in natural states of aggravation, healing, and absorbing pleasure because damn, sometimes a thing is so good it stops you in your mind tracks."[35]
The episode was included in many publications as among the best TV episodes of 2022, including The Hollywood Reporter, TV Guide, Mashable, Rolling Stone, IndieWire, Entertainment Weekly, IGN, and Paste.[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]
Accolades
Retrospective reviews
In 2024, Variety listed "Review" at number three on a list of top 10 episodes of The Bear, commenting, "Everything is going wrong, and everyone's worst instincts are on full display: Richie and Sydney bicker and belittle each other, Marcus is working on a donut for some reason, and Carmy summons a tyrannical rage. Tension bubbles over into turmoil as Carmy loses control of his kitchen and staff. Marcus quits; Sydney accidentally stabs Richie in the ass with a kitchen knife; Sydney quits; Carmy punches the printer, overflowing with order tickets. The blood-pumping climax of the first season of The Bear; 'Review' forces you inside the dysfunctional kitchen of The Beef and doesn’t let you leave—and yes, Storer won a directing Emmy for this episode. During the first season run, its dizzying disarray provided an example of what The Bear does best. That is, until Season 2 revealed a new, even more captivating side of the series."[49] Also in 2024, The Hollywood Reporter placed the 20-minute "Review" at 2 on a ranked list of 28 episodes produced to that point. It is "the shortest episode of the series, almost entirely presented in a single take...It explores how success comes in many forms, as does failure, and sometimes, the two things look very much alike: transcendent and monstrous all in one. Like the titular review itself, 'Review' was the viral episode that put The Bear on the map back when it debuted, and has a strong claim to best episode of the series."[50] Screen Rant ranked "Review" 3rd-best out of the 28 episodes of The Bear produced through the end of season three, calling it "the most unhinged episode...by a wide margin," and one that "feels like a stage play, relying on precise coordination, blocking, and camera movements to achieve the ambitious feat of the extended one-take."[51]
In 2025, Vulture ranked "Review" as 3rd-best out of 38 episodes of The Bear, calling it "a perfect episode of TV, period. No notes."[52] Collider placed "Review" at number 2 on its 2025 list of top 10 episodes of The Bear, commenting that "there is something so intoxicating about 'Review,' an episode that embraces the chaos of working in a restaurant in a number of brilliant and surprising ways."[53] Esquire magazine listed "Review" at number 4 on its 2025 list of top 10 best episodes of The Bear.[54]
In 2024, Screen Rant listed the bow tied on the end of the stabbing as the third-funniest scene in the history of the show to date: "The scene is brilliantly framed with Richie exiting the room announcing, 'Ebra, I got stabbed,' to which Carmy replies, 'Probably fuckin' deserved it'. Richie knows he pushed Sydney too much and probably did deserve it."[55]
See also
- List of The Bear episodes
- The Bear season one
- Previous episode: "Ceres"
- Next episode: "Braciole"