For all the talk of Hollywood running out of original ideas and continuously regurgitating remakes and reboots of things that were once original themselves, there are still a handful of projects today carrying the industry. On TV, Succession did much of the heavy lifting for the past four years, but with the Roys bidding farewell in season four, the world needed a new champion.
Swap the media industry with the restaurant business, fake news with fine cuisine, and one Jeremy for the other, and you’ve got yourself viewers’ latest obsession — Hulu’s dramedy The Bear. Season two of the Jeremy Allen White-led show premiered a week ago to rave reviews and has been slowly filling the void left by Jesse Armstrong’s HBO masterwork.
Albeit different in many ways, The Bear and Succession share a lot of the same punchy comedy, allied with high-speed dialogue, and deeply emotional familial and personal drama. Likewise, both shows are led by two ensembles of incredibly talented actors, who are, at the same time, largely fresh faces breaking out in the industry. There’s also a resemblance in the way each of them relies on visual style to help tell their stories, be it through mise-en-scene, blocking, camera movement, cinematography, or editing.
On all levels, Succession and The Bear breathe life into the world of television by joining compelling stories with entertaining and energetic ways of telling them. They’re simultaneously intellectually complex and easy to watch, a powerful combination that few have managed to nail. Hopefully, the latter will run for as many, if not more, seasons than the former, effectively leaving us all a little more at ease when contemplating the current state of the medium.
All four seasons of Succession are available to stream on Max. Seasons one and two of The Bear are streaming on Hulu.