Aug. 9, 2024

Unpacking "The Bear": Crafting Compelling TV Pilots, with Lolovai Towler

Have you ever wondered what makes a TV pilot so compelling that it draws you in from the very first 28 minutes?
Join us on Fandom Portals as we uncover the magic behind "The Bear" with our special guest, the insightful film critic Lolovai Towler. Lolovai shares his initial encounter with this award-winning series, and together we dissect the masterful writing, character arcs, and the technical brilliance that elevates the pilot episode. You'll discover how a single recommendation from a trusted friend can turn initial scepticism into genuine admiration for a show's artistry.

Dive into the heart of "The Bear" as we navigate through key scenes and character dynamics. From the fiery exchanges between Richie and Carmy to the warm but chaotic family dinner scene, we explore how each moment is crafted to perfection. We also touch upon comparisons with "The Acolyte," examining the nuanced differences in character interactions. This episode is a treasure trove of insights into strong narrative writing and character development, and a celebration of the actors' abilities to convey deep emotions through subtle gestures. Whether you're a seasoned critic or a curious viewer, you'll find something to appreciate in our spirited discussion.

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Chapters

00:16 - Establishing Narrative in TV Franchise

12:57 - Exploring Dynamics in TV Pilot

17:40 - Character Development in Restaurant Drama

Transcript

WEBVTT

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Hello everybody and welcome to the Fandom Portals podcast, where curiosity meets community in a celebration of all things geek.

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We build connections on every episode by delving into your favourite fandom questions in the time it takes you to drink your morning cup of coffee.

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Hello everybody, it's me, your host, aaron Davies, and today I have the great pleasure of interviewing my good friend Lollivy Towler, because when you start up your own podcast, who best to interview than your own personal friends?

00:00:45.106 --> 00:00:57.677
No, not only is Lovai my great friend, but he is also a very avid film critic and he has a very logical and detailed view when it comes to the art form that is film and TV.

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It's a passion area of his, and I was lucky enough to have him join me today to talk about the topic of narrative story writing to establish a franchise TV show.

00:01:08.828 --> 00:01:30.911
Now, we looked at this with the focus on the great TV show known as the Bear, so if you have not seen the Bear by the end of this episode, you'll definitely want to, as Lullaby and I delve into all of the things that make the characterization, the storytelling and the plot of just the very first episode such amazing viewing and a must-see for anyone who loves cinema.

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For anyone who loves TV, it is a phenomenal piece of art.

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So, without any further ado, I present to you the very first interview of the Fandom Portals podcast with the one, the only Lollivy Towler.

00:01:43.990 --> 00:01:45.656
Lollivy, would you like to say hello to the people of Fandom Portals podcast?

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With the one, the only Lollivy Towler, lollivy, would you like to say hello to the people of Fandom Portals?

00:01:50.268 --> 00:01:50.810
Hi everyone.

00:01:50.810 --> 00:01:59.013
I'm Lollivy, so I'm just like an amateur movie content enjoyer like yourself.

00:01:59.013 --> 00:02:17.990
In particular, what I like to do is, as soon as I've watched some contents, especially something that I've enjoyed or something historical background, I also like to immediately go watch reviews of it or perhaps fact check behind the scenes, look at the trivia behind things, and I pick up a lot of useless information which I'm pretty happy to impart with you.

00:02:17.990 --> 00:02:24.344
So I'm really really happy that you're here to tune in with us and to see if you agree with what we've had to say.

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Perhaps you'd like to add in something in the comments very much like to um, build this community that we've got going on absolutely sounds amazing and that's exactly why I wanted to talk to you about, uh, this show or the topic that we're talking about today's.

00:02:36.548 --> 00:02:59.848
Lullaby and I have decided to do this episode on our on our guest spot of phantom portals today about the impact of good writing in starting a long-running TV series or franchise, and the topic in which we've decided to base that investigation on today is the Bear, which is an FX show which also streams on Disney+ and Lullaby.

00:02:59.848 --> 00:03:05.306
Can you tell us a little bit about how you first encountered this show and what made you click play on it to start with?

00:03:05.306 --> 00:03:06.371
What were your first impressions?

00:03:08.822 --> 00:03:11.349
I think, probably most recently, that it had won awards.

00:03:11.349 --> 00:03:14.308
I hadn't heard of it at all.

00:03:14.308 --> 00:03:20.468
I don't open up Disney Plus as much unless a new Star Wars show comes up or something has been recommended to me.

00:03:20.468 --> 00:03:22.728
It's probably my least used platform.

00:03:22.728 --> 00:03:35.157
However, I did notice that it had recently won awards for external second season and I was looking for a new show, uh, something for new simulation, and, um, okay, we go and very happy that I did, probably a few months ago.

00:03:35.157 --> 00:04:03.028
Uh, my son aaron noticed, uh, I did my own, just um amateur review on uh four, five shows that I've found this year and the beer I'd actually ranked number one was Fallout, which was blown up with two, and even though Fallout is probably more closer to what I enjoy more, you know, science fiction themes, video game themes, pop culture kind of stuff that's definitely my kind of enjoyment factor.

00:04:03.028 --> 00:04:09.317
The beer is a much more better show in what can you?

00:04:10.662 --> 00:04:15.865
I completely agree and the way that I sort of found this show is, first of all, that post that you were referring to.

00:04:15.865 --> 00:04:20.360
I did see that and I saw that you rated it above Fallout, and I'm a person that really did enjoy Fallout.

00:04:20.360 --> 00:04:24.651
I was thinking how can this be better than a show that is already fantastic?

00:04:24.651 --> 00:04:30.180
And then, after querying you about it and talking to you about other shows, you actually recommended this to me.

00:04:30.180 --> 00:04:31.564
You said, hey, have you tried the Bear?

00:04:31.564 --> 00:04:34.502
And I was like I don't really like cooking shows, I'm not really into that.

00:04:34.502 --> 00:04:36.949
I'm not a MasterChef fan, I don't think it's for me.

00:04:36.949 --> 00:04:47.661
And you said give it a go.

00:04:47.661 --> 00:04:48.603
It's 28 minutes of your life.

00:04:48.603 --> 00:04:49.644
If you don't like it, fine.

00:04:49.665 --> 00:04:54.055
So I did and I watched it and the first 28 minute episode is an absolute testament to really good writing, really good use of screenplay and just an amazing piece.

00:04:54.055 --> 00:04:56.523
I'll call it art, I think.

00:04:56.523 --> 00:05:04.242
I think it's a complete package of put together music, sound, dialogue, cutaway scenes, camera work.

00:05:04.242 --> 00:05:11.031
I think it's got the whole package in the first episode and again, it blew me away that it did so much in 28 minutes.

00:05:11.031 --> 00:05:12.627
So that's what we're going to talk about today.

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All the lovely people at Fandom Portals, we are going to look at the very first episode of the Bear and we are going to look at how to establish a franchise during the writing phase of it, or how a well-written first episode can engross viewers for the long run.

00:05:28.084 --> 00:05:44.862
All right, obviously this will contain spoilers for those of you that have not seen the bear, but I hopefully it'll give you a landing point to enable you to go and check it out and watch the remaining three seasons that it has at the time of this recording, the third one having just been released very, very recently.

00:05:44.862 --> 00:06:01.285
All right, so first of all, mr Tim, directed by Christopher Storer, also written and created by him, can you tell me from the get-go the first scenes of the first episode, what?

00:06:01.305 --> 00:06:04.435
kind of hooked you straight away, I would say after the dream sequence.

00:06:04.435 --> 00:06:11.052
Yeah, the dream sequence from the beginning goes for about 10 seconds to you and it's just kind of like where's the show going?

00:06:11.052 --> 00:06:16.925
There's a guy walking up to a bear cage and all of a sudden he wakes up and he's inside his kitchen.

00:06:16.925 --> 00:06:26.220
I've got to give it straight away to the soundtrack that they repeatedly actually use throughout the series, but not exorbitantly.

00:06:26.220 --> 00:06:32.855
They use the riff from a song called uh, new beats, um and um.

00:06:32.855 --> 00:06:42.384
It puts you into this fight or flight response, because he's waking up and he's looking at the clock and it's 6 am and he's immediately into what he's going to do.

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He's getting, he's his vegetables ready.

00:06:44.269 --> 00:06:46.721
He's getting his deliveries for the meat Immediately.

00:06:46.721 --> 00:06:51.471
He already has a problem the meat has been under-ordered because they don't have enough money.

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You would have noticed Aaron in these shots, like when he's on the phone he's trying to find this meat connect.

00:06:58.584 --> 00:07:00.069
He's trying to do deals and things like that.

00:07:00.069 --> 00:07:13.319
There are like little bits of paper, that there are little bits of paper stating that this is due, this is due, implying that he's working at a place where they're not making money and he's really behind the pump.

00:07:13.319 --> 00:07:17.050
And then all of a sudden you realize, hey, he actually stayed the night here.

00:07:17.050 --> 00:07:19.146
He's woken up on his freezer.

00:07:19.146 --> 00:07:21.846
He slept there last night, he hasn't left yet.

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This is hell on earth.

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It goes on and it goes straight into prepping.

00:07:27.060 --> 00:07:30.850
And then other customers some, not other customers are cordialist.

00:07:31.151 --> 00:07:47.081
Other characters, the show start to come in and they don't need to be introduced because the protagonist, carly, immediately starts talking to them and you, through their conversations, you understand their role and what they're there to do.

00:07:47.081 --> 00:07:50.187
They haven't come in and said, oh, I'm a baker.

00:07:50.187 --> 00:07:56.788
No, akami will go through and say, hey, I need these, I need you to do this method so that the bread is in a particular way.

00:07:56.788 --> 00:07:57.812
So then you know.

00:07:57.812 --> 00:08:08.367
And then he goes well, I need the mixer to be working correctly, which is a type of um attack and defense sort of uh screenwriting, which I'd like to elaborate a little bit more.

00:08:08.367 --> 00:08:12.901
As we go along, um, but as these events unfold, he's continuously looking at the clock.

00:08:12.901 --> 00:08:33.332
You're feeling um really intense as well, because you know, for a lot of people that don't work in the kitchen, you kind kind of feel like, wow, kitchens are actually pretty hectic and I feel like anyone that watches, let alone just this episode alone, would respect that this is doing kitchen work a lot of justice.

00:08:33.332 --> 00:08:34.495
I think so as well.

00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:50.639
I can also attest to that immediate feeling of anxiety as soon as the soundtrack hit, but also coming from the scene where he's obviously in that dream sequence the bear comes out of the cage and just lunges at him after he's trying to shush the bear as well, and that was sort of symbolic to me.

00:08:50.639 --> 00:08:53.707
I was like, okay, obviously the restaurant is going to be called the bear, like that.

00:08:53.707 --> 00:08:55.753
That's him trying to sort of tame the beast kind of thing.

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So that immediately deep dove me into it and I like what you added about the pieces of paper strewn across the desk in the wall as he was on the phone ordering the meat, because one of the pieces of paper that was on there that is established very early as well, is the actual death notice or the eulogy or the funeral notice of his brother, whose name is Mitch, I believe.

00:09:15.226 --> 00:09:15.729
Is that correct?

00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:17.323
Actually we're talking about?

00:09:17.323 --> 00:09:18.769
Oh no, it's Mike Mike.

00:09:20.846 --> 00:09:31.686
So there was a death notice on the desk about a gentleman whose name is mike, who ends up being kami's brother, and through the rest of the series or through the rest of the episode, you find out that this restaurant actually belonged to him.

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Those staff were his staff and kami has come in to take over this.

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And that, to me, was what drew me into the show, because this guy has taken on the mantle of something that he didn't create.

00:09:42.344 --> 00:09:50.140
And then early on it's also established that he is quite a well-known chef in quite a well-known restaurant and he's very, very good at what he does.

00:09:50.140 --> 00:09:57.648
And I think that's also established through the shots of him preparing and prepping his meals, obviously knowing how a kitchen is run.

00:09:57.729 --> 00:10:06.955
And then he's in this it is a dingy looking sort of diner at the start of this first episode and he's obviously a fish out of water or very out of place and you sort of start to question you know why is he here?

00:10:07.756 --> 00:10:14.604
What's going on, what happened to his brother, and it's those kinds of questions that keep you sort of invested as you're going along.

00:10:14.604 --> 00:10:22.787
So I really enjoyed that very first sequence and as soon as that, as you said, that music hit, I was like, okay, we're on here as it went through.

00:10:22.787 --> 00:10:31.489
Do you want to talk about the duality or the yeah, the double sort of existence that Kami obviously has?

00:10:31.489 --> 00:10:49.451
So he comes from a place of expertise and he's walking around this kitchen with staff that don't really seem to respect him at this point or at least that's what I got from watching the first episode but he goes around calling them chef and he uses hospitality terms like behind and corner, as he's in the kitchen.

00:10:49.451 --> 00:10:52.259
So he's actually trying to introduce something into this space.

00:10:52.259 --> 00:10:56.321
Do you want to talk about how that develops as the first episode goes on as well?

00:10:56.321 --> 00:10:56.642
Lullaby.

00:10:56.909 --> 00:11:00.902
Yeah, it could have been if those practices were already instilled.

00:11:00.902 --> 00:11:06.918
Definitely, I would say the chef's introduction of calling each other chef was definitely his idea, because he explains why.

00:11:06.918 --> 00:11:17.715
So it is possible that your corners and your behinds are standard kitchen terms and anyone that works their kitchen could properly chirp in here and let me know if I'm right.

00:11:17.715 --> 00:11:22.711
But what I like about it is it's also teaching the audience how kitchens are run.

00:11:22.711 --> 00:11:27.001
It's interesting how much communication and teamwork and synergy are required.

00:11:27.001 --> 00:11:34.498
So by saying corner and behind, it's just no different to indicators for cars on the road and it makes it work.

00:11:34.498 --> 00:11:42.971
There's so much more in a kitchen that is much more complex than you think, but it's delivered in a way that doesn't treat the audience like you're an idiot.

00:11:42.971 --> 00:11:48.673
So it either assumes you already know or it teaches you without just saying this is why we do what we do.

00:11:49.436 --> 00:11:58.135
Speaking of talking to your audience like an idiot, I want to go back into talk, discuss things about attacking, defending, establishing characters.

00:11:58.135 --> 00:12:08.399
In particular, there's a scene where Carmen, his cousin who was a ribelite because he had to do daughter pickups they're in the freezer and they're talking.

00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:19.636
Now they are identifying who they are without just exposition, dumping information onto you by using what's called, in story writing, attacking and defending.

00:12:19.636 --> 00:12:26.999
Or his cousin would attack Kami by saying, hey, we never would do these kinds of things here at this restaurant when your brother was here.

00:12:26.999 --> 00:12:32.515
And then Kami would defend and say why did he leave the restaurant to me?

00:12:33.250 --> 00:12:44.856
So in those bits of information even if you hadn't received, looked at the notes beforehand and saw that there was a death notice and things like that, there were clues foreshadowing up to this point.

00:12:44.856 --> 00:12:54.041
You'll know that there's a brother who's passed away their cousins and it's also been left to Kami and it's a natural transition of attack, defend, attack, defend.

00:12:54.041 --> 00:12:56.378
An example of poor attack defend.

00:12:56.378 --> 00:13:07.639
And I don't want to delve into it too much because I believe we might talk about it later, but there's a scene in the first episode of the Acolyte where Yord and Osha discuss.

00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:15.749
But what actually happens is Yord is just talking straight at Osha and says well, your two mothers are dead because of this, this and this.

00:13:15.749 --> 00:13:17.836
Yeah, it almost feels unnatural.

00:13:18.097 --> 00:13:21.399
Yeah, like you say, he says to her like your training was hard enough as it is.

00:13:21.399 --> 00:13:23.398
I was like isn't that up to her to decide, kind of thing.

00:13:23.398 --> 00:13:25.518
But yeah, I understand what you mean with the back and forth.

00:13:27.392 --> 00:13:31.900
Yeah, and it comes unnatural because he's explaining her backstory.

00:13:31.900 --> 00:13:33.230
She already knows this.

00:13:33.230 --> 00:13:36.921
Why are you telling me this is not attacking the Finn?

00:13:36.921 --> 00:13:42.113
That is exposition for the audience to point out that she has two mothers and they're both dead.

00:13:42.113 --> 00:13:47.005
That's exactly right, because she doesn't know what to say as soon as he's said that, she just looks and goes.

00:13:47.005 --> 00:13:47.450
Okay.

00:13:48.150 --> 00:13:48.893
Why do I say that?

00:13:48.893 --> 00:13:52.801
I think the initial scene with his character's name is Richie.

00:13:52.801 --> 00:13:53.302
Is that correct?

00:13:53.302 --> 00:13:54.063
Yeah, richie.

00:13:54.063 --> 00:13:56.818
Yeah, the cousin's name is Richie and Kami.

00:13:56.818 --> 00:14:03.663
Their first meeting is very telling as well, because it is an extremely passionate discussion, obviously held in private.

00:14:03.663 --> 00:14:18.402
You already kind of know that Richie has an established relationship with the staff, just on how they interact with him before he goes in, and you know that the staff don't really respect Kami because of the incident that's happened before with the pot calling him chef and then somebody questioning that.

00:14:18.402 --> 00:14:20.375
So there's like a power struggle there.

00:14:20.375 --> 00:14:23.731
And then obviously, that punching statement of why didn't he leave it to you?

00:14:23.731 --> 00:14:26.434
That question is for the audience as well.

00:14:26.434 --> 00:14:30.440
Why didn't he leave it to Richie, who's obviously a bit more comfortable in this setting?

00:14:30.440 --> 00:14:34.304
Why did he want, uh, kami to go and have this, this sort of restaurant?

00:14:34.304 --> 00:14:38.037
And I think there is also looking a little bit deeper at the characters.

00:14:38.037 --> 00:14:53.413
If you wanted to sort of delve into the emotions of the characters as well, they're obviously still in a grieving process because the way that they're talking to each other is very aggressive, as you said, attacking the fence, but it's also very accusatory, and you can tell that they really don't understand the motivations of what's happened as well.

00:14:53.413 --> 00:14:55.538
So they're still processing this fact.

00:14:55.538 --> 00:14:59.638
I think that comes along a little bit further as the episode develops.

00:14:59.778 --> 00:15:01.201
I'll tell you about one of my favorite scenes.

00:15:01.201 --> 00:15:04.653
It was, you know how we'll talk about Sydney as well when she gets hired.

00:15:04.653 --> 00:15:12.225
But Sydney obviously does a family dinner, you know, and there's obviously some expectation that goes around, that family sort of dinner.

00:15:12.225 --> 00:15:12.966
Before they open.

00:15:12.966 --> 00:15:17.701
She has to prepare a meal for the staff and they talk to her in various regard to that.

00:15:17.701 --> 00:15:20.559
But I love the shot of everybody sort of eating around that table.

00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:22.356
They're all talking about what they're grateful for.

00:15:22.356 --> 00:15:26.929
It gives us a really great insight into the relationship of the building, even though it's so hectic.

00:15:26.929 --> 00:15:35.539
It's just chaos the whole time of cooking and ordering and moving things from this way and that and everybody's doing their own job.

00:15:35.539 --> 00:15:41.773
So then they have this moment of peace where they sit down with what they call the family and they just eat and enjoy and talk.

00:15:41.773 --> 00:15:46.893
And I thought it was very interesting the separation between Kami at this point and the family during that dinner.

00:15:46.893 --> 00:16:02.952
Sydney's newer than Kami, but Kami was standing up looking out the window, very driven, very focused on what the restaurant had to offer and the big lineup that was coming outside because he just funded this big tournament from the pinball machine.

00:16:02.952 --> 00:16:06.225
But I thought that it was very establishing to see.

00:16:06.225 --> 00:16:23.315
Okay, this guy is the leader at the moment, he's also on the outer, but he's also one track minded, he's kind of focused on his restaurant, whereas these guys here are just sort of loving the fact that they're together, working, they get this meal and it's sort of that establishment.

00:16:23.355 --> 00:16:27.032
That wasn't outwardly said, it's all from the conclusions you draw as an audience.

00:16:27.032 --> 00:16:31.159
So, as you said before, it doesn't treat you like an idiot, which is the type of storytelling that I love.

00:16:31.159 --> 00:16:37.543
I love where we get to learn more about characters and we're not explicitly told hey, this person is X, y, z.

00:16:37.543 --> 00:16:41.934
I just love being able to look and draw those connections myself.

00:16:41.934 --> 00:16:59.182
And, speaking of Richie and Kami and the way that that relationship develops just over this 28 minute episode, did you want to have a chat about the moment where we knew that, even though they're at odds with each other, there is still some very much a big connection of family and love within this episode?

00:16:59.182 --> 00:17:03.081
And of course, I'm talking about the moment where Kami goes outside to try and calm the mob.

00:17:03.081 --> 00:17:04.775
Did you want to elaborate on that Lullaby?

00:17:06.239 --> 00:17:13.577
Yeah, because when Kami goes outdoors to to carve the mold, there's a moment where he loses control because he doesn't know what to do.

00:17:13.577 --> 00:17:15.066
He's not a people's person at all.

00:17:15.066 --> 00:17:16.632
You're, you're lying, that he's a bit about.

00:17:16.632 --> 00:17:20.441
He's a bit of a psychopath, but, um, I won't um go into that too much.

00:17:20.441 --> 00:17:32.923
He he starts getting beaten up on the wall and that's when his cousin, richie, comes out and you know he's a people's person and he fires a gun up the air and gets everybody to get back in order and back in line.

00:17:32.923 --> 00:17:39.758
That's when you realize the parallels between what his cousin actually does, because he's the only one that's not cooking anything.

00:17:40.278 --> 00:17:53.494
Ben Milley, he's the people's person, so he's the face of the franchise, so to speak, or at least he sees himself to be, and so his skills are dealing directly with people.

00:17:53.494 --> 00:17:57.123
Um, he understands how the streets of chicago work.

00:17:57.123 --> 00:17:58.532
He has experience.

00:17:58.532 --> 00:18:12.625
Yeah, so his experience plus his people skills conflicting with kami's new york experience of foreign dining, uh, but also lack of thumb, uh, people skills is conflict in between.

00:18:12.625 --> 00:18:15.801
So there is, there is some respect and understanding.

00:18:15.801 --> 00:18:17.809
They need each other at this present moment.

00:18:17.910 --> 00:18:28.193
Whether they want each other to be there is a different story and let's um, let's have a chat about the other member of the family that's introduced during this first episode in the character of sugar.

00:18:28.193 --> 00:18:30.262
Introduced briefly as the sister.

00:18:30.262 --> 00:18:37.922
She is bringing denim items for Kami to sell, to use as fundage for various different ingredients.

00:18:37.922 --> 00:18:56.896
Now I got the impression from my first and only viewing of the episode that these denim jackets are very special to Kami, or this denim product is very special to Kami, to the point where I kind of got the vibe and I think it's explicitly said that um, suga needed to get the jacket that Mike left for him or gave to him.

00:18:56.896 --> 00:19:11.923
So those, those denim kind of products I don't know if they move further into the season, but it allows us to then go and meet this Suga character who is his sister, and she actually comes in as the, the audience's questioning voice.

00:19:12.049 --> 00:19:19.781
Because at this point I'm thinking to myself okay, he's obviously got this obligation to his brother you know why is he so adamant to stay here?

00:19:19.781 --> 00:19:25.258
And she back and forths with him as well, to the point where he finally says the statement I'm gonna fix this place.

00:19:25.258 --> 00:19:27.711
And she says, well, nobody's asking you to.

00:19:27.711 --> 00:19:51.539
And it kind of brought in that dichotomy of you know, familial duty versus personal ambition, and I'm not sure what happens later on in the series, but straight away I'm really sort of drawn to the fact and drawn to this main character, that is, he's got his own ambition and he's applying that that love of food that he has, to this familial duty that he feels like he's having to do.

00:19:51.539 --> 00:19:56.412
Now, whether that's because he's doing it in an honorable way or whether he's doing it as a sense of guilt.

00:19:56.472 --> 00:20:04.440
I think I'll watch as the season goes on, but did you want to talk about the establishing of the characters?

00:20:04.440 --> 00:20:24.441
In terms of Kami, what we know about his relationship with the rest of the staff as well, because there's an incident with a character named Marcus, who's the guy that is the baker and the mixer incident, and then Kami actually earns his respect by the end, and it's all done through amazing writing and conversational dialogue techniques.

00:20:24.441 --> 00:20:25.777
Did you want to discuss that, oliver?

00:20:26.843 --> 00:20:27.064
Yeah.

00:20:27.064 --> 00:20:41.439
So going back onto the baker Ruckus, so he would give instructions for Marcus to make the bread better and Marcus would say don't tell me how to do my job, but the way that Carmen is because he is a little bit psychopath.

00:20:41.439 --> 00:20:50.137
When I say psychopath I don't mean, like you know, a person that loses his temper he rarely loses his temper but he talks in a very sensitive way.

00:20:50.137 --> 00:20:52.815
He explains the correct method in doing so.

00:20:52.815 --> 00:21:09.811
So if you were to think about this as like a layer of the cake and there are other layers of the cake where other scenes happen, and then carly comes back and you know the bread is bread, is immaculate, and he gets compliments from the orchestra like, hey, this is actually correct, so he, he gains their respect.

00:21:10.093 --> 00:21:15.478
That also happens with another character and then her name escapes me.

00:21:15.478 --> 00:21:25.227
She's like a Spanish lady and he would say chef, and she would say Jeff, jeff, yes, she can speak, yeah, she can speak English, but she's just trying to be difficult.

00:21:25.227 --> 00:21:27.192
Because she's like, hey, I've been getting along with you.

00:21:27.192 --> 00:21:28.413
Ah, no, tina, tina.

00:21:28.413 --> 00:21:30.636
Because she's like, hey, I've been getting along with the new Tina.

00:21:30.636 --> 00:21:31.097
Tina's her name.

00:21:31.097 --> 00:21:32.519
Yeah, tina, that's right.

00:21:32.519 --> 00:21:43.778
Again, tina is also conflicting as well, but not as overbearing, because he's the head chef, this is his place, he pays no wages, but there is still a level of disrespect.

00:21:43.778 --> 00:21:44.780
Same again.

00:21:44.780 --> 00:21:54.494
He comes back to her and they try the food, the meat, because he explained why it took longer for him to make this meat because of xyz.

00:21:55.517 --> 00:22:10.077
They try, this happens, so then gets as you step, because it's like this guy nearly knows what he's doing and the audience can come to that conclusion as well, especially after we talked about uh, richie goes out with a bullhorn and the gun to calm the mob.

00:22:10.077 --> 00:22:11.240
He comes in and he gun to calm the mob.

00:22:11.240 --> 00:22:20.238
He comes in and he tries one of the rolls as well, and even though he just told Kami you have to cook the spaghetti, the spaghetti is what makes us money, that's it.

00:22:20.238 --> 00:22:20.942
You don't know what goes on here.

00:22:20.942 --> 00:22:22.269
He goes into the back, he tries one of the rolls and he eats it.

00:22:22.269 --> 00:22:34.391
And you can just see the look of just elation on his face, like he's just totally enamored by this cooking and this meal that he's cooked and he puts it down and you can see he's obviously frustrated.

00:22:34.391 --> 00:22:39.923
He doesn't go and tell him this, but he also probably respects the amount that Kami knows in terms of food.

00:22:40.727 --> 00:22:41.689
And that's just fantastic.

00:22:41.689 --> 00:22:44.644
Acting as well that's the really great thing about this show.

00:22:44.644 --> 00:22:48.968
The actors are really good at just, you know, with facial expressions.

00:22:48.968 --> 00:22:55.486
Just eating some food, and you're able to convey emotions of oh, I was wrong, wow, this tastes amazing.

00:22:55.486 --> 00:22:56.607
I'm actually depressed.

00:22:56.607 --> 00:22:58.711
Yeah, exactly, yeah.

00:22:58.711 --> 00:23:01.482
So again, it's more show, no tell.

00:23:01.482 --> 00:23:05.760
But you can you understand, because we're humans and we can look at each other's faces.

00:23:05.760 --> 00:23:17.948
We understand emotions better than than any other species, and to be able to convey that and that looks natural like, put yourself in the actor's shoes and pretend you're doing that to a camera.

00:23:17.948 --> 00:23:19.584
Yeah, in fact try it yourself.

00:23:20.125 --> 00:23:20.868
It's difficult to do.

00:23:20.868 --> 00:23:25.748
It's like knowing you're being watched and knowing that it has to be nailed and thinking about the motivations of your character.

00:23:25.748 --> 00:23:31.027
It's definitely a talent and I think it's all credited back to, obviously, the talent of the actors.

00:23:31.027 --> 00:23:34.387
But it's definitely a talent and I think it's all credited back to, obviously, the talent of the actors.

00:23:34.387 --> 00:23:35.566
But it's a very well-written piece in terms of it's character driven.

00:23:35.566 --> 00:23:38.403
The scope isn't very large Like I naively thought.

00:23:38.403 --> 00:23:49.192
You know, this is just about a restaurant and on the surface, when you look at the story, you can just enjoy a story about how a guy comes in, cooks some food and turns his place into something bigger.

00:23:49.192 --> 00:24:01.046
But I think it's that undertone, that level of subplot, that really kind of keeps me wanting to come back, because I'm really intrigued about the death of their brother or their other cousin.

00:24:01.046 --> 00:24:12.749
I get the feeling that it was quite sudden and I also wonder about his motivations and whether he knew something about Kami and Richie that they perhaps don't know about themselves.

00:24:12.749 --> 00:24:15.690
And this is all coming from just watching the first 28-minute episode.

00:24:15.690 --> 00:24:18.670
I personally have not watched the rest of the Bear.

00:24:18.670 --> 00:24:20.688
I wanted to come into this as the new perspective.

00:24:20.688 --> 00:24:34.222
So all of these questions that you're hearing me ask are ones that genuinely come from just watching that first episode and reading and listening to that sort of written dialogue come out of these actors' mouths.

00:24:34.222 --> 00:24:47.452
Now there was another thing that sort of dawned on me that you'd spoken about Lullaby, and that's the fact that Kami is a bit of a psychopath and I got from this first episode that he was definitely ambitious and he was definitely driven.

00:24:47.452 --> 00:24:57.990
But now that you've mentioned that, a scene comes to mind for me when he was looking for his knife and the knife has gone, missing through the entire kitchen.

00:24:57.990 --> 00:24:59.753
Nobody knows where it's gone.

00:24:59.753 --> 00:25:18.749
And it comes to the point where um Richie's character is addressing and telling a story to the the staff they're not working and it's coming close to crunch time and he looks down and he sees that his knife is directly underneath one of the benches there and he just sort of slow cuts and fades away and it does one of those things in cinematography where the sound just sort of goes away.

00:25:18.749 --> 00:25:44.211
He gets that tinnitus, sort of scoped vision and he sees the knife, he bends down, he picks it up and then it kind of flashes and it flashes to a scene where somebody's obviously on a gurney covered by a white sheet and and then it flashes again and the scene completely flashes to a like a beautifully seasoned piece of steak or meat, and then the soundtrack completely changes as well.

00:25:44.211 --> 00:25:48.446
It goes into this very nice sort of music as it happens there and that sort of journey that you go on.

00:25:48.708 --> 00:25:54.346
Now that you've mentioned that you know he's a psychopath I'm not suggesting hey, he's a killer or anything like that, but it kind of plants that seed of.

00:25:54.346 --> 00:25:57.251
Hey, he's got that internalized thought.

00:25:57.251 --> 00:25:59.674
That's sort of happening during this moment.

00:25:59.674 --> 00:26:04.871
He's attaching himself to all these sort of different memories as well.

00:26:04.871 --> 00:26:06.286
He's obviously not processing things.

00:26:06.286 --> 00:26:09.208
Well, how's that going to come out in the rest of the series as well?

00:26:09.208 --> 00:26:12.720
How's that going to come out in the rest of the series as well?

00:26:12.720 --> 00:26:25.311
So I think just going off the small scenes that you go through in the cinematography and the different way that all of these different styles of audio are stitched together too, it really evokes just an experience for the viewer.

00:26:25.511 --> 00:26:35.079
Yeah, and moving forward more over on that with the show, I'm finding that there are no real like wasted scenes.

00:26:35.079 --> 00:26:37.964
It's definitely from what I've seen so far.

00:26:37.964 --> 00:27:01.428
I haven't watched all of season 3, but it's a placid show, so meaning that they've always known what the main events were going to be and what it's going to finish on, rather than TV shows that are sort of like you can tell that they've had to change the direction mid-season of on what what they were doing, so there was just sort of prancing, as it goes.

00:27:01.428 --> 00:27:20.133
I think a fantastic uh example that would be the tv show, uh, power, one of the um, one of the power books, uh, ghost, no ghost, um, yeah, the one, the one with tommy that, um, they literally change, change direction, kill off characters that look like they had um prominence with this show.

00:27:20.133 --> 00:27:31.730
So, uh, whether it's being like denim jackets, uh, discussions about family, things like that, they always do come back up and explain more in a cohesive and natural way.

00:27:32.071 --> 00:27:46.867
Yeah, that's really rewarding for a viewer as well, when you're watching something and you take the effort to kind of notice a scene like that and you think, oh, this harkens back to when I saw XYZ in previous episodes and it just makes for a really cohesive show.

00:27:46.867 --> 00:27:50.190
So I actually really look forward to seeing how this develops.

00:27:50.190 --> 00:27:58.734
I'm most excited to see how Kami's relationship with his family develops, especially in terms of Richie, because obviously there's two more seasons.

00:27:58.734 --> 00:28:00.185
They're not going to give up on this venture.

00:28:00.185 --> 00:28:03.259
I'm just wondering how it's going to all sort of pan out.

00:28:03.359 --> 00:28:14.571
And I think the way that this first episode was written goes back to what you said before about it being extremely well planned, extremely well thought of and taking a character sort of centric approach.

00:28:14.571 --> 00:28:32.230
And I think that's what invests viewers the most is, when you're looking at a character, you're seeing relatable sort of instances, you're seeing the struggle of um family versus ambition and work, life and respect and all those different sorts of themes come up, and the amazing part is that it all happens in 28 minutes.

00:28:32.230 --> 00:28:40.707
Like I love what you said about no scene is wasted, because it actually feels like even the small cutaway scenes are very perfectly crafted in this show.

00:28:40.707 --> 00:28:41.769
I think it's great.

00:28:43.740 --> 00:28:47.365
Yeah, and this episode is only scratching the surface of what you've just said.

00:28:47.365 --> 00:28:50.969
And you're also going to love the actor choice for Michael.

00:28:50.969 --> 00:28:52.714
You're going to love it.

00:28:52.714 --> 00:28:54.440
I won't tell you, I wouldn't tell you nothing.

00:28:54.440 --> 00:28:56.026
Very good, I love it.

00:28:56.026 --> 00:28:57.169
You'll have to watch it be zealous.

00:28:57.988 --> 00:29:12.233
I think we might leave it there, lullaby for this first sort of really great appreciation for a good piece of art in the form of the Bear, which is available for you guys to watch, if you want to, on Disney+, or at least it is here in Australia.

00:29:12.233 --> 00:29:24.484
And I just want to thank you, lullaby, for having this awesome discussion with me and being on Fandom Portals and being a part of the community, and I'll definitely have you back on again to do another one of these because I just love talking to you about this stuff.

00:29:24.785 --> 00:29:25.366
Yeah, me too.

00:29:25.366 --> 00:29:27.310
I'm just a fan, I enjoy those things.

00:29:27.892 --> 00:29:28.393
I appreciate it.

00:29:28.393 --> 00:29:33.721
All of those things, I appreciate it.

00:29:33.721 --> 00:29:34.523
All right, we'll catch up later, guys.

00:29:34.523 --> 00:29:34.944
Thank you very much.

00:29:34.944 --> 00:29:41.628
So that was my good friend, lollivy Taller, expressing all of the amazing things that it requires to set up a good franchise in the form of good writing.

00:29:41.628 --> 00:29:56.333
Now, my favorite part of that interview was the way Lollivy spoke about how the writer of the Bear introduces the characters and how they use a show don't tell kind of mentality they don't assume the audience is an absolute idiot.

00:29:56.333 --> 00:30:02.711
They allow you to build those connections yourself and because you built those connections, it connects you with the characters even more.

00:30:03.240 --> 00:30:15.045
Now, speaking of connection, if you want to go and view some of the reviews that Lullaby does, he's available on Threads, threads and also Instagram, and you can catch those links in the show notes below.

00:30:15.045 --> 00:30:22.887
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00:30:22.887 --> 00:30:24.230
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00:30:24.230 --> 00:30:26.421
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00:30:26.421 --> 00:30:34.654
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00:30:35.221 --> 00:30:42.253
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00:30:42.253 --> 00:30:47.011
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00:30:47.011 --> 00:30:51.290
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00:30:51.290 --> 00:30:54.128
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00:30:54.128 --> 00:31:00.773
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00:31:00.773 --> 00:31:07.534
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00:31:07.534 --> 00:31:11.189
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00:31:11.189 --> 00:31:20.015
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