What To Watch This Week

"The Bear," Three Streaming Gems, and The Best Short Essay About Hummingbirds And The Human Heart Ever Written

"Thoughts Mostly on Film" is adding a new section! A number of readers have asked me to share some suggestions about things to watch, and I'm more than happy to do so. Each week on Wednesday, I'll be sending along a brief missive with some recommendations of currently streaming TV shows and movies, as well as the occasional bit of reading material. And we have an active and growing community here, so if you have suggestions of your own - or want to see me review something - jump into the comments section!

Television: “The Bear”

This show was recommended to me by friend of the site and music critic extraordinaire Jed Gottlieb, and I've been devouring it. Set in Chicago, it's a 30-minute comedy/drama about a fantastically talented chef named Carmen Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) who gets burned out on the world of haute cuisine and returns home to take charge of his family's run-down sandwich shop. While he dreams of turning the place into a quality restaurant, first he has to deal with an intransigent staff, his surly, ne'er do well cousin Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and the fact that the restaurant is deep in debt to his shady uncle Cicero (Oliver Platt).

For my money, The Bear is an epitome of what modern television does well.

It's exceedingly well written, with characters that are fully realized and a great sense of place; this allows it to capture the frenetic energy that suffuses restaurant work, with all of its romantic allure and day-to-day drudgery. But unlike a lot of the fare out there right now, it's neither pretentious nor overly-clever. The pace is snappy, the beats all land, and it lets its characters be flawed without clubbing us over the head with their failings. Best of all, it matches strong, sharp-edged comedic acting with storylines that are touching but never fall into sentimentality. Definitely worth watching. Made by FX - Available on Hulu.

Three Movies To Watch This Weekend

Looking for that 1980s feeling that's like slipping into a warm bath?

Working Girl (Mike Nichols, 1988) A comfort-food office romance from Nichols, who also made Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Graduate, and Heartburn. Featuring lovely performances by Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver, as well as a charmingly complex portrayal - somehow both insecure and charismatic - by Harrison Ford, it's the kind of movie that makes me remember why New York City exerted such a magical force back in the day. Available on Hulu.

How about a great mid-century French chiller?

Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 1960) A beautiful, poetic, and unsettling film about a mad doctor who vows to repair the mutilated face of his daughter, no matter what it takes. It manages to both hearken back to the Universal Pictures monster movie tradition of the 1930s, '40s and '50s and gesture forward to the more savage horror cycle of the '70s, while adding a touch of imagistic European sensibility. A must see for folks interested in old delights from the thriller genre. Available on HBO Max.

And who doesn't like an elegiac minor gem of a crime flick from the 1970s?

The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Peter Yates, 1973) Robert Mitchum is at his broken-down, weary best in this story of a doomed criminal caught between the feds and the mob, made by the director of Bullitt and Breaking Away. It combines a nicely realized vision of the mechanics of crime – from bank robberies to the procuring of illegal guns – with a masterful rendering of the heartbroken sensibility that pervades so many films from the early part of the '70s. Available on Kanopy (which, if you’re not familiar with it, you should subscribe to - it's free with a library membership, and has a really nice catalogue).

Bonus Recommendation: The best short essay about hummingbirds and the human heart ever written.

Feel like reading a short, deeply moving piece of writing about the miracles of nature and our own souls, as expressed in one of the world's most beautiful creatures? Brian Doyle's little prose masterpiece "Joyas Voladoras" can be found here.