I regret not binge-watching The Bear Season 2 when it was released on Hulu at once last month. Instead, I enjoyed the new season as if it were one of the culinary wonders that Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) and Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) are always producing. I watched one or two episodes each night, letting the show’s famously delicious food porn, frenetic editing, and stellar performances settle in for a few days before moving on. This meant that I had finished processing the emotional chaos of The Bear Season 2 Episode 6 “Fishes” before diving into the cathartic triumph of The Bear Season 2 Episode 7 “Forks,” which is what it meant in the first place. It also meant that I frequently arrived late to discussions about the popular FX on Hulu show that my friends, coworkers, and enemies were having.
I generally concur with what my peers have said about The Bear Season 2 (particularly here on Decider). Will Poulter is the dreamy pastry chef we all desperately needed, Claire (Molly Gordon) is the most intolerable “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” I’ve met in years, and Liza Colón-Zayas deserves all the praise for her work transforming Tina from a gruff line cook to sous chef supreme. The aforementioned “Fishes” is a brutal excavation of collected family trauma. However, one very positive aspect of The Bear Season 2 that I haven’t heard anyone mention is how fantastic Abby Elliott is in the role of Sugar, aka Natalie Berzatto.
In Season 1, Sugar, Carmy’s sister, had the aura of a traditional nag who would continually interrupt the activities of our dishonest hero. Natalie and the rest of The Bear’s crew develop in Season 2. She is the appropriate project manager for the restaurant’s renovations because of her propensity for practicality, and the clarity Ritchie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) used to rule over because to her unique brand of mother energy. In particular, Abby Elliott gives Natalie dimensions of sensitivity, agony, and resiliency that you wouldn’t have known she was capable of from her time on Saturday Night Live. So, I simply want to know if Abby Elliott can also have her flowers.
And I understand. On The Bear, everyone is wonderful. Viewers are receiving finely nuanced depictions of millennial worry from Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri. Ebon Moss-Bachrach frequently succeeds in mining a lower class loser’s stony veneer to reveal the heart of gold inside. Oscar winners like Jamie Lee Curtis and Olivia Colman occasionally make harrowing cameo appearances. The Bear has a lot of acting talent that needs to be discussed! As a result, a few of the supporting players are becoming lost in the mix.
I still wish Abby Elliott was receiving a little bit more support from both fans and reviewers, though. In “Fishes,” we get to see her as a younger woman, still in love with the wonderfully stubborn Pete (Chris Witaske), and yet holding out hope that her mother Jamie Lee Curtis (JLC) will change for the better. It became clear how Elliott’s character was compelled to be the maternal role in the gang’s life before she was actually pregnant when the younger Sugar became fixated on calling her mother. Her fixation on order is a sign of concern. She embodied the character of the Mama Bear in the cast by using a sugary “sweetheart” to control Fak’s (Matty Matheson) uncontrolled energy.
I still wish Abby Elliott was receiving a little bit more support from both fans and reviewers, though. In “Fishes,” we get to see her as a younger woman, still in love with the wonderfully stubborn Pete (Chris Witaske), and yet holding out hope that her mother Jamie Lee Curtis (JLC) will change for the better. It became clear how Elliott’s character was compelled to be the maternal role in the gang’s life before she was actually pregnant when the younger Sugar became fixated on calling her mother. Her fixation on order is a sign of concern. She embodied the character of the Mama Bear in the cast by using a sugary “sweetheart” to control Fak’s (Matty Matheson) uncontrolled energy.