Ice Chips

This show isn't about the kitchen, it's about the people who run it. Someday you are going to be a dad or a mom and you are going to feel what she was feeling if you are from a dysfunctional family and how much you want your child to not grow in such an environment. You will freak out because you will feel you will be never enough for your daughter or your son because your mother wasn't there for you in your tough times and how much it will hurt. There is a line and it isn't a spoiler "he did not wanted to come out". I was bawling my eyes out and when that line was spoken. Obviously there will be people who are complaining or say it's boring, for me this episode was everything I want the bear show to be, it's a study about humans not the kitchen!

I've seen every last role that Jamie Lee Curtis has performed, and purposely meaning a few years ago, I went on IMDb and found anything I hadn't yet seen or hadn't seen in a long time, just to be able to say I've seen everything she's done. Of course when actors and actresses start out, they haven't yet developed a lot of range. Through everything she's performed that wasn't basically a cameo, you can almost see her growth in real time, and in this episode it is CLEAR, at least to me, that this is her greatest performance. She doesn't take you on a roller coaster ride of emotion, she IS the roller coaster. I really enjoyed her performance in the "7 fishes" episode and she was barely in the season 2 finale (can't think of the episode name). After witnessing this performance in "Ice Chips", I finished it thinking 'there's literally no one else that could have played that role THAT good, not Meryl Streep, not Sally Field, not Sissy Spacek, NO ONE". Like I said, I've seen everything she's been in, and I'd put this up against any other role.

As a mother and as a daughter, I have never connected more viscerally to an episode of a television show then I did just watching "Ice Chips." I felt those fourty minutes in the depth of my soul in a way I am not sure I have ever been affected by a show before. It was so raw, so real, and so perfect. This is why I love this series so much. It's the humanity behind the restaurant and I've never seen more beautiful acting than I just watched. If Jamie Lee Curtis and Abby Elliot don't win a slew of awards for this I'll be shocked (and disappointed) . I will certainly be carrying the emotions of this episode with me for quite awhile.

I cannot get over the fact how brilliant Jamie Lee Curtis is as Donna in The Bear. Her performance is truly nothing but spectacular. So rough, so real, yet so vulnerable at the same time, so emotional.

She already set the bar high in season 2, but man, her work in this episode is exceptional. I caught myself forgetting it was Jamie Lee Curtis whom I was watching, despite her face which we are all very familiar with. All I saw was Donna. That's how great she is. She is just 100% believable.

So whoever needs to hear this, Emmys or whatever: Give her all the awards you have.

She absolutely deserves them.

Then you would know. Then you'd know the need to love her and the need to pull away from her, and how that drives Natalie and drives Carmy and drive Ritchie. This show is about food, yes, and as a foodie who made it to Noma twice in the past year, I adore that aspect. But more importantly, it's about people, a character study, of mostly deeply damaged people, many dysfunctional, whose need for this restaurant to succeed mirrors their need to rise above their own hauntings. Carmy's need for perfection, Natalie's need to rewrite her own origin story through her marriage and child, Michael's desire to create the work family to fix the family family. It's not a comedy, but it elicits a bitter laugh.