Richie Jerimovich Of "The Bear" IS America Now
The logic of the unbearable man and the general collapse of meaning.
I had been trying to figure out a way to write about The Bear for a while, and I just located it. If you’re unfamiliar, The Bear is a show on Hulu/FX that just released its second season. It’s set in Chicago, and in many ways feels like a love letter to Chicago. The basic plot is that Carmy, played by Jeremy Allen White of Shameless fame (and Movie 43, oddly), is a renowned New York City chef. His brother, who owned a sandwich shop in Chicago, kills himself and Carmy moves back home to take over the shop. The problem: he’s a renowned chef and this is a sandwich shop that already has staff and people connected to it. Lots of things then get set in motion.
Richie, or Cousin Richie, is played by Elon Moss-Bachrach. He’s been in some things, but I would argue most people knew him as “the guy who ate out Alison Williams’ ass on a sink” in Girls before this show. That’s a heckuva thing to be known for, so thankfully he’s got The Bear now.
The Richie character was the best friend of the suicide brother, and he’s kinda the de facto day-to-day manager of the sandwich shop, so the arrival of Carmy — who was a childhood friend and cousin — still unsettles him. They brawl back and forth throughout two seasons, but also clearly love each other.
Richie is deeper too, in the sense that he’s estranged from his ex-wife, who he clearly loves but just got re-engaged to someone else. They have a daughter, who he doesn’t see enough. He feels like the shop isn’t his anymore — it’s Carmy and others now. He lost his best friend to suicide. He is struggling to find purpose.
In other words, he may be one of the most quintessential American characters of the moment.
This is articulated decently by David French in this column.
As he notes:
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