The Bear and the Lasso

Last night at Annie and Gus's weekly fam-dinner, we had a killer meal and watched the Season 2, Episode 6 of The Bear - and a few things struck me hard.

First: It's the best damn thing on television since Ted Lasso, and; second, it's the best companion show for Ted Lasso one could possibly imagine.

I know, I know, I know. At first blush, the shows couldn't be more different, but in some ways, they're the exact same narrative, just blown inside out. Both shows are about how trauma profoundly warps "normal" people all the time. Both shows have as their backdrop the pre-action suicide of someone who, by all visible measures - to their family and friends, anyway - had the world by the balls. In Ted Lasso, it was his dad, who we never meet. In The Bear, it's the older brother, Michael, who we just really met in the FUCKED-UP Christmas special we just watched last night.