Love Song for Chicago

I wish I loved anyone or anything as much as The Bear loves Chicago. It’s the kind of love that feels fully realized and all-encompassing, at once over-the-top and deeply practical.

I did meet a dog this weekend and immediately say, “Oh, I’d take a bullet for you,” so perhaps I’m on my way.

The Bear is creator Christopher Storer’s love song for Chicago, cleverly disguised as a serialized television program now available on FX and Hulu. It’s less a TV show and more a romantic, agonizing mixtape made for somebody you love so much you could really just die over it, and you honestly might, but you don’t exactly know how to proclaim that so, you know, you make them something.

Why did it take me this long to watch a show that garnered its first rapturous rave reviews a year ago? Well, I delay watching stuff sometimes because I know I’ll be all in and not be able to think about much else for a few days afterwards.

Maybe that’s unwell, but you have to know yourself, and sometimes there are Midsommar-themed outdoor birthday parties to attend and costumed dogs to meet. I did that stuff this weekend, but I also got into The Bear. (In its way, Midsommar is also an important story about what happens when one young man can’t get out of the bear.)