City dwellers get agitated every time someone says you are from Chicago, and that person is really a suburbanite. Hostile would be the operative word for how they react. A friend of mine, who now lives in Jefferson Park, rolls his eyes at such notions. However, I think Gertrude Stein said it best that America was her country but Paris is her hometown. Having lived just a couple hours away, the city has become of part of my DNA. From going to museums as a child to partying in the various clubs and villages, there are too many memories to divorce myself from our major metropolis.
This is all a long—winded passage to announce that the fourth season of The Bear just dropped on HULU. There is so many movies and shows that were filmed around the city, but nothing quite like this one. Maybe it is just the lived-in experience of these dedicated service workers, trying to make the best restaurant that they can. “Shameless,” which is my other touchtone; doesn’t quite compare. This is despite Jeremy Allan White playing roles in both. Carmy doesn’t feel like an adult version of Lip from his previous small screen acting gig. Plus there is so much more use of the city as a whole, even in the first five episodes here.
Showrunner Christopher Storer and his team makes this all feel more like prestige television of the 2010s, minus all of the men behaving very badly. This season, they have continued to broaden the supporting cast. Even giving whole episodes over to one character’s struggle feels refreshing in a sea of shows where stock best friends are the norm. Ayo Edebiri as Sydney gets to shine in an episode she also co-writes, still agonizing over whether to leave the restaurant for another business venture. This outing, directed brilliantly by Janicza Bravo, sees her talk out her issues with a teen daughter of one of her friends in scenes that are endearing. This friend, a hairdresser played hilariously by Danielle Deadwyler, starts her weave only to leave halfway through to get more extensions. In the interim, we see more of Sydney’s outside life and the push/pull of these weighted decisions. Lionel Boyce’s Marcus and Ebon Moss-Bacharach’s Richie have standout moments as well. It is after Carmy’s visit to the Frank Lloyd Wright Oak Park home that made me grin from ear to ear. We are so back, and I feel it.
Back in May, Netflix dropped a three-part docu-series surrounding one of the most infamous cases of the eighties. The fact that this happened the year I was born is bone-chilling. Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders follows a period between 1982 to the present day. Following the events as they unfolded in Arlington Heights and the greater metropolitan area, and one bottle was even found at an Osco Drug in my neighborhood. The directors present the facts in real time, as they happened; step by step. After which, they interview local news reporters covering the case as well as family members of the victims. One truly sad conversation is with a woman who lost her mother as infant. Her testimony is heartbreaking as it is ill-conceived. The interviews want to create some doubt in the findings, express some conspiracy on the part of Johnson&Johnson. And this woman whole-heartedly believes it because she doesn’t want to think this was the work of a lone nut, that corporate negligence played a role.
That being said, the interviews with the main suspect remain damning. I had known of James Lewis only as a name related to the case. It wasn’t until watching this documentary that I realized why he was considered so. There is a creep factor to how he conducts himself that gave me chills. Not since a fictional murderer, Hannibal Lector, have I gotten both intrigued and repulsed. Very compelling viewing that would scratch that true crime itch, and in our backyard no less.
