every single time a drama comes across my radar, i think "no, i don't care about this, i hate dramas and won't like it" (lying)((lying through my fucking teeth)). one of my favourite movies of all time is MANCHESTER BY THE SEA (2016) which is just a straight up drama. not even a drama/something cross. flat drama, which i have seen at least five times. i love watching People being in Situations.

anyway, all this is to say: i put off watching THE BEAR for so, sooo long, specifically because i saw people on twitter talking about how it was a drama but also a comedy, and then posted the most un-comical clips of all time. and like, not to say that the show isn't funny, because it is funny, but the clips in question must have just been missing context because i was like, these are not funny! this chef guy is a dick and why would i want to watch eight episodes of this when i lived it for half of my working career! but! but. like, a month after these clips started showing up on my timeline, i saw one that actually made me laugh audibly and thought fine, i can give it a go. (it was this one, for anyone wondering. it was so abrupt and caught me off guard & that's when i figured out that the show wasn't just about a shitty chef in a shitty kitchen)

started watching this last week on my day off. told myself i'd give it like, two episodes tops to win me over, and if i hated it then i'd just give up. so i sat down, put it on and promptly ripped through all of s1 in one sitting. i loved it, it was great and sucked me in from the first episode - i think the way they nailed the hostile chaos of a busy kitchen environment was delightful, i do love a show with the most miserable main character on the planet so it's got that going for it too. i got through s2 as of last weekend and loved it just as much, though it would have been incredible as a standalone single season on it's own. s2 was good, i really liked s3 even though it was a little slower and different from the first two. i'm super excited for s3, i have not stopped thinking about the show since i finished it.

any family-adjacent dramas always hook me (see: previously mentioned favourite drama movie in the whole world). i have a younger brother, i am not immune to Eldest Sibling Worry Syndrome. i think that S02E06 - FISHES was genuinely, wholeheartedly the single best christmas episode i have ever seen in any show. i usually don't care for christmas episodes in tv because they just feel like a cheap one-off non-canon seasonal bit, but FISHES showed such a great insight into the Berzatto's lives before the events of the show and explains so much about why they're all the way they are, and like - who doesn't have insane extended family you only see around christmas. AUGH, great episode, i loved it. great show!! i loved it. it stressed me tf out and frustrated me to no end, but like in an entirely positive way. i loved it!