It is.
I just watched that last night as well, and, yes, it was clearly a parody of The Bear. Right down to Charlie yelling “hands” and demanding to be called Chef (to which everyone eventually complied).
Yeah, I figured. I have to say, though, the episode of Sunny was kind of a dud for me. I feel like if you do parody/spoofing correct, it needs to work for everyone.
Didn’t it? The episode, at least IMO, would work just fine, even if you had no knowledge of The Bear. Beyond a few references, like Charlie demanding everyone call each other Chef, I can’t think of anything that required knowledge of the source material. I’d say the Abbott Elementary episode would be a lot harder to make sense of if you weren’t familiar that show.
It might not have been peak It’s Always Sunny, which is to be expected for a show that’s been on for 20 years, but I don’t think any of that had to do with not knowing The Bear.
2 eps into S4. I suppose I’ll watch to the end - only 8 more 30-40 min eps. But I’m not enjoying it. I’ll try to make a couple of observations without completely threadshitting. I’ve read thru about post 154 upthread:
This very well describes my personal dislike for this sort of filming. I felt the same way about much of Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul - tho I was in the minority.
Very good point. And now w/ the 2 month clock and the hope for a star. With Now the 3 folk from Ever, I’m expecting them to magically make things run amazingly. Despite using - what are we down to now - 2-3 ingredients per dish? I’m expecting some unbelievable deus ex machina immediate star issuance with overflowing crowds…
Cicero - initially impressed me as somewhat of a loan shark. When he initially told Carm “you now owe me $300k,” I didn’t see any documentation of that loan or any clear reason why Carm would just accept that. Now “The Computer” shows up, suggesting this is a legit investment. Just so all over the place that I’ve ceased to care.
I thought Syd was really shitting on both restaurants by failing to commit. Heck, failing to even read the Bear proposal or respond tothe other guy’s calls. Sure, people act like that. I think it dickish.
Yesterday I commented to my wife that the character I really didn’t believe was Ritchie. Just didn’t see what he contributes in any respect - certainly nothing to suggest he could run the front of the house. Nor has he proven himself capable.
Never saw how Ritchie impressed them all so quickly in his single week at Ever. Similarly, hard to believe they the ex-minor leaguer would pass muster as a sommelier, and gain enough from a crash course, “What grows together goes together.” 
Like I said, I really don’t want to threadshit. I don’t care enough about the show now to try to do so. Mostly disappointed, as I was hoping for something different/better.
Wasn’t that the $300,000 that Carmy and the others found hidden in the cans of tomato sauce? The suggestion was that this was illicit income, possibly from drug deals.
I don’t think any of your complaints about the show are terribly far off, however I actually enjoyed the first couple of episodes of this season, because … shit actually HAPPENED. They learned about the review. They got a kick in the ass from people who actually know how to run a restaurant (Ever) as well as the countdown clock. What’s crazy to me is that the show alternates between 1 show spanning a couple of hours to one show spanning several weeks and we don’t get ANY FUCKING IDEA what happened in those few weeks at the restaurant.
We went from having hundreds of hours left on the clock suddenly to like 8 hours left. Tina still struggling with getting the pasta done on time and while she’s gotten some advice from the new guy, she has asked neither of the top-notch fucking chefs how to make the turn faster. But we also don’t know why it’s important. It doesn’t seem to be causing complaints from the dining room, or costing them money in wasted pasta, or anything like that…it’s just a weird goal that has no relevance to the rest of the show.
As for Richie, he was shown to be a man who connects with customers early in the run. He also caused no end of chaos. I can see him running front of the house, because he really can be a charmer and knows how to read people and situations once he got some of the chaos on der control. But all of his foodie and expo knowledge is just deus ex machina.
And everyone from Richie to Syndey to the fuckin janitor should get to line up and donkey punch Carmy right in the dick for holding onto the constant menu changes. Once the folks from Ever came on, they should have spoken up and let Cicero/Computer know that was going to kill them with the suppliers under the new budget.
I get a laugh out of this show now and then. It’s not a fucking comedy. I wish the judges would sack up and stop giving it awards in the comedy category. And so does everyone else in Hollywood, apparently.
I really didn’t get what was going on. Cicero comes in and (my impression) kinda aggressively said, “Your brother owed me $300k, and now the debt is yours.” Well, that isn’t necessarily the way debts and property transfers work. So another possibility is, “You pay what Mikey owed, or else!”
Then the cash showed up in the cans. It was not really clear to me where that exact cash came from. When Cicero gave Mikey money, was it in hundred that Mikey immediately wrapped up and canned? Or was he doing something else with it, and eventually ended up w/ cash that he canned? DId they ever say exactly how much was in the cans? I didn’t recall if they said the canned cash equalled Cicero’s loans.
Funny you mention the pasta. They sure seem to make a lot of it. I keep thinking, “I don’t recall them serving a whole buncha noodles at the very top restaurants I’ve eaten at.” 
Watched another 3. Some good development. I’m disappointed that S3 so turned me against the show that I don’t appreciate them as I might.
So I’m assuming the diner with the glasses who saw the family get the beef and the snow was the Michelin man? If so, that seemed pretty hamhandedly obvious - compared to some of the obscure “artistic” storytelling that preceded it.
And what exactly was the stuff they were spraying - that everyone was so happy to get all over themselves and into their mouths?
The whole pace of this season with the deadline, Rob Reiner proposing franchises, and Luca appearing out of nowhere impresses me as far more obvious and predictable. Of course, now that I’ve said that, I fully expect them to toss a number of curveballs over the next 5 eps…
At least within the context of the show, it was sand. They were essentially spraying a sand blaster up into the air. They just need some sand, some water and a pressure washer with a 45 degree angle. I can’t imagine wanting to see snow for the first time in my life and being happy with wet sand in my face, but they seemed to like it.
I thought it would’ve made more sense for Richie to use some connection he has to borrow a portable fake snow maker. Even if we had to look past how that would work when it’s not below freezing outside (or was it, I don’t remember), I think it would’ve made more sense than sand.
That whole subplot is throwing me. I run a business and I can’t imagine one of my employees randomly taking it upon themselves to meet with an investor about opening more locations.
Yeah - that was pretty much my thought.
Cicero is an old family friend.
Regarding the money from Cicero:
Cicero loans Mikey 300K to franchise The Beef.
Mikey instead stashes the money in the tomato cans for Carmy to find.
Carmy finds the money.
Carmy realizes he doesn’t have enough to open the restaurant and borrows an additional $500k from Cicero, under the terms that he’ll pay back the full $800k or Cicero gets the restaurant to sell.
Also, I don’t think they were spraying sand. It was pretty clearly light and fluffy snow. The joke is you don’t know how Richie did it, just that he figured it out.
Soap suds for fake snow is pretty easy, but it only works falling in the air, not on the ground.
Yeah - I pretty much got that. But the way he initially said, Mikey owed me $300k and now YOU owe it - really reminded me of how I’ve heard loan sharks presented. And - no matter how good of a friend, he doesn’t require any kind of a note, receipt, cancelled check for the $300k? Just struck me as odd.
I remember on time they were filming a movie near us. It was summer, and they used soap suds for the snow on the ground.
The stuff in the show looked to me like soap flakes or instant potato flakes. It sorta surprised me when one character had their mouth wide open, as tho he was catchin gflakes. Especially after they said it was sand.
Dehydrated instant potato flakes work quite well, at least until they get wet.
Stranger
It’s been a while since that episode, but wasn’t the deal that Carmy only owes the money if he wants to keep the restaurant? Cicero, as I recall, has been trying to get Carmy to walk away the whole time since he knows he can recoup his money by selling the property.
Just watched the Weddng episode S4E7. More about relationships than weddings, t was really good, although a little heavy on the closeups. Reminded me very much of the Fishes episode from S2. I’m quite enjoying S4 so far.
Am I wrong or did that table keep getting bigger throughout the show?
I enjoyed all four seasons of The Bear. Sure I have some minor quibbles (way too many extreme close-ups, for one) but mostly I thought it was well acted and written. I’ve had enough of the strife, though. Sure you need some conflict, some drama, but for season five…
It wouldn’t bother me at all if most everything went right. Sydney organizes a sane menu and the restaurant becomes profitable, The Bear gets a star, the franchisiing of The Beef is a hit, Carm and Claire get married, Richie and Jessica finally hook-up, etc. etc. We’ve been on a journey filled mostly with misery for the main characters. It’s time to let them achieve what they’ve been stumbling towards.