#Antoine doinel and Carmy

[freedelusionshere]

I think part of Carmy’s problem in S3 is how he accelerates everything to get the star. Which is about Syd. The idea that he will run out of time (which he even says).

I’ve always thought this meant he knows there is a countdown clock until Syd leaves him (like she almost did in S1). That he can’t do this without her and doesn’t even want to. It’s always really been about Syd and wanting to get her to stay from the minute she walked through the door of The Beef.

How much of what Carmy has done from the start is about keeping Syd with him? Starting with the brigade (hierarchy, she’s his subordinate), which creates a barrier so he can’t fully act on his feelings. Then she leaves him and he promises her the restaurant she’s always wanted in return.

He dated Claire in S2 and yet tells Syd he is giving her what she wanted, but distanced himself physically. He wasn’t around the way he knows he should’ve been and tries to make up for it at the end (I also get slight vibes of what maybe went down with the Berzatto dad here, and his aversion to hard emotional things despite being a dreamer). When you see how at ease he is with Syd versus his anxiety around Claire it lines up with him hiding out to avoid real feelings vs superficial ones.

In S3, he distances himself from Syd emotionally, while trying to make her his partner and constantly being physically present but controlling (Donna/Chef David mode) and trying to make Syd believe she needs him to get a star as he watches her demonstrate that’s absolutely not the case; it’s the other way around and now everyone knows it, too.

Like I’ve said many times before I think he has realized this by the end of S3, it’s just a matter of what Syd will do now.

At least since the discussion in Legacy when he saw her in the cute outfit, he mentions wanting to get square with everything and everyone.

Then he realizes he is obsessing over trying to figure Syd out instead of working on himself in Apologies (this is the reason he contemplates calling Claire: to apologize and not be shitty).

Then he starts to do the actual work in Forever by acknowledging he’s been a bad boss by confronting his own bad boss. Claire and his mom will follow as well as Richie.

These three seasons combined also give me massive François Truffaut feels, following a similar arc about love, marriage, and seasons of life in his film cycle The Adventures of Antoine Doinel.

[freedelusionshere]

Love and Marriage

I don't know if people have already written about this, but Carmy and Syd are portrayed as though they are symbolically married, bound together by this restaurant. The Bear portrays:

Infatuation: the blood hamachi dish. Moments like from films like Casablanca: "Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine."

Courtship: the Thom Browne chef jacket

Cheating: Claire (Fatal Attraction, LOL)

Birth: the fire suppression test

Marriage: the partnership agreement, consult your lawyer first!

They have even made a family and created a legacy together (Marcus and Tina).

They are now in the separation stage (irreconcilable differences, or no?).

It reminds me of François Truffaut's movies about Antoine Doinel (400 Blows, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, Love on the Run - which also features trains and are semi-autobiographical, btw) and his life through relationships and marriage. I'm also getting some of Kubrick's Eye's Wide Shut in S3 and themes of obsession, frustration, fidelity, and the subconscious.

Personally, I'm hoping things go more like the ending of Eyes Wide Shut.

The Bear is actually a love story and a sex comedy. This show has sex on the brain, it just doesn't show it.