Just one day after dropping a surprise prequel episode, FX confirmed long-standing rumors that the upcoming fifth season of The Bear will be its last. All eight new episodes are hitting Hulu on June 25. They’ll also air on FX throughout June, July, and August.
When The Bear wrapped up its season last year, head chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) quit the restaurant and left it in the hands of his staff. The new season begins in the immediate aftermath. “The fifth and final season of The Bear picks up the morning after Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Richie and Natalie ‘Sugar’ (Abby Elliott) discover that Carmy has quit the food industry, leaving the restaurant to them,” reads the longline for the new season. “With no money, the threat of a sale and a torrential storm in their way, the new partners must band together with the rest of the team to achieve one last service, hoping they’ll finally earn a Michelin star. Ultimately, they learn that what makes a restaurant ‘perfect’ might not be the food, but the people.”
There was no official indication that The Bear was going to conclude this year until Jamie Lee Curtis, who plays Carmi’s mother, Donna Berzatto, let the news slip on Instagram in February. “FINISHED STRONG!” She wrote. “Surrounded by an extraordinary crew and group of writers and producers and scene partners on the show that Chris Storer created, completing the story of this extraordinary family that we have all fallen in love with.”
Weeks later, she spoke to the press about it on the red carpet for the premiere of Prime Video series Scarpetta. “Everybody’s confirmed the show is ending!” she told Access Hollywood. “I don’t understand why that’s such a, unless I’m going to get a call from all the people saying, ‘You just told.’ I think everybody understood that it was the last season of the show. If it isn’t then I’ve completely blown it.” (There was little reason to doubt Curtis, but FX refused to comment on the matter until now.)
The surprise prequel episode that just dropped, entitled “Gary,” centers around Richard “Richie” Jerimovich (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and “Mikey” Berzatto (Jon Bernthal) taking a trip to Gary, Indiana prior to the events of the first season, which takes place in the aftermath of Mikey’s death.
“COUSINS! PRIMOS! CUGINI!!! Get ready for GARY!!!! We are so excited to finally share this little adventure with Richie and Mikey,” Moss-Bachrach wrote on social media. “Written by me and [Bernthal]. Directed by the one Christopher Storer. Making this was a dream come true. Thanks to the beautiful people of Gary, Indiana and as always Chicago, Illinois.”
Dominic Sessa as Anthony Bourdain in Tony Bob Gruen/A24
Marco Rubio in Washington, D.C., on April 7
Trump and His Cronies Are Partying as the World Burns
We are at war. Gas prices are climbing above $5 per gallon across much of the country. The political apparatus of the country is rife with division, infighting, and bureaucratic chaos that threatens to further upset 250 years of historical precedent.
But look at Marco Rubio over there, getting his groove on. DJ at a wedding! What a lovely time.
The secretary of state was pictured this weekend behind the turntables at a family wedding queuing up Calvin Harris’ “Feel So Close” and some other bangers to a cheering crowd, first-pumping as the beat drops. “Let’s goooooo!!!” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino wrote on X.
It’s a jarring contrast to the current geopolitical situation Rubio is supposedly overseeing. But hey — he’s really just following his commander’s lead. As J.D. Vance slogged through ultimately unsuccessful negotiations to end the Iran war last month, President Donald Trump took in a UFC fight. This past weekend, he was hosting a PGA tour event at his luxury Doral golf club in Florida, where, the White House was quick to point out, he took a phone call.
Political leaders partying while the world order crumbles is obviously hard to stomach. But they’re only human — even the people with the most important jobs in the world have commitments to families and deserve the chance to blow off steam. But there’s a tension between the grace we extend to these figures and the grave importance of their roles.
Getting elected president — or appointed secretary of state — is, to put it lightly, a pretty big deal. For four years, they are essentially always on the clock. The needs of the country must come first, and on some level, they must personally see to them all. It is, which is why we historically like to judge presidents harshly for taking time off.
It’s the timing, ultimately, that determines how these images play with the public. Marco Rubio isn’t going to work around the clock to find a solution to the crisis in Iran, but the sheer lack of urgency that both Trump and his administration seem to be exhibiting seems to suggest that they might not even care about finding an end to the war, no matter how economically disastrous it is for the country.
That posture is certainly a gift to their political rivals, but it’s also an indication to the American people who Trump and his underlings actually represent. It’s not you, clocking in and out at a 9-5 or working a graveyard shift at the hospital. Most of us — people with jobs — can’t help but feel a little resentful when we see the president on the golf course, or the secretary of state dancing to Calvin Harris. But the other people on the golf course? The other class of people who can afford to be on vacation, can afford to drive their boats and trucks and golf carts for pleasure when gas is above $5 a gallon? We’re not talking about the upper middle class here. We’re talking about the ones who probably don’t even know what the price of gas is, because they haven’t pumped their own in years. That’s Trump’s constituency. That’s whose behalf Rubio is negotiating on. That’s who they serve. And those people? They’re happy to play another round.