The Bear has formally returned for Season 4 within the 2025 TV schedule, persevering with its development of releasing one season per 12 months as a substitute of taking years between installments. The full season is out there now for anyone with a Hulu subscription, and sufficient time has handed for a binge-watch. That mentioned, I’m not going to drop spoilers right here, as a result of we’re not right here for the most recent trials and tribulations of Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy. We’re right here as a result of sitcom vets and St. Denis Medical co-stars Wendi McLendon-Covey and David Alan Grier weighed in on the most well liked query every awards season: is The Bear actually a comedy?
The sequence actually began its development of cleansing up at awards present on the 2023 Emmys, when The Bear swept the classes of Excellent Comedy Sequence, Excellent Lead Actor in a Comedy (Jeremy Allen White), Excellent Supporting Actor in a Comedy (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Excellent Supporting Actress in a Comedy (Ayo Edebiri), Excellent Directing for a Comedy (Christopher Storer), and Excellent Writing for a Comedy (Christopher Storer).
Contemplating that even diehard followers of The Bear could freely admit to coming away from episodes feeling unhappy and pressured as a consequence of what Carmy and Co. undergo, is it any marvel that controversy stirs up now each time the very dramatic sequence beats out custom sitcoms in comedy classes? Nicely, the subject got here up between Wendi McLendon-Covey and David Alan Grier once I spoke to them in the course of the press junket for NBC’s beautiful St. Denis Medical mockumentary.
After reacting to their freshman sitcom scoring two Critics Selection nominations after simply 4 episodes had aired, I famous that it was nice to see a community TV present getting some awards love as a substitute of a sweep by streaming and/or cable nominations. They responded by mentioning The Bear themselves:
- David Alan Grier: “It’s a giant market. I imply, there’s a lot nice TV. I spend a number of time going, ‘What’s a comedy, what’s a drama?’ [To Wendi] Like White Lotus is a comedy, you had been telling me, proper? And then say, Saturday Evening Stay is sort of a drama.”
- Wendi McLendon-Covey: [laughs] “Yeah, if we’re operating this as, , ‘Oh, half-hour are all thought-about comedies?’ I do not know. I’ve by no means cried more durable than I’ve when watching The Bear. Are we nonetheless calling {that a} comedy.”
- David Alan Grier: “: I gotta look it up. I do must look it up typically. What’s it described as?”
The two actors did not present any vitriol in the direction of The Bear for its success, but it surely says one thing that these two laughingly questioned its comedy standing. Wendy McLendon-Covey was contemporary off of greater than 200 episodes of ABC’s The Goldbergs when she joined NBC’s St. Denis Medical, which got here after greater than 100 episodes of Reno 911 as a very totally different form of mockumentary.
As for David Alan Grier, he is been throughout TV comedy all through his profession, together with Dad Cease Embarrassing Me! on Netflix with Jamie Foxx, The Cool Youngsters, The Carmichael Present, and – in fact – greater than 100 episodes of In Dwelling Coloration. These two know their means round cracking jokes that hit on community tv!
McLendon-Covey bought a bit extra critical to share her ideas on community TV making a little bit of a comeback, in gentle of St. Denis Medical scoring these two Critics Selection nominations for Greatest Comedy Sequence and David Alan Grier as Greatest Actor in a Comedy Sequence. She mentioned:
The networks, I believe, are coming again in a giant means and I like that, particularly for different actors which have been out of labor for a very long time. , we have been form of struggling on this business because the pandemic. So I’m all for, let’s get some extra community reveals on. Let’s get these huge orders so folks could make a dwelling.
Whereas St. Denis Medical in the end did not win a CCA, the comedy that proved the mockumentary format continues to be common might be again for a second season. The Season 1 finale packed an emotional punch for Alex specifically, however there isn’t any cause to imagine that the total forged will not be again for Season 2 on NBC.
So, if you wish to try a present that’s 100% unambiguously a comedy, you could find Wendi McLendon-Covey and David Alan Grier’s St. Denis Medical streaming with a Peacock subscription now. As for The Bear… effectively, whether or not it needs to be labeled as a comedy or not, you could find all 4 seasons to this point streaming on Hulu.
