As I mentioned a few times since baseball’s All Star break, I’ve been catching up on some shows recently.

The one that I was kind of waiting to dig into was The Bear, because I enjoy it so much and didn’t want to watch it all right when it came out - I wanted to savor it. (Of course, that also means I’m susceptible to spoilers, but I managed to avoid them while I waited.)

I limited myself to one episode a day at first, but it was so good I really zipped through the last 5 or 6.

The fourth season was 10 episodes long - I think all 4 seasons were 10 episodes.

And this last season picked up right where season 3 ended back in the fall, I think? It was kind of a split season - I think I knew right when season 3 ended when season 4 was coming out, which isn’t always the case. (I think the show is done right now, but this is what I mean - it’s always hard to know whether shows are completed or if more seasons are coming or what.)

The Bear is so good.

It can be a lot - there are some tough family dynamics in the show that make it a little uncomfortable to watch at times.

It’s not the ‘comedy’ that the Emmy Awards would have you believe. (Though it does have some very funny moments.)

I think the biggest compliment I can give the show is that when I watch it I feel like I’m watching art.

From the way the food is shot to the way the city of Chicago is shown throughout the show (I’d love this show even if it wasn’t set in Chicago but that’s a nice bonus) to the way people are shot.

Sometimes you watch a show and you don’t think about anything complex.

But with The Bear - and it doesn’t even feel complex - suddenly I’m thinking about the way a scene is lit.

The fourth season is nice because it’s mostly peaceful, and the story kind of goes exactly how I’d like it to go.

But as a whole the series is really amazing.

When you look at certain characters’ arcs and how it all unfolds (Richie might now be one of my favorite TV characters ever, if I’m being honest), it makes me want to start all over again but I don’t know if I will.

There’s something special about watching a great show for the first time.

I was thinking about that as I watched this batch of episodes - even if the episode was chaotic, I felt a sense of calm having The Bear as a diversion.

If it’s done, well, I enjoyed it immensely.