Fight Club | The Bear, Season Two
A whole lot of aggression on order this week? Yes, chef!
MOVIES
- Fine, Fight Club isn't a new watch for me, but it had been a loooong time since I'd last seen it and I'm kind of glad it came out when it did.
- The characters in it, led by the nameless narrator (Ed Norton) and Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) are a pretty misogynistic pair and recruit a whole load of similarly-minded men to their sides to have 'purpose'.
- Naturally for these men, women are blamed for raising them and making them so 'soft' that they know what a duvet is, which is obviously the worst thing in the world...
- Otherwise it's a pretty large group mostly made up of white men angry that the world doesn't work as they want it to, so anger and violence seems the natural route forwards - sound familiar?
- The thing is, Tyler actually does make some decent points initially about how we're a society of consumers who rely on products to fill gaps in our lives rather than doing something with our time, it's just the men featured don't react in a remotely healthy way to that problem in their lives.
- There's also the issue that a lot of people have a severe lack of media literacy to the point where they see depiction as endorsement, therefore what's shown in this movie is the correct way to having similar feelings.
- It was bad enough years ago with how many idiots seemed to agree with Tyler's thoughts, but it would be so much worse today and I'm not sure this movie would be seen as good as it is with how many morons would latch on to what is obviously a villain protagonist.
- And it should be repeated often and loudly that Fight Club is an excellent film, with two truly fantastic performances from Pitt and Norton, even if neither of the pair are likeable.
- Yet, despite not being very nice people, the story has an interesting premise with a twist that I imagine most people who haven't even seen the movie already know which definitely isn't the cheat it could've been.
- As a result, while there's no-one in this film to admire at all, you still want to see what happens next, how it's all going to end and just where the relationship between the narrator and Durden is going to end up.
- So Fight Club is an easy recommendation, although maybe not if you're squeamish about blood, although you shouldn't really be surprised to see so much of it considering the title of the film. [9/10]
GAMES
- Episode one of Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered is done and dusted, and I have to admit that I liked it more than pretty much every episode of the original game.
- I really like some of the little touches added to animations and how much more 'natural' everyone feels, even if it is a little odd seeing so many of the other characters from the first game a little different from how they appeared originally.
- I also like the conversation 'challenges', even if I did fail one that I still have no idea how you'd pass it without using a guide.
- The version of Chloe in this game is also much nicer to spend time with and actually takes some responsibility for making some parts of her life harder than needed, which is something I though the original game really lacked.
- Back in Baldur's Gate 3, I'm continuing to make incremental progress although it feels like I only have 'big' stuff left, so don't want to rush in half-prepared and am willing to wait and enjoy the rest of Act 3 at my own pace.
TV
- The Bear's second season cemented the show as a must-watch, although it also repeated some of the issues I had with season one.
- This season also has my least favourite and favourite episodes of the show back-to-back, although I'm aware choosing "Fishes" as my least-favourite is absolutely going against the majority opinion.
- For me, the biggest sin of that episode is that I found it dull and pretty much a chore to get through, which isn't great when it's twice the length of a normal episode.
- When everything is loud and aggressive pretty much from start to finish, it all just starts to blur together after a while, and the 'quieter' moments weren't quiet enough to properly dictate the flow of the episode.
- Honestly, it might be the only episode I skip on a re-watch, whereas the very next episode, "Forks", is one I could quite happily watch on its own as a little one-off thanks to just how enjoyable it is to see Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) so much out of his depth it's genuinely funny.
- And as an aside: there were some people surprised that The Bear won awards at the Golden Globes as a comedy, which is odd as this show is genuinely laugh out loud funny at times and "Forks" has some great comedic moments in it.
- Back to the episode, the only issue I have with "Forks" is how completely Richie changes as a person in it, being so different a character before and after this episode that it's ridiculous.
- I'm aware people can have epiphanies that can rock their world and really kickstart a change in someone in their life, but it just happens far too quickly to be even remotely believable.
- And that is an issue with the show as whole, with things happening as the plot requires them to rather than because they feel like a natural flow of events, such as Carmy's relationship with Clare changing drastically as needed to fit a story and for no other apparent reason.
- I did still really enjoy The Bear's second season and am looking forward to the third, although I am hoping that each episode continues an evolution for the characters and stories, rather than revolutions that require big changes out of nowhere just to generate drama. [8/10]
