Gary Reviews

calamity follows richie wherever he goes
learning more about mikey and his struggles and his relationship with richie is always good

A fantastic one off prequel episode out of nowhere. I absolutely love it. It’s a beautiful character study of Richie/Mikey and their relationship. Idk how to describe it but it’s perfect. The story flows well. I like the underlying tension. It’s a great blend of drama/comedy.

this and a yap

You see so much more of Rich and Micheal’s friendship and more of Micheal’s mental health struggles. As someone who suffers from severe depression I saw this as beautifully depicted. It was great to understand their friendship more.

8/10. Deep extra episode that serves as a post S4 prologue to "The Bear". Definitely more slow paced, allowing you to deep dive into the characters of Michael and Richard, allowing you to finally understand the relationship behind them and the lies that surround it.

!-THIS IS AN EPISODE OF “THE BEAR” THAT SURPRISE DROPPED TUESDAY MAY 5TH 2026 BEFORE THE FINAL SEASON AIRING NEXT MONTH-!

Just like every other season of “The Bear” this episode is special, so special that it’s CRUCIAL to watch this because this story is mentioned so much in seasons 1-4 yet we never got the full picture until now.

This depressingly surprising episode drop was great to see and the episode told Richie’s story perfectly the way I expected it would turn out.

I wish we would’ve saw the return with Richie going to see his now Ex-wife but we can see why the marriage didn’t work out for them in the show…

This show and Shrinking capture “Emotion” so good it is special, and the acting is top notch in both these shows. Overall I’m very surprised and happy that this dropped and we got to watch something before it all ends. I will miss this show so much.

loved Richie, hated Mikey

I wonder if they ever had a normal day

One of the most intense episodes. Holy shit. Insanely real

i love subsection stuff

Completed parts of missing pieces in The Bear (Richie’s Flashbacks) 👌

That was a good one. Sad and happy and everything in between.

a beautiful character study of Richie and Mikey, you could really tell how close they were. it’s everything i needed in a prequel and more

good bacground scene

Must watch before season 5

I mean its alright

best episode of the show since season 2, easily. i think the later seasons faltered because they were afraid of creating genuinely hard-to-watch moments. jon bernthal is fucking insane in this, and should’ve been in more of the show. simultaneously revolting and heartwarming

As a short film / TV special this was great, however, it has 4 seasons of prerequisites which definitely detracts from its presence within the medium. Having seen ‘The Bear’ this is a fantastic character study that asks the challenging question of “how do we regress a character?” See the character arc of Richie is seemingly over so why show how he hit his bottom now? That question should never have been asked yet it was and the answer was fascinating. Where this shines is in Jon Bernthal and his authentic approach in portraying real depression, it hurt to watch, their character dynamic hurt to watch, “comedy” btw. Great supplemental material, go watch The Bear it’s great. 4/5

I enjoyed the chaos of it, but I would have added a bit more. Especially Mikey’s inner thoughts.