FX’s The Bear has formally returned for Season 4 within the 2025 TV schedule, persevering with the sample of releasing one season per yr. The total season is offered now for anyone with a Hulu subscription, and sufficient time has handed for a binge-watch. That stated, I am not going to drop spoilers right here, as a result of we’re not right here for the newest 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 popular query every awards season: is The Bear actually a comedy?
The sequence actually began its pattern of cleansing up at awards present on the 2023 Emmys, when The Bear swept the classes of Excellent Comedy Collection, 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 resulting from what Carmy and Co. undergo, is it any surprise that controversy stirs up now each time the very dramatic sequence beats out custom sitcoms in comedy classes? Effectively, the subject got here up between Wendi McLendon-Covey and David Alan Grier after I spoke to them in the course of the press junket for NBC’s pretty St. Denis Medical mockumentary.
After reacting to their freshman sitcom scoring two Critics Alternative nominations after simply 4 episodes had aired, I famous that it was nice to see a community TV present getting some awards love as an alternative of a sweep by streaming and/or cable nominations. They responded by citing The Bear themselves:
- David Alan Grier: “It is a large market. I imply, there’s a lot nice TV. I spend lots 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? After which say, Saturday Evening Stay is sort of a drama.”
- Wendi McLendon-Covey: [laughs] “Yeah, if we’re working this as, you already know, ‘Oh, half-hour are all thought-about comedies?’ I do not know. I’ve by no means cried tougher 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 generally. What’s it described as?”
The 2 actors did not present any vitriol in direction of The Bear for its success, however it says one thing that these two laughingly questioned its comedy standing. Wendy McLendon-Covey was recent 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 Children, The Carmichael Present, and – in fact – greater than 100 episodes of In Residing Shade. These two know their manner round cracking jokes that hit on community tv!
McLendon-Covey bought a bit extra severe to share her ideas on community TV making a little bit of a comeback, in gentle of St. Denis Medical scoring these two Critics Alternative nominations for Greatest Comedy Collection and David Alan Grier as Greatest Actor in a Comedy Collection. She stated:
The networks, I feel, are coming again in an enormous manner and I like that, particularly for different actors which were out of labor for a very long time. You understand, we have been form of struggling on this business because the pandemic. So I am all for, let’s get some extra community exhibits on. Let’s get these large orders so individuals could make a residing.
Whereas St. Denis Medical in the end did not win a CCA, the comedy that proved the mockumentary format remains to be fashionable will likely be again for a second season. The Season 1 finale packed an emotional punch for Alex particularly, however there is not any motive to imagine that the complete solid will not be again for Season 2 on NBC.
So, if you wish to take a look at a present that’s 100% unambiguously a comedy, you will discover Wendi McLendon-Covey and David Alan Grier’s St. Denis Medical streaming with a Peacock subscription now. As for The Bear… properly, whether or not it needs to be labeled as a comedy or not, you will discover all 4 seasons thus far streaming on Hulu.