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From Taylor Swift to Pearl Jam: ‘The Bear’ Producers on How They Crafted Season 2’s Sizzling Soundtrack

Just as it did in its first season, “The Bear” Season 2 created a powerful soundtrack, thanks to executive producers Josh Senior and Christopher Storer, who also oversee the series’ music. From Otis Redding and Pearl Jam, to R.E.M. and Taylor Swift, the duo were able to tell a story of itself through the needle drops — something that is just as important to them as the writing itself.

When the writers room began, the group made a playlist and started sharing ideas with others on the team and even some of the actors, with Senior noting that Ayo Edebiri “is super helpful” in the entire process.

“It’s the most fun thing we get to do on the show, in my opinion. It’s a blast,” says Senior. “Sometimes we take all the songs out and see if we miss them. Other times, we use the songs to syncopate the scenes and cut them really fast. It’s an integral part of the process. We don’t score the show after it’s cut.”

Both Pearl Jam and R.E.M. were used in each season, since Senior and Storer are massive fans. Wilco, a Chicago-based band, also popped up in both.

“What’s been really cool about doing the music supervision work ourselves is that we are able to really paint a full picture for the artists that we’re trying to go out to. To get songs, we always try and reach out personally, to explain why and talk about how important the music is to us on a personal level and why it makes sense for the scene,” he says. “Being able to include live versions of a song in the show just feels like another way to make things feel alive.”

During Episode 9, Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and Sydney (Edebiri) have a personal, important conversation while fixing a table in the restaurant. In the background, Pearl Jam’s “Come Back” plays. The rendition used was from a live performance in Chicago.

“We reached out to like the song and they were like, ‘Here are five things we haven’t put out.’ We picked that version and it just made that seem that much more special,” he says. “Picking music for the characters in Season 1 was really fun. It felt like that was the music that these people were listening to in the Beef. So being able to expand the world a little bit, meant that we were able to draw more on things that were personally relevant to us or felt really impactful in driving the story forward and would help the audience connect with the characters more.”

While the series’ needle drops enhance the story, it’s not too on the nose — which, as Variety‘s William Earl recently pointed out — is something unfortunately happening more and more in today’s entertainment. That’s an important thing Senior and Storer are always thinking about, too.

“We try very hard to not pick cool music. We don’t want anybody to ever say that we’re picking stuff because it’s cool,” says Senior. “We want to pick stuff that we love that feels right for the show. It’s about being authentic and consistent with the work letting the work speak for itself.”

Taylor Swift is the exception to the cool rule. “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” may have been the biggest surprise track of Season 2, first playing during Richie’s (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) seventh episode, “Forks.” Later, it played again in the car, with Richie signing along.

“Getting the song was very straightforward. It was just regular outreach. We wanted to make sure we were using Taylor’s version of the song and feel like it was the right one for the scene. Obviously, she’s an incredible artist and one thing that I think is so interesting about her is that she’s beloved by people of all different ages,” Senior says, noting that “Love Story” was always the Swift track they wanted. “All of her music is amazing. We would have felt lucky to get five seconds of it. When we reached out, we asked if we could use the song twice and have someone singing and they were like, ‘That sounds cool!’ It wasn’t just like, ‘Hey, can I get the prices for these songs?’ It was, ‘Here’s what we want to do, and here’s why.’ She’s an incredible storyteller in her own right and an artist and just to be able to use that work in our shows is so cool.”

Of course, the Swift song was a connection to Richie’s daughter, who he later buys concert tickets for.

“That choice was so much about what was happening with Richie’s character,” says Senior. “This season, you get to see so many more sides of Richie, and it just made a lot of sense for the moment where things come together for him to also connect to the little pieces of his personal life that we’ve been exposed to throughout the first two seasons.”

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/the-bear-music-taylor-swift-pearl-jam-season-2-1235659329/#

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Great show. 

I worked with a chef similar to Carmy named Dominick. Also an Italian guy with demons that flamed out spectacularly. He was head chef at the Houston Racetrack. Excellent pay, benefits, and hours. You couldn't find a more cake food service job 20 years ago. But Dominick liked to gamble and do drugs, so the Racetrack wasn't the best place for him. The ponies and the coke eventually caught up with him. 

Dominick straightened his life out, and opened an Italian restaurant in the Willowbrook area. He was friends with my dad so he gave me a job waiting tables. Amazing chef. I told when I started that I didn't eat fish. Full stop. So he spent the entire summer trying to get me to eat seafood. He'd put stuff on the specials menu for that purpose. He succeeded with lobster bisque. Best I've had, and probably the only one I'd eat again. 

I love a comeback story, and I love this show. 

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9 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Great show. 

I worked with a chef similar to Carmy named Dominick. Also an Italian guy with demons that flamed out spectacularly. He was head chef at the Houston Racetrack. Excellent pay, benefits, and hours. You couldn't find a more cake food service job 20 years ago. But Dominick liked to gamble and do drugs, so the Racetrack wasn't the best place for him. The ponies and the coke eventually caught up with him. 

Dominick straightened his life out, and opened an Italian restaurant in the Willowbrook area. He was friends with my dad so he gave me a job waiting tables. Amazing chef. I told when I started that I didn't eat fish. Full stop. So he spent the entire summer trying to get me to eat seafood. He'd put stuff on the specials menu for that purpose. He succeeded with lobster bisque. Best I've had, and probably the only one I'd eat again. 

I love a comeback story, and I love this show. 

is the comeback story how you didn't like seafood but eventually ate seafood once?  because honestly, i've heard better.

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I didn't want to get spoilered so I hadn't ventured in here until I finished. Not much more to add on the characters and episodes. Wonderful season of television. I caught the buzz about Fishes on Twitter good and bad so I couldn't wait to see what it was all about and it did not disappoint in any way. I did like Forks better. It's funny to see myself getting so into a culinary show because I have zero interest in that in real life in terms of fine dining. I would eat that steak that Tina was serving up but not much else.

The one thing I will add because it hasn't been said yet. I get that he's a Chicago guy but they could have picked a better icon for inspiration than that smarmy pig-faced fucker Coach K.

Also I did see that Eater Chicago was quite offended at the treatment they gave Pequod's which is hilarious. Not to mention the logistics of Richie "running out" to Lincoln Park to pick up a Chicago pie and being back in 15 minutes.

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i am not caught up so am behind by several pages, haven't read anything re: this season and won't until we're finished...

but holy shit just finished Feast of the Seven Fishes and i'm literally crying and i'm not even sure why. i had to come post something. i just... i'm not even sure, that was just incredible and i felt the whole episode deep in my chest, my gut. my family...not the same...and yet exactly the same. just wow. i'm drained and i was totally not expecting that at all. 

i kept thinking 'the only thing missing is some kids running around watching the whole thing'. 

that ep was perfectly done and at the perfect time in the series. whew.

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20 minutes ago, mchookem said:

i am not caught up so am behind by several pages, haven't read anything re: this season and won't until we're finished...

but holy shit just finished Feast of the Seven Fishes and i'm literally crying and i'm not even sure why. i had to come post something. i just... i'm not even sure, that was just incredible and i felt the whole episode deep in my chest, my gut. my family...not the same...and yet exactly the same. just wow. i'm drained and i was totally not expecting that at all. 

i kept thinking 'the only thing missing is some kids running around watching the whole thing'. 

that ep was perfectly done and at the perfect time in the series. whew.

My wife had to tap out around the time Mikey really started showing his illness in the pantry. So she didn’t even make it to the table scene or Donna’s meltdown. 
 

it’s like a really intense haunted house that’s an hour long. 
 

i had her watch forks right after so that wasn’t what she ended on that night.  If you have some time, do the same. 

Edited by Pato del Muerto
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'Forks' was awesome and revelatory re: Richie...i might be rooting for him as much as Carmy now! loved loved loved him serving the deep dish ❤️

couple episodes to go,  but i believe what i experienced with 'Fishes' was the first time i've ever been legitimately 'triggered' lol 😳

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6 hours ago, mchookem said:

'Forks' was awesome and revelatory re: Richie...i might be rooting for him as much as Carmy now! loved loved loved him serving the deep dish ❤️

couple episodes to go,  but i believe what i experienced with 'Fishes' was the first time i've ever been legitimately 'triggered' lol 😳

Wait until you see him in the finale. Near the end, there's a callback to Fishes that turned me into a blubbering mess.

 

1 hour ago, scottsins said:

I’ve skimmed this entire season 2 portion of the thread…
Has anyone mentioned that Luca was the kid that got a spider bite on his nutsack in We’re The Millers?

Took me a while to recognize him.

He was also the young pharmaceutical rep in DOPESICK.

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As a lawyer we have a running joke that we rarely wear suits anymore so if someone has one on it draws comment. I have one today and have said twice now to a co worker “I wear suits now.”

Just rewatched “Forks” — wow, what an episode. Best episode of TV that I’ve seen in a long time. The scene with Olivia Colman at the end is just perfect.
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9 hours ago, C-Man said:


Just rewatched “Forks” — wow, what an episode. Best episode of TV that I’ve seen in a long time. The scene with Olivia Colman at the end is just perfect.

So jarring to have one of the top 2 or 3 greatest living actresses appear out of nowhere in episodic television. She is incredible and the episode was the best of the season (and probably the series).

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So jarring to have one of the top 2 or 3 greatest living actresses appear out of nowhere in episodic television. She is incredible and the episode was the best of the season (and probably the series).

For lack of a better place to put this, the mention of Olivia Coleman reminds me of the first thing I saw her in that put her on my radar and also a film that really stuck with me (and that you’d otherwise never come across): a short film she was in called The Karman Line.

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finally finished tonight. read the last three pages or so. can't really add anything,  it's all been mentioned... everything about 'Fishes', the cameos, Mulaney was so on the nose, so many redemption arcs, Richie saves the day, good lord the music is its own character, etc. etc. etc.

this show is fantastic and unlike anything on tv, maybe ever, and also nearly impossible to describe to someone who doesn't know about it to tell them why they should watch! 

man is JLC experiencing an incredible second act. or third. whatever...she'll likely be adding an Emmy to her Oscar next year. 

please please please give us a season 3!

 

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Just started the second season and I love the Kicking Television live version of Hummingbirds by Wilco so much in episode 1 of this show. 
 

I was waiting a bit because the show felt a bit heavy for what I felt like watching and man it just pulled me straight back in immediately.

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One side of me says season 3 has to be the Carmy redemption story since he’s helped everyone else find their purpose and they’ve built up how deep his connections are and the respect everyone else has for him. The other side of me says that based on the direction of the show it could just as easily be the Carmy goes further off the rails and the mental issues take hold story. I’m hoping for the first because personally I was a little disappointed they didn’t leave him in a little better place personally at the end of the season.

It’s such an interesting, intense show. It was definitely a lot to sit down over the weekend and knock it out in a few days. By the end of the fishes episode, it was like do we really want to keep going on this. Forks was definitely the right follow up episode to that one.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I don’t think I ever commented on this thread, but I watched both seasons about a month ago and loved it. Definitely in my top 3 shows for 2023.

There are some parallels with Ted Lasso. A new guy with talent moves into a difficult situation, is initially an outsider, tries to transform a struggling enterprise against overwhelming odds, finds ways to build up those around him and draw out their strengths, while battling his own internal demons.

Fishes was intense and I almost had to turn it off to finish later, but it was so good. Forks was amazing and the change from hating Richie to loving him was incredible character development.

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The constant yelling in Season 1 drove me crazy. Then you discover in season 2 that was the norm for them.

3 hours ago, wild_turkey said:

Forks was amazing and the change from hating Richie to loving him was incredible character development.

agree. As his character noted, there wasn't a place for him. That episode changed all of that.

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9 hours ago, wild_turkey said:

I don’t think I ever commented on this thread, but I watched both seasons about a month ago and loved it. Definitely in my top 3 shows for 2023.

There are some parallels with Ted Lasso. A new guy with talent moves into a difficult situation, is initially an outsider, tries to transform a struggling enterprise against overwhelming odds, finds ways to build up those around him and draw out their strengths, while battling his own internal demons.
 

Pretty common theme. 

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Sure they are wildly different concepts and executions. But in the end, they are both stories of personal growth of characters through the actions of the main character.

I finished season 2 a while back but never came here to comment. It was so damn good. Fishes-Forks were great back to back episodes.

This is one of the best shows on TV, period. 

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