By rights, a pop-culture newsletter should this week be discussing the biggest pop-cultural event of the year so far: the atomic bomb v the pneumatic bum. But you’re hardly lacking for Barbenheimer coverage elsewhere on the Guardian (here are our Barbie pieces; here are our Oppenheimer ones), and besides, there’s another major cultural drop this week that merits its share of the limelight: the arrival (in the UK) of The Bear’s second season.
Of course, some might argue that The Bear has had its share of the limelight already: its first series was the Guardian’s TV show of 2022, after all. In fact, as excellent as this drama about a former fine-dining chef’s attempts to turn his brother’s old fast food joint into a truly great restaurant was, I’d argue that its first series was a tiny bit overhyped. For all its propulsive qualities, there was always a nagging feeling that it might only have one speed: full-on, five-alarm freakout.
