FX head swears he thinks The Bear is actually better as a binge drop

FX's John Landgraf: "I think the show itself that Chris [Storer] makes is designed to be consumed as a season in many ways"

By William Hughes  |  July 17, 2024 | 11:31pm
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FX head swears he thinks The Bear is actually better as a binge drop
The Bear star Jeremy Allen White and FX head John Landgraf Photo: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for AFI

It’s long been a source of mild frustration for fans of FX’s Emmy-drenched restaurant series The Bear that it just sort of lands, splatting on to the internet in a massive impact of content on a random night, like it’s 2012 and we’re all talking about some new Netflix show that just arrived. While binge-dropping a show still has its place in 2024, there’s been a push over the last years—mostly spurred on by Disney+, by our reckoning—that any show that really matters matters enough to get a weekly release, allowing anticipation to build from week to week. The Bear’s FX On Hulu arrivals feel a little throwback-y in that climate—and worse, like they can potentially mute wider anticipation for one of the most critically lauded and exciting shows on TV.

FX head John Landgraf does not agree. In a new interview with Variety (mostly a victory lap for how many goddamn Emmy nominations his various teams have piled up at his triumphant feet this week), Landgraf states, clearly and bluntly, that he genuinely thinks The Bear is served better by a binge release, and that it isn’t likely to change any time soon.

Unfortunately, you can’t get to everything for every one of your fans, every one of your consumers that they want. I wish I could take the request from every fan of The Bear and give them just the version of it that they want and if they want it weekly, I wish I could give it to them weekly. But I think the show itself that Chris makes is designed to be consumed as a season in many ways. I don’t mean to say they don’t have episodic episodes in every season. He’s made these stunningly brilliant standout episodes of television … that really are among the most original and best episodes I’ve seen. But I think each season is its own distinctive entity. I haven’t been a big proponent of the overall shift in television to a binge model. I really genuinely believe in weekly television, and obviously many or most of our shows go out that way… In the case of The Bear, though, I am actually grateful to be a part of a streaming platform and to be able to offer it the other way — because I just think that’s the show.

Landgraf also addressed the other thing, i.e., the fact that one of the most consistently harrowing and stressful shows on TV is competing as a comedy. Or, at least, acknowledged that this was a topic that could be addressed: “There are parts of that season that are very, very funny. We let the voters decide the answers to these questions.” (Also: No comment on whether the show will try to switch Emmy categories for season 3.)

 
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