52 | JULY 7 • 2022 

THOR IS BACK, SO IS JANE
It’s almost a sure bet that 
Thor: Love and Thunder, 
which opens on July 7, will 
be a box office blockbuster 
like its predecessors — Thor 
(2011), Thor: The Dark World 
(2013) and Thor Ragnarok 
(2017). 
The film series is based on 
a Marvel Comic book series 
created (1962) by Stan Lee, 
Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby. 
They took Thor, a major fig-
ure in the Nordic pantheon 
of gods, and created pretty 
much their own original 
“mythology” around him. 
The makers of the Thor films 
built on this mythology, and 
they have added a lot of new 
story lines and characters.
Chris Hemsworth has 
played Thor in all four films. 
Natalie Portman, now 
41, co-starred in the first 
two Thor films as Dr. Jane 
Foster, an astrophysicist who 
becomes Thor’s love inter-
est. Portman returned to the 
series in Love & Thunder 
after opting not to be in 
Ragnarok. 

In Love & Thunder, Foster 
(now Thor’s ex-girlfriend) is 
undergoing cancer treatment 

and “somehow” this results 
in her gaining superpowers 
similar to Thor’s. Jane is now 
known as “The Mighty Thor” 
and she even has her own 
super-hero costume.
Love & Thunder was writ-
ten and directed by Taikia 
Waititi, 46. He also directed 
Dark World. As I have noted 
before, Waititi “only” has 
one Jewish grandparent. 
Unlike most persons with 
one Jewish grand, there is 
“something very Jewish” 
about Waititi — who has 
called himself a “Polynesian 
Jew.” Like Mel Brooks, 96, 
and Volodymyr Zelensky, 
44, he often acts in, writes, 
and directs his films and 
TV shows. Many of them 
are comedies. Like Brooks, 
Waititi makes fun of the 
Nazis, as in his film Jo Jo 
Rabbit. 
His paternal ancestry is 
Maori, a fierce New Zealand 
Polynesian warrior peo-
ple who fought the British 
invaders to a standstill. This 
ancestry sort of reminds 
me of Brooks and Zelensky. 
Brooks is a WWII combat vet-
eran, and you know all about 
Ukrainian President Zelensky. 
Showtime has given the 
“go-ahead” to make a pilot 
episode for a comedy series 
co-starring Mandy Patinkin, 
69, and his wife of 43 years, 
actress Kathryn Grody, 75. 
During the pandemic, the 
couple found a big new 
audience when they posted 
quite humorous sketches on 

Instagram.
Their pilot (which is script-
ed) is titled Seasoned. The 
Showtime press release says 
that Seasoned will document 
“the delightfully tumultuous 
relationship and life of a suc-
cessful, gregarious, deeply 
committed, slightly insane 
married couple played by 
Patinkin and Grody — roles 
they’ve been rehearsing for 
the last 43 years.” The source 
of their unending magic is 
the same as their unending 
woe: that they’ve stayed 
together all this time.
I don’t often mention pilots 
because most never turn 
into a series. But Showtime’s 
publicity for Seasoned is so 
extensive that I think it is very 
likely that this pilot will “go to 
series.” By the way, in 2013, 
Grody said she wished her 
grandfather hadn’t changed 
the family name to Grody, 
from Goradetsky, because 
most people assume she 
isn’t Jewish.
The original Hulu series, 
Bear, was released on 
June 23. All eight episodes 
were “dropped” on the 
23rd. Bear has gotten rave 
reviews from all the top crit-
ics (100%, Rotten Tomatoes). 
That said, I found the first 
four or more episodes a bit 
frustrating. The lead char-
acter is Carmen “Carmy” 
Berzatto (whose nickname 
is “Bear”). He’s played by 
Jeremy Allen White (the star 
of Shameless). Carmy comes 
home to Chicago to run a 

working-class restaurant 
owned by his late brother, 
who killed himself. Carmy left 
a top chef position in a four-
star restaurant to do this.
Carmy struggles to keep 
the restaurant afloat and he 
prods the staff to embrace 
much higher standards (food, 
sanitation, etc.). Mostly he 
gets “flak” from his cousin, 
Richie, a longtime employ-
ee played by Ebon Moss-
Bachrach, 45. Richie seems, 
at the start, to be a total jerk 
and you wonder why Carmy 
puts up with him for more 
than a day. But, over time, his 
ties to Carmy are revealed 
and Richie evolves into a 
human being. 

This is another great role 
for Moss-Bachrach, following 
a juicy starring role in The 
Dropout, a 2022 Hulu series 
about the Theranos scandal. 
Critics loved Moss-Bachrach 
in Bear.
My frustration is that it 
wasn’t revealed until the 
last episodes why Carmy 
gave up a great job for this 
restaurant and why he puts 
up with so many restaurant 
problems. Actually, Carmy’s 
reasons are not crystal clear 
even at the end. But, by then, 
I had become emotionally 
invested in Carmy, and I 
hope I’ll see more of him. 
(It’s likely there will be a sec-
ond season). 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

GAGE SKIDMORE 

GAGE SKIDMORE 

TV INSIDER

Ebon 
Moss-
Bachrach

Mandy Pantinkin 
and Kathryn Grody

Natalie 
Portman

