JULY 6 • 2023 | 45

THE BEAR ROARS AGAIN; 
ROBBING BANKS CAN 
BE FUN; REMEMBER 
JONATHAN SILVERMAN?
The Bear, an FX series that 
streams on Hulu, premiered 
a year ago. It got great 
critical reviews and, pretty 
soon, the reviews and word-
of-mouth made it one of 
the most popular “scripted” 
streaming programs — on 
any channel. 

The first season was just 
eight episodes, and most 
of the episodes were only 
about 30 minutes. The 
entire 10-episode second 
season was “dropped” last 
week. Most episodes were 
about 30 minutes, but one 
was over an hour. 
Basic show set-up: 
Carmine “Carmy” Berzatto 
(nickname “The Bear”) is a 
star chef in New York. Then 
his brother, Michael, who 
runs the “meat and pota-
toes” Berzatto family restau-
rant in Chicago, commits 
suicide. Carmy (played by 
Jeremy Allen White) moves 
back to Chicago. He tries to 
make the family restaurant, 
which has a very diverse 
staff, turn a profit. 
No more spoilers, except 
to say that at the end of 

the first season something 
happens that makes it fea-
sible for Carmy to re-invent 
the restaurant as a 4-star, 
gourmet place. The second 
season follows Carmy as he 
tries to make this happen. 
Jewish angle: Ebon Moss-
Bachrach, 46, plays Richie, 
Carmy’s best friend. He’s 
long worked in the restau-
rant. He is a difficult, unhap-
py man; Jon Bernthal, 46, 
plays Michael. He appeared 
in brief, flashback scenes 
in the first season. Bernthal 
has a big role in the sixth 
episode of the second sea-
son. This one-hour “flash-
back” episode takes place 
five years before Michael’s 
death. It shows the Berzatto 
family during Christmas; 
Jamie Lee Curtis, 64, who 
says she was a big fan of 
the first season, got her 
wish and she was cast as 
Donna, Carmy and Michael’s 
mother. Donna is “big” in the 
sixth episode and returns 
for a brief scene in the sec-
ond season finale; Molly 
Gordon, 27, first appears in 
the second season. She has 
a recurring role as Claire, a 
doctor. Claire was a child-
hood friend of Carmy’s. She 
“morphs” into his adult girl-
friend. (More on Gordon in 
my next column.). 
Tip: See The Bear 
“cheap” on Hulu by sub-
scribing at the “basic 
level”— i.e., the no “live” 
programs plan. 
The Out-Laws is an orig-
inal crime comedy film 
that begins streaming on 
Netflix on July 7. Basic plot: 
Owen (Adam DeVine) is a 
young bank manager who 
is engaged to Parker (Nina 
Dobrev). His bank is robbed 
just before his wedding, and 
he has reason to believe 
that his future in-laws, Billy 
(Pierce Brosnan) and Lily 
(Ellen Barkin, 69), robbed 

the bank. Then Parker is kid-
napped by another criminal 
and held for ransom. Owen 
has to work with Billy and 
Lily and break into another 
bank to get the ransom 
money. (Richard Kind, 66, 
plays Owen’s father.)
Remember Jonathan 
Silverman? He was the dar-
ling of Jewish community 
newspapers from about 
1986 until about 1995. His 
father was a rabbi, and his 
grandfather was Morris 
Silverman, a very import-
ant Conservative rabbi. 
His first big role was in the 
Broadway and film (1986) 
versions of Brighton Beach 
Memoirs, a hit Neil Simon 
play about a Jewish teen-
ager in the 1930s. He had 
another hit with Weekend at 
Bernie’s (1989).
Silverman’s Jewish and 
“general media” atten-
tion faded away over the 
years. The movies he made 
flopped. Two TV series he 
was in were short-lived. 
Mostly he’s worked in one-
time guest appearances. 
My gut feeling is that his 
career faltered because 
Silverman had such great 
luck in his first roles. The 
media fawned over him and 
called him “the next big 
thing.” My educated guess 
is this “golden boy” long 
assumed that any role he 

took would be a winner, and 
he made many bad choices.
In 2007, Silverman, 
now 56, married actress 
Jennifer Finnigan, now 42, 
in what appears to be a 
secular wedding. Finnigan 
is a Montreal Catholic 
high school grad. She had 
some success in American 
TV. But a TNT series 
she made with Silverman 
flopped, as did two low-bud-
get films they co-starred in. 
On July 7, the first two 
seasons of Moonshine, a 
Canadian comedy-drama, 
begins running on the 
CW network. Finnigan is 
a star of the series and 
Silverman has a recurring 
role. Canadian reviews have 
been mixed.
I will tune in at least once 
because actress Erin Darke 
appears in every episode. 
For years, I’ve heard about 
Darke, who has been Daniel 
Radcliffe’s romantic partner 
since 2012. I’ve never seen 
her “really” act because 
all her previous roles were 
quite small (a waitress in 
one scene, etc.) 
Darke was born and 
raised in Flint and is a U-M 
(Flint) grad. She and Daniel 
have visited Michigan 
several times. 

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

CELEBRITY NEWS
ARTS&LIFE

Ellen 
Barkin

GREG2600

Molly 
Gordon

Jon 
Bernthal

GAGE SKIDMORE

IMDB

