Streaming tip

The Bear

Streaming on Hulu

Right off the bat: This show is not for everyone. It is fast, it is loud and they swear a lot. Like, a lot. The quick camera cuts might induce a mild panic attack. BUT it’s pretty great. “The Bear” is a workplace comedy disguised as a family drama. Or maybe it’s the other way around. It also shows a working restaurant kitchen as realistic as I’ve ever seen on TV. Forget the Great British Bakeoff or whatever: This is how kitchens actually operate, and I can tell you it made me long for the days I worked in one. But the strength of the show lies in its depiction of real world adult themes: suicide, mental health, addiction, sibling relations, grief, recovery. This show rarely comes up for air or takes its foot off the gas. It’s messy and unpredictable, but so is life. I’m also a sucker for any movie or show where I don’t know the actors. It makes it easier to accept the characters without asking, “Hey, wasn’t he in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’?” “The Bear” packs a lot into eight episodes, but it’s one of the best TV shows I’ve seen in a good long time.

— Owen Poole

BOOK TIP

The Marriage Portrait

Maggie O’Farrell

The author of the acclaimed “Hamnet” returns with another bracing novel inspired by historical figures. In the case of “The Marriage Portrait,” it’s a 16th-century Italian girl who was married off at age 15 and a year later mysteriously died. The theory: she was poisoned. Poet Robert Browning wrote a famous dramatic monologue in which her husband, the Duke of Ferrara, talks about his wife and her portrait and says enough that readers infer he killed her. O’Farrell makes young Lucrezia de’ Medici the center of her tale, as a spirited, iconoclastic soul who is treated as an outsider by her family members. When her father consigns her to marrying the Duke, Lucrezia is able to hold off the wedding (with the help of her nurse) for a while, but then has to capitulate — and shortly thereafter realizes he intends to murder her. O’Farrell’s attention to detail brings readers into a richly conceived world, and she has created a riveting heroine in Lucrezia, whose fascination with wild animals is insight into her self-image.

— Kristina Dorsey

SONG TIP

Panopticon

Peter Gabriel

There’s all sorts of Peter’s deep-thinkery at play here. This is the first single from i/o, a conceptual album Gabriel has been working on since, I don’t know, “Supper’s Ready” was only two minutes long. According to advance press, “Panopticon” was inspired by the artist’s idea “to initiate the creation of an infinitely expandable accessible data globe.” Which is sorta what ZZ Top said when they wrote “Tush.” ANYWAY, is “Panopticon” any good? Hell, yes — and you don’t even have to be a mage or a member of Elon Musk’s Mensa group to get it. It’s a slightly melancholy midtempo tuned fueled by (presumably) Tony Levin’s sliding, thick-as-glue bass and Brian Eno’s ultra-lush ambient treatments, and topped with a yearning, pretty melody from Gabriel and his signature, slightly crackly vocals. If the whole album’s this good, I’ll go ahead and get my Ph.D. in Panopticonicity-ness.

— Rick Koster