'The Bear' Season 2 Cameos, Ranked From Best to Still Damn Good
I don't particularly think any of us expected The Bear, FX's soon-to-be-Emmy-nominated prestige dramedy about the pressure-cooker environment surrounding the staff of a Chicago restaurant, to have a second season filled with more surprise cameos and scene-stealing guest appearances than a run-of-the-mill Marvel movie. But there we all were for the duration of the show's second season, looking just like the famous Leonardo DiCaprio Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood meme that we've all seen so many times. Having so many moments of 'Is that...? Oh my god, it's...!' was not expected, but certainly was appreciated.
Clearly, the surprise phenomenon of The Bear's first season caught the attention of many power players in Hollywood—and got lots of big names interested in coming aboard for the show's second go-around. And every time, we should add, it was delightful. The Bear is a great show, and while some might classify these performances as "stunt casting," we wouldn't go so far—because each appearance, no matter how brief or how lengthy, really pays off and feels true to both the world being built and and the story being told.
It helps with suspension of disbelief that the majority of these special appearances come in the masterful mid-season episode "Fishes," which jumps about 5 years into the past for a highly-chaotic Berzatto family Christmas. And seeing relative after relative depicted as A-lister after A-lister kind of just works—when someone's telling you a story about their one-of-a-kind family dinner, you often hear about characters in stories that have personalities that could only be imagined as some of Hollywood's finest. Of course the Berzatto family's "Uncle who isn't really our Uncle" is played by Bob Odenkirk. OF COURSE their deeply-unwell ticking-time-bomb mother is played by freshly-minted Oscar-winner Jamie Lee Curtis. It just makes sense. Someone's telling this story—we're just listening.
With so many fun and well-executed special appearances, though, it only makes sense that we don't only want to recount and think about them, but also rank, in order, which we really liked the most.
Below, we have that ranking.
Gillian Jacobs - Episode 6, "Fishes" and Episode 7, "Forks"
Gillian Jacobs, best known for her role as Britta in Community, shows up for a pair of episodes in Season 2 as Tiffany, Richie's ex-wife. Jacobs does a great job in building Tiffany very much into her own independent character, but also in helping us get to the core of one of Season 2's most important takeaways: Richie is good with people. We see how charming and warm (and, of course, also occasionally dumb) he can be with Tiff, balanced with how brash and idiotic he can be much of the other time. But Jacobs does a great job with her usual energy and feels like a natural fit in this world.
John Mulaney - Episode 6, "Fishes"
One of the most surprising people to see among the many at the Berzatto Christmas dinner in "Fishes" is John Mulaney, if only because he's not really an actor by trade. One of the most famous and successful stand-ups in the world, Mulaney here plays Steven, Michelle's (Sarah Paulson) longtime boyfriend (husband?). And he brings exactly what you'd want from John Mulaney in this kind of role—he's dryly hilarious throughout (especially in his scene talking baseball cards with Neil and Theodore Fak), but as the family outsider, is almost sitting in the viewer's POV during the major end-of-episode conflicts.
Sarah Paulson - Episode 6, "Fishes"
As Cousin Michelle, Sarah Paulson is a member of the Berzatto family who it feels like we will very likely see again. She's similar to Mikey in a lot of ways—telling stories about getting in fights, bullshitting with everyone, but also really clearly cares about Carmy. She turns out to be the one that initially invited him to come to New York City to get away from the madness of the family, the road that eventually led him into the culinary elite. Paulson's scene with Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) is her standout moment, and she's key not only to the episode itself (including a number of memorable moments at the dinner table), but clearly to Carmy becoming the character we know in the present as well.
Bob Odenkirk - Episode 6, "Fishes"
For anyone who's been aboard the Bob Odenkirk train since his days starting out on The Ben Stiller Show and HBO's glorious sketch series Mr. Show with Bob and David, the last decade or so has been astounding to see. Odenkirk has gone from a largely comedic performer—see guest spots in shows like Arrested Development alongside his old pal David Cross—to one of the most respected dramatic performers around. That's largely thanks to his iconic role in Better Call Saul, but Odenkirk really puts his range on full display in "Fishes" as"Uncle" Lee, a guy whose exact realationship with the family is uncertain, and who picks a fight with Michael—and isn't equipped to handle the fallout that follows. Odenkirk plays both sides of this role really well; after all his years in comedy, its easy for him to show us what a nice guy "Uncle" Lee can be. But he's also quick to show us how much of a frustrated dick he can be, and how quickly he'll almost come to blows with Michael (Jon Bernthal). It's not one of the flashiest guest spots of the season, but it's one of the best nonetheless.
Will Poulter - Episode 4, "Honeydew"
Will Poulter's appearance as Luca in "Honeydew" is the first sign of Season 2 that The Bear was going to bring us some top-notch stars. Fresh off of his superhero debut in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Poulter brings us a totally different kind of character: a stern but kind and helpful pastry chef. We learn later, in the episode "Forks," that Luca and Carmy have history working together in Chef Terry's restaurant. But that context isn't even needed initially, as we see all we need to see in his back-and-forth rapport with Marcus (Lionel Boyce). Poulter comes in as a character foil to Carmy, showing Marcus (and us) that there's more than one way to be a mentor in this culinary world. He learned from one of the best, he tells us, and it helped make him pretty damn good himself. And that's something he'll keep passing down whenever he can. He'll take being Scottie Pippen any day, and so will we.
Olivia Colman - Episode 7, "Forks"
I'll admit it: when Olivia Colman came on screen in "Forks," finally revealing the much-discussed-but-not-yet-seen Chef Terry, I gasped. Gasped! The Oscar-winner (for The Favourite) only has a single brief scene in the episode, but after seeing such a serious, high-stress operation all episode long (as Garrett refers to it, the Super Bowl every night), it's such a welcomed relief to see Colman greet Richie (Ebon Moss-Bacharach) with a smile and a nice story. It's an absolutely vital moment for Richie's growth throughout the season—he is good with people. She tells him that to his face in a moment of affirmation, but after seeing these two go back and forth a little bit, we figured that out long ago. Incredible scene.
Jon Bernthal - Episode 6, "Fishes"
We already knew from a couple brief appearances in Season 1—one flashback scene and an earth-shattering smile—that Jon Bernthal was absolute perfection as the late Michael Berzatto. And this was such an essential role for The Bear to nail: we needed to see someone who is charismatic enough for all these people's worlds to really be rocked when he's not around anymore. Michael is, in a way, the most important character in the entire show. And so when we get to see more of Bernthal as Michael in "Fishes," it's such a relief that he really, truly delivers. Even before his episode-concluding showdown with "Uncle" Lee, we see Bernthal flash his range throughout the episode, opening with charm and eventually descending into the moments of mental anguish and addiction that we know would ultimately end up troubling him and costing him his life. Bernthal may have already locked up next year's Guest Actor Emmy with this one.
Jamie Lee Curtis - Episode 6, "Fishes," and Episode 10, "The Bear"
But if we're going to talk about Emmys, we must talk about Jamie Lee Curtis. The newly-minted Oscar-winner (for her role in Everything Everywhere All At Once) is at the absolute center of "Fishes," playing Berzatto family matriarch Donna as the ticking time bomb that everyone occupying that house and ultimately sitting around the dinner table knows is going to go off. It's abundantly clear from her first moment on screen that Donna is not well, and Curtis manages to play these scenes with a level of humanity that depicts this but still grounds Donna in the fast-paced world of The Bear. "Fishes" ends with an explosion unlike any other in the episode, but it's her return in the finale episode, "The Bear," and conversation with Pete, that really brings the emotions; Curtis plays the part with so much hurt and trouble, but it's the fact that she knows she'll inevitably make for trouble that's truly heartbreaking. One of the best guest appearances you'll see for a long time.
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