‘’This show was really awful to watch. Thank you for making it.”
For comedian and actress Ayo Edebiri, this is the general praise (or criticism?) she randomly receives from chefs she encounters on a day-to-day basis.
“I’m just like, ‘You’re welcome?’” Edebiri says.
A compliment and confrontation wrapped into one, Edebiri jokes to the Hollywood Reporter about the conflicted reception she receives from the chefs she emulates on The Bear (2022-). Real-life chefs who tune into the television series are both scarred and awed by how accurately the show presents their everyday hardships, where tensions are high and blood is boiling, documenting what really goes down at a restaurant prior to the setting of a customer’s plate.
From the officers and lawyers of the Law and Order cinematic universe, to the finance bros of The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), The Bear is just one of many in a long line of entertainment that make the workplace their backdrop. However, The Bear’s haunting replica of the restaurant industry didn’t happen spontaneously; it reflects the exhaustive behind-the-scenes work of producers, consultants, and actors.
Spearheaded by chefs turned producers, Matty Matheson (who plays Neil Fak in the series) and Courtney Storer (sister of series creator Christopher Storer), the show’s cast and crew works hard to ensure that the profession is presented as honestly as possible.
Lead actors Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri spent two weeks at Pasadena’s Institute of Culinary Kitchen,working with some of the best chefs in LA, Chicago and New York, according to the L.A. Times. White would even find himself working at the Michelin-starred French bistro Pasjoli in Santa Monica. Writers participated in virtual Q&As with real-life chefs, and Courtney Storer handed over her past journals documenting her own experience with restaurant burnout, allowing their production team to understand the mental hardships that come with the profession.
Some could say The Bear is the pinnacle of media-representation for a single profession, hitting too close to home for chefs to consider it a comfort show. But as a viewer of the series who has never once worked in a restaurant, I still get glimpses of the same anxiety chefs viewing the series might receive. As I watch Michelin-starless, I still pick up on the show’s attention-to-detail and say to myself, “I feel like they’ve nailed this.”
However, some professions aren’t awarded the luxury of seeing themselves accurately reflected in entertainment. Susan Gavigan, a longtime attorney , feels law is one of the worst professions portrayed in the media. While she admits to indulging in shows like Suits and How to Get Away with Murder, watching these shows with others involves her holding her tongue to not ruin their experience.
Gavigan explains most television shows and films get the typical “dramatic” personalities of lawyers right – the grit, dedication, and fierceness. However, more often than not, show runners emphasize entertainment over accuracy, showcasing a fictional criminal justice system on steroids.
For example, the average lawyer could only hope to defend a celebrity or participate in a case with intense media coverage. “A lot of people engage and watch [celebrity cases], but that doesn’t mean that the average trial in America is like that,” Gavigan says.The average trial is much more mundane, with standard procedures and longer timelines.
One study attempts to understand how professions are depicted in media and the effects it may have.
In 2022, researchers Sabyasachee Baruah and Krishna Somandepalli of the Signal Analysis and Interpretation Laboratory (SAIL) analyzed the changes and trends of professional representations. Shikanth Narayanan, the university professor who helped facilitate the study, says that media “is very powerful and compelling in shaping people’s experiences and behavior.”
As much as we joke about the inaccuracies in media, these depictions simply correlate with our world at large. For example, depictions of congresswomen and policewomen have increased in recent years as more women enter these professions.
Using the OpenSubtitles database, the researchers were able to examine over 70 years of English entertainment. In doing this, the study was able to evaluate how professions were portrayed. For example, they found that STEM professions had the most positive portrayals of media, while manual labor had the most negative portrayals.
Baruah, the lead author of the study, explained his fascination with how the language trends of media reflected changing times.
“These words came up in the earlier years, like the 1950s, but did not come up in later years. So it was interesting to see how the usage of a word evolves overtime,” Barauah said.
Gender-neutral terms, for example, like principal (over headmistress and headmaster) , massage therapist (over masseuse and masseur), and flight attendant (over steward and stewardess) have increased over time, paralleling the more progressive world we live in today, that is less defined by gender roles.
Professionals on Fictional Professionals
Media representation does hold real-life consequences. Which is why real-life professionals are sought out for consultation on some of our favorite productions.
Michael Metzner, physician turned producer for ABC studios, uses his expertise to assist the production of medical shows like Grey’s Anatomy (2005- ) and Ratched (2020).
His work on Grey’s Anatomy started with a flier sent out by the series to every general surgeon program in the country. What was supposed to be a three-month gig for Metzner, turned into a new, life-changing career with ABC Studios.
No day is ever the same for Metzner. When he’s not seeing patients on the weekends, he is working 15-16 hour weekdays on set. Hours can be spent in the writer’s room working through storylines, or directly on set, helping actors to mimic what he spent years studying for. Though he doesn’t work alone; he is just one piece in the working machine of medical-practitioners and experts who drive the show’s accuracy.
Past the dynamic characters, messy love triangles and insane storylines, these films and television shows can hold the key to the next generation of professionals. ZenBusiness, a popular business formation service, surveyed 1,005 working professionals on the influence media had on their careers. 58% said their career path was at least slightly inspired by a book, TV show, movie, podcast, or video game.
Shows can be aspirational, showing us “cool” jobs like astronauts, ballerinas, or horseback riders. However, as we approach young adulthood, shows become research, providing us options for what we want to do for the rest of our lives. This is seen in the stack of letters Grey’s Anatomy receives from individuals who say the show inspired them to become doctors.
But Metzner emphasizes that the show’s influence is shown in more ways than one.
In one instance, Metzner recounts receiving a text from one of his former colleagues. An episode of Grey’s Anatomy that covered the rare condition of median arcuate ligament syndrome – a condition where a ligament in the lower part of your chest presses on a main blood vessel, causing it to not function properly – just aired. The former colleague – who Metzner hadn’t spoken to in five years – began the conversation by asking about his role in the storyline. Metzner reluctantly admitted his involvement, anticipating criticism of the condition’s reenactment.
What Metzner heard instead was quite the opposite:
“Congratulations, I’m seeing a patient in two hours who was diagnosed because they watched your episode,” Metnzer recalls.
At times, entertainment is our only lifeline to the things we are unable to comprehend in our daily lives. We only have access to our own perspective, so our viewership of these shows and films, whether knowingly or unknowingly, is our attempt at grappling with what’s outside our personal experiences or expertise. Metzner, like many others, understands the weight these portrayals can have on how society maneuvers the moment they premiere on people’s screens.
It is why Grey’s Anatomy treads carefully when doing storylines on transplants, never wanting to give the false impression that the process is quick and easy, considering the real-life patients undergoing the grueling wait on the transplant lists.
It is why a 2015 study conducted by Washington State University professor Stacey Hust found the Law and Order franchise – which Gavigan and some of her peers consider one of the more accurate portrayals of the criminal justice system – is linked to an increased acknowledgement and practice of sexual consent.
It is why educators who teach in Philadelphia’s underfunded and under-resourced public schools hold hope following the release of Abbott Elementary (2022- ), as it addresses the many issues teachers confront for the sake of their kids.
The beauty in tackling these portrayals is prioritizing accuracy where it counts. When a production decides to take a step back from storyline and put real-life impact at the forefront of its mind, a leisurely show can turn into a memorable statement piece.
“You can truly have an impact on people both by inspiring them to go into medicine, or actually teaching themselves about their own bodies, without them even realizing that they’re learning,” Metzner explained.
Metzner acknowledges the doctors who mercilessly critique the legitimacy of medical shows, but in his unique position of being on both sides of the coin, he has more understanding when shows don’t get details completely right. Having worked on a production that can have anywhere between 100-200 people on set and a multitude of tasks going on at once, Metzner admits details are bound to “slip through the cracks.”
These cracks are sometimes formed intentionally, sacrificing authenticity for the sake of the story. “There is a balance between amazing storytelling and the accuracy of the medicine…” Metzner said.
Accuracy is tossed aside (or gently placed in the recycling bin), in circumstances of omitting structure to prevent confusion, adding more instances of “free-time” to incite dialogue and further storyline (“Why are they just sitting around? Don’t they have jobs to do?”), or heightening the rates of malpractice (instances that would be shut down way more often in the real-world), to promote drama and make a show more intriguing.
Both Gavigan and Metzner agree that where entertainment distorts their profession the most is in the time it takes to successfully work with a client/patient.
“A prospective client comes in and the next day they’re in court.. Lawsuits don’t happen that quickly. I would hope people would not wait till the last minute… hiring a lawyer and [then expecting] that lawyer to be prepared to represent them,” Gavigan said.
However, they understand that viewers wouldn’t want to watch the dragged out process of their day-jobs, where much of it is playing the waiting game. It’s much more exciting to have a case solved every episode, or a patient miraculously up and running minutes after their life-saving procedure.
“We have only 43 minutes to tell a beautiful story,” Metzner explains.
But how much accuracy are we willing to sacrifice? How much can a film or television show get wrong before it becomes comical? Does making a film or television series too truth-telling defeat its purpose, taking the entertain out of entertainment?
As I sit here and write this piece as an aspiring journalist, I realize that newsroom-based film and television never gave me the inkling to pursue the profession. In fact, it almost turned me away. As I applied to journalism programs across the country during my senior year of highschool, I questioned whether or not I was even cut out to succeed in this pressure-cooking career that seemed so daunting on my television screen.
Would I be able to handle the wrath of a ruthless and fierce editor like Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada (2006)? Could meditation ever successfully aid me through the stress-inducing stakes presented in All the President’s Men (1976), a film centered on the very-real breaking of the Watergate Scandal. Would I really be willing to put my life on the line for the sake of a story?
However, it didn’t take me long to realize that the profession didn’t have to be as all or nothing as the media had made it out to be. While harsh deadlines might keep me up every once in a while, I’ve never felt like I have a target on my back (not yet at least). And the entertainment I consumed failed to display that the life of a journalist can be, and is, often boring, where sending and receiving interview requests and adhering to AP style is half of the job.
While the attention-to-detail in portraying a profession can sway public perception of a career field, the goal of keeping people entertained still remains at the core of television and film. We as average viewers must remember this when consuming this genre of media, deciphering from what depictions can be added to our general perceptions, and what show runners intentionally placed to keep us watching – fibbed, overdramatized, and all.
Not every show will be as meticulous as The Bear or have the resources to tell the most authentic story. And at times, maybe that’s okay.
Metzner, comparing his life as a surgeon to helping actors pretend to be one, gives himself grace if he is unable to achieve 100% accuracy.
“I just remember – no one’s going to die.”
Because at the end of the day, it’s just pretend.