Ever wish you were in a book club, and whether you might be if you weren’t spending so much time watching addictive TV shows? The Community Library’s TV Discussion Group is a place where TV obsessives and skeptics dissect and debate one season of a prestige TV series, analyzing it much in the way a book group critiques a novel.

Beginning August 10th, the focus will be on the eight half-hour episodes of The Bear, a Hulu dramedy set in a frenetic, failing, blue collar Chicago sandwich shop. At the center of its chaotic, fragrantly authentic kitchen is Carmen, a prodigy chef who walked away from one of the best restaurants in the world to take over his family’s old school joint. He’s instantly immersed in challenges that would flatten a superhero and thanks to the show’s breathless pace, superb writing, acting and directing we, the viewers, are thrown into the cauldron too, rooting for the flawed, blessedly human crew who work beside him. 2022 is barely half over, yet The Bear has already been lauded as the year’s best new series.

Ketchum resident Mimi Avins, who covered pop culture in her years as a staff writer for The Los Angeles Times, will lead the discussion. The group will gather outdoors at the library at 5:00 p.m. on August 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st and explore two episodes at each session. Attendees are asked to watch the first two episodes before the first discussion on August 10th. (In case of inclement weather, the group will meet indoors in the Idaho Room.)  

Advanced registration is requested. To sign up please email Martha Williams at mwilliams@comlib.org