My problematic session with female characters gained a new member, one that I put off but couldn’t delete: Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri), in The Bear. The talented young sous chef entered Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto’s (Jeremy Allen White) life as a fan, then right-hand man and now may be a partner (if she signs the contract), but she is perennially dissatisfied. How irritating!

An only and determined young daughter

The star of The Bear is the undeniably broken and talented chef Carmy Berzatto, the idol of young Sydney, the only child of Nigerian immigrants and raised surrounded by the love, affection and uninterrupted support of her parents, in fact her father (her mother passed away when she was only 4), which makes her literally the opposite of the chef, a man raised in a dysfunctional family, in a universe without a father figure and a bipolar mother.

Syd has infinite empathy and patience with the troubled Carmy, because she is a fan of hers and wants to be just like him: an award-winning and famous chef. As she comes from a healthy emotional structure, she does not consider that the path to excellence comes through pain and fractured relationships, as Carmy does, but that it is part of an organized, empathetic and focused scenario. It would be yin and yang on screen, but it has its differences.

We met her in the 1st season, half stalker, half groupie and half ambitious, when she comes looking for Carmy and ends up getting a job. Wouldn’t it be a dream? An inexperienced chef learning directly from another Michelin winner? Somehow it never felt like enough.

Little by little we see that Sydney has always been a fan of cooking and that although she came from a simple family, she had the support to study at the Culinary Institute of America and invest in her dream of being a Chef, paying for her studies with difficulty.

The Berzatto family came into her life from an early age because ‘The Beef” was her father’s favorite place, who took her every Sunday and in the third season, perhaps already following in Carmy’s footsteps out of curiosity, her life changed when she ate the dishes he created in a luxury restaurant. I’m telling you, Syd is a stalker! But The Bear doesn’t present it like that.

After finishing her studies, Sydney even opened her own catering business called ‘Sheridan Road’, which she ran from her garage, but it didn’t work out for a number of reasons, which she simplifies by arguing that it got “too big, too fast”. The fault, always in her view, belongs to others and not her indecision and other people’s envy.

Syd also continued with formal training and work in sophisticated restaurants, which put her experience, despite being young, above the rest of the team that Carmy inherited with “The Beef”, something that Carmy appreciated, recognizes and depends on in order to achieve your own dream.

If the Chef liked her right away, it wasn’t the same with the rest of the kitchen who resisted Syd until they adjusted to her quiet style, but more balanced than Carmy’s. Today they follow her with greater affection and respect than even the true talent in the business, an unbalanced yin and yang. And here my problem with Syd begins. She is aware of Carmy’s complex and troubled personality, and she destabilizes him precisely where he least expects it: stealing leadership by victimizing herself.

Carmy is the result of emotional abuse and moral harassment at home and at work, she tries her best to control herself and at the same time is extremely generous, teaching excellence to a group of cafeteria cooks to become top professionals, but this transition is painful for everyone. , who don’t consider the fact that he is risking much more by betting on them than them taking on Carmy’s challenge. And it is Syd who highlights the Chef’s personal flaws by defending her empathetic qualities. The pressure on Carmy is infinitely greater than the one on her shoulders, but as narcissistic as he is, Syd only points the finger at a person clearly on the verge of burnout. I think Syd is a cruel person.

Described as ambitious, intelligent and dedicated to her job, her merit is to try to maintain a respectful work environment, undoing the toxic school in which Carmy had to survive and which she ends up repeating, even without wanting to. While Carmy – again, generously – opens doors for everyone on her team, Syd “steals” this role by being the mother she doesn’t have with everyone, more affectionate and encouraging them to reach their full potential with care and time. Everything is fine and commendable, but without highlighting Carmy’s qualities, just coming in to contrast, it makes me see Syd as a kind of Eve Harrington from All About Eve. Deep down, what she wants is to supplant her idol, but taking everything from him to the last drop.

Unsurprisingly she has been described as ‘incredibly smart and incredibly talented’ as well as ‘incredibly impatient and incredibly green.’ Impatience disguised as empathy: that’s Sydney Adamo.

Syd is passionate about cooking Airy and hard-working, she has the ability to deal with crises and overcome them like few others, but her Achilles heel is Envy. Yes, she wants and believes she is already on an equal footing with Carmy, a chef who already has a Michelin star on his CV, in addition to having worked in equally award-winning restaurants and chefs, therefore taking offense when he changes her creations or replaces them with his own. Hey?

Guys, according to the timeline, Syd has been with the Berzattos for less than a year, she has already started as a sous chef, she has a contract that makes her a partner at The Bear and yet she feels discredited, humiliated and ignored. There is nothing condescending about Carmy’s attitude, which is obviously full of flaws but the only one that doesn’t exist is that of not appreciating Syd. Of course, Carmy has handed over all the administrative and managerial duties he detests to her, so the tasks have had little emotional or actual support from his side, but she has thrived, even if resentfully.

The person who shared my suspicions about Syd was the irritating Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), but he had greater insecurities about having “lost” his position to her. Amid the toxic chaos at The Beef, she gives up, but returns just when Carmy decides to open The Bear.

If in Season 1, Syd felt like a fish out of water with the rest of the team, and struggles to create a professional, non-abusive atmosphere, in Season 2 she enters The Bear actively involved in the development of The Bear restaurant and – alongside Carmy, not below – works on creating the menu. However, this is where everything starts to go wrong. Because she is upset to learn that Carmy has been making decisions without consulting her. Even worse, she is offended by the fact that Carmy is in love and listens to her girlfriend’s tips without considering her own. Yes, we’re ignoring that part of Carmy’s breakup with Claire (Molly Gordon) has a good hint of Syd’s venom in his ear too.

And now, in season 3, with Carmy wracked with guilt and without Claire, Syd resents the fact that the chef returns to being obsessive and a perfectionist, doing alone what he does best: creating. Of course the proposal was to share the creations, but it is also obvious that in the timeline Syd went from being a nobody to being a partner of a famous and respected Chef, there is still a road of learning ahead of her. Instead of embracing the chance to watch him create, she takes offense. What’s more: because of the chances she has alongside Carmy, she receives an invitation to leave him and be a competitor’s Chef, something she is apparently taking into consideration.

My theory is that Syd will accept the challenge of leaving and season four will find her understanding Carmy more than she anticipated and him, of course, missing her in The Bear’s kitchen. What’s more risky is that rather than leaving Carmy, Syd ends up taking the team with her as well. Of course the series wants us to understand that it is Carmy who is undermining Sydney’s leadership in her quest for perfection, but I don’t see it that way.

Syd feels devalued and belittled, when that’s not even close to what’s happening. And she, because of her partnership with him, can make a name for herself in the culinary world and step out of her mentor’s shadow. This part is natural in life, it doesn’t owe it to Carmy to give up her chances, but I don’t like personal ambition being disguised as a consequence of other people’s personality flaws. I didn’t want THIS to be the character’s dilemma and thus create my problem with her. Carmy is a genius, Sydney is a talent. There is a difference in this understanding.

Having said all that, the third season was wonderful for Ayo Edebiri, who shone as an actress and even more as a director, with her being the most sensitive and emotional episode of the season. I hope to get over my Sydney issues soon. Am I being too hard on her?

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