The Curious Case of Claire: The Complexities of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl

I can sit here and say with 100% certainty that the bear is one of my favorite television shows of all time in fact I moved it to my top three what I love most about this show is what draws me to most shows in the first place the characters it sounds obvious but in the case of the bear I love how real everyone is these characters feel real we know a sid we have a Richie we love our sugars and we fear our Donas this show is packed with some of the most complicated traumatized anxiety inducing characters I've ever seen they make you want to laugh cry and scream under a pillow pretty much simultaneously each character hits you harder than the last but they create this perfect ecosystem that allows for each character to be recognized in their own way D no one feels like a background character every single person we see on screen feels like a story we just haven't been told yet there's depth present a past chapters worth of an origin story that explores how these characters found themselves working at the emotional Beast that is the beef of Chicago land and on top of that each character goes through such individual character arcs that no matter how they started in the pilot they're like family by the finale not one character goes unloved in the bear well except for one hi I'm Claire I just sorry to interrupt even before I began watching the bear last month I always heard particularly strong opinions about one specific character Claire CLA First shows up in season 2 having a sort of meat cute moment with Cary at a grocery store where we learned that she's a family friend of the Beados and facts we spend Eight Episodes with Claire in some way shape or form and by the end of an almost 4our season runtime we still know virtually nothing about her in fact it's not until the end of the season Until you realize that you don't even know Claire's last name the only things we know about CLA definitively are that she's a doctor she likes Cari and Everyone likes her on the weekends this woman teaches CPR to differently abled college kids yeah like is that like f like Neil she's a deeply good person I can see why you're in love with her I'm not in love with her though that's what I'm saying but don't you notice one particular detail about that one little thing that's actually pretty major let me explain the bear is all about laws no matter how ideal someone's life seemed at one point CIA uh CIA yeah okay so what are you doing here there's always something everyone is fully formed imperfections in all then there's Claire of the things I listed that we know about her none of these point to a flaw none of these speak to her as a person as a human living in this universe in a world full of people whose lives are as complicated as a puzzle with 10,000 pieces Claire is but a four-piece puzzle she's not fully formed she's an idea Claire is a concept and that's the point as I said before Claire is an emergency doctor this career stemming from a memory she has from age six where instead of being freaked out by her classmates's broken arm she wanted to I wanted to understand it we see her depicted as the perfect friend to Kelly consoling her like any good friend would instead of being absolutely put off or even at least a little hurt by car me giving her a fake number this only motivates her to get his real one she remembers what Cary wanted to call his restaurant because you're the bear and I remember you she is praised by car's family who have nothing but love for her she's quirky speaks in riddles and quips Claire is perfect she is the quintessential manic pixie dream girl manic pixie Dream Girls or MPGs have been used time and time again for years in movies that typically center around a white man in his late teens to early 20s she's typically described as not like girls interesting capitalization I'm a big believer in random capitalization her sole purpose is to bring a greater purpose to a man's life and once that goal is complete she disappears in one way or another the origin of the term comes from film critic Nathan Raven in his critique of CLA in Elizabeth Town his critique discussed how this CLA is only there to somehow help or care for the protagonist emotionally these characters are solely there to provide some sort of character growth or life lesson to the their male counterparts their story is not expanded without him he is her project and once the work is done he leaves her behind and she's gone as quickly as she came a lot of the hatred people have towards CLA comes from this she's only there to make K me better but even as she does it she's found as annoying and aggravating she doesn't necessarily seem like anything other than incredibly perfect and cookie cutter unlike the other women in car's life such as Nat and Sid they're not afraid to go to- totoe with Cary when he needs to be checked Claire doesn't do this things that would make anyone feel something make her feel nothing but calm cool and collected she always knows exactly what to say you would think that this would mean she's the perfect girl for Carmen as she acts as the calm to his storm and his family would say the same but that's exactly why they wouldn't be good together Claire is a Daydream she's no different than car's fantasy of burning the entire restaurant down and in fact they could be categorized as the exact same thing an escape both act as an escape from reality for Cari they wouldn't actually get rid of his issues but instead lift a temporary weight off his shoulders they're definitely ways that Ki can deal with problems but they are not Solutions and eventually these things both burning the place down and committing to CLA are going to do nothing but hurt him and those around him additionally CLA serves as the last true connection Cari has to his family and what his family wants for him up until this point everything Cary has done for these two seasons has had the sole purpose of starting new doing things differently and tearing down what his family built that only caused pain however Claire is the very opposite this is exactly why thoughts of CLA began mixing with car's thoughts of his family and only fuel his panic attack she is the family friend that everyone has an endearing impression of they were childhood sweethearts that their families love to CP at and it makes perfect sense as to why a singular thought of Sydney would calm him down she represents the future not car's future but the future as a whole we see throughout the show very obviously that Sid is just as complex as anyone else in the show and has her own issues to deal with she walked into the beef just as determined as Cari to make something brand new of something that hurt people for a long time for car me Sid represents hope when it comes to breathing new life into this restaurant so now that I've said all of this what can we learn from Claire no matter how irritating you find her her inclusion in the bear is not some decision the Creator Christopher store made Claire is just as intentional and thoughtful as any other character he created store even says himself that us viewers are also just getting to know Claire through car's eyes as this potentially hopeful beautiful ideal he's been attached and attracted to since he was a teenager see it it's right there the CLA we see is not the real CLA this is car's version of Claire it's very clear that because of his career car me never got to be a 20-some and have fun Claire is his way of being normal for an hour or two but as we've discussed she is not and never will be the cure to his problems because he hasn't dealt with his own issues car me only ended up hurting Claire who no matter how much you hated her didn't deserve to be told she was the problem through a freezer door and this isn't to say that Cari is a villain we see very clearly throughout both seasons that he's hurting and has never given himself the time to process what happened to Michael we can hold car me accountable while also understanding why he self- sabotages the way he does but I don't think this is the end for Claire I hope that next season we can see some sort of resolved ending to their relationship in this field of story Rich characters I'd love to see a glimpse into the deeper sides of her and how she deals with what Cary said I want more for her I want her to escape the mpdg Trope and add a few more pieces to her puzzle in the words of Nathan Raven who coined the topic of this essay let's all try to write better more nuanced and multi-dimensional female characters women with Rich inner lives and complicated emotions and total autonomy who might strum ukuleles or dance in the rain even when there are no men around to Marvel at their free spiritedness but in the meantime manic Pixies it's time to put you to [Music] rest another vision of me say

Channel: nia

Views: 13,737

Keywords: video essays, commentary, the bear, carmy berzatto, television, manic pixie dream girl, video essay

Id: gHD9KGihiFU

Length: 9min 1sec (541 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 06 2024