Two things about me are relevant and true. One: like many, many people, I love The Bear. Two: like many people who love The Bear, I think this season sucked.
This was a hot take perhaps five days ago, before critics started (rightly) emerging from the woodwork to say, ‘hey this was actually bad’. I refused to read any criticism of the show before finishing it, because I wanted to see if I would come to the same conclusions, and it turns out I haꦺve.
I complain about The Bear’s third season. You should watch it first if you want to, but obviously, I 🍃don’t recomꦅmend it.
What Happens In Season Three Of The Bear?
The short answer is absolutely nothing. The long answer is that two major things happened. The first is that Sydney got an offer to star🅘t a new restaurant with a prestigious chef, and she seriously considers it because working at The Bear sucks. She hasn’t signed her partnership deal yet, which makes this feasible. She doesn’t make a decision, mind you, she just considers it.
The second is that Sugar gives birth. It was obvious that this was coming, considering the lingering shots on her pregnant stomach all season, so this surprised absolutely nobody. The resulting episode focused entirely on her was moving enough that I texted my mother to tell her I love her, but it doesn’t really change an🦄ything for any of the other characters.
👍Apart from this, season three of The Bear is a whole lot of nothing. To show you just how little is really there let’s look at the show episode by episode.
Episode one is mostly flashbacks. They’re beautifully shot, sure, but it really is just a meandering walk through Carmy’s life and mistakes, which we’ve🌌 mostly already seen before and which doesn&rsquo😼;t tell us anything new about him. The Bear’s sometimes experimental episode formatting often works, but here, it does absolutely nothing.
My co༺lleague Jade King defended this season premiere, but I simply cannot.
Episode two is a 🌟lot of yelling, and Syd ignoring the partnership agreement she’s supposed to sign. Episode three is more yelling, and Syd hating her life. It all feels a little too Kitchen Nightmares at this point.
In an awkward scene, episode four sets up Syd’s acquaintanceship with Adam Shapiro, who she may or may not leave The Bear to work with. Richie ha൩ngs out with his kid. The Bear is getting reviewed by The Chicago Tribune. This banality is folꦕlowed by Episode five which brings a bizarre John Cena cameo as one of the Faks. It also introduces ‘The Computer’ who tries to stop the restaurant from bleeding money. Ever closes, and Carmy worries about screwing up.
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Episode six, a rare highlight and directed by Ayo Edibiri, focuses on🍬 how Tina ended up working at the Original Beef. It’s a nice episode in itself, leaning on the strength of The Bear’s characters, but ultimately feels out of place in the wider season and doesn’t do anything to help the season’s plot and character stagnation. Episode seven is the mediocre filling between two well crafted episodes and sees Shapiro offering Syd a job, lots of stilted conversations with hamfistedly-offered themes, and Sugar going into labour. Episode eight, another highlight, has Sugar and her mother Donna having a sort of reconciliation as she suffers through labour.
In episode nine, Cic🍎ero tells Carmy a bad review from the Tribune will lead to him pulling funding. Sydney brings Sugar and her husband Pete food. The Faks bother Claire at her job. Dramatic things happen, but it really just feels like people talking at each other, and at this point, I don’t even care what happens anymore. Episode ten is shockingly navel-gazy, with chefs sharing stories at the Ever funeral, Carmy yelling at his abusive ex-boss, and Sydney having a panic attack. The review is mixed. Maybe The Bear is closing! Who knows?
This really isn’t much, especially when you compare it to prior seasons. The through line of the season is that Carmy and Richie yell at each other and Syd is sick of them. Gone is the character-propelled momentum that defined the first two seasons. In fact, gone is any character development at all. Carmy agonises over Claire, Syd agonises over her life choices, and nobody does anyt🉐hing of real note. I kept waiting for something, anything, to happen and it simply never came. There’s no resolution, or even steps toward resolution, just a lot of staring into the past and not making decisions. People talk at each other, dumping high-minded nuggets of wisdom, and yet nobody says anything of substance. It’s miserable.
Also, It’s Not Even Funny Anymore
Likely in response to a positive reaction to the Faks, one of which is played by actual chef Matty Matheson, there are a ton of scenes of the Faks bickering, being unhelpful, and generally mucking around in the restaurant. They’re obviously there for comic relief,ౠ as c🌞haracters who are intent on pushing the bounds of human stupidity to their limits while the restaurant falls apart around them. Unfortunately, none of these scenes are funny. Every time I see the Faks, I know I’m in for a lackluster scene, shoehorned in, where these two men say stupid stuff to each other and I don’t feel even an inkling of an urge to laugh. Gone are the days of “I thought you killed yourself?” “No, sir, that was my brother.” There’s no more witty repartee, just the Bearzattos and co. slinging increasingly hysterical and loud insults at each other.
Watching The Bear has always felt like trying to breathe through an anxiety attack, especially with killer interludes like season two’s sensational Fishes episode, and there’s always been plenty of humour to give us relief. There&♒rsquo;s nothing funny about this season, as hard as it tries to manufacture those moments. It’s just an anxiety attack that never seems to end.
Some have argued that the season is just a slow burn to set up for a killer fourth season, but that would require there to have been actual set up. Apart from Syd possibly leaving and The Bear potentially being closed, nothing was set up, and everything that happened was entirely predictable. I don’t even know where The Bear goes from here, but it feels like all the things I loved about the show have been pushed so far beyond their limits that they no longer add any value. The Bear was♉ one of the best things on television, but I don’t think thaಞt’s true anymore.
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