Season three of the critically-acclaimed darling The Bear was released last week. Two fans of the show watched the full season over the weekend – only one emerged still a fan.

There are two types of people in the world – haters and enthusiasts. The labels are self explanatory and most people would be able to self-identify pretty quickly. A hater can still be enthusiastic about things and an enthusiast can absolutely hate, but when it comes to pop culture, the two often feel worlds apart. Such has been the case this past weekend, when haters relished the new season of The Bear for (they say) failing to live up to its reputation. Enthusiasts, meanwhile, gave the benefit of the doubt.

Mad Chapman (hater in bold) and Claire Mabey (enthusiast) argue about whether The Bear is still any good.

Claire, I saw you posting about how you thought the latest season of The Bear was in fact really good, and it had me worried. Are you OK?

More than OK, thanks for asking! I dined out on The Bear season three and enjoyed all the courses, especially eps “Napkins” and “Ice Chips”. This season had to be about learning to live in the world they’d created and had to extend the notion that while they’re meant to be a team and working together, the characters are still coming at life and work from very different, and unresolved places. This season tick, tick, ticked those requirements. But, what’s wrong with you? 

So many things but regarding this show specifically, I’ll start with the first and biggest problem with season three – nothing happened. As I was about to press play on the first episode, I wondered aloud to my partner whether there would be a quick “previously on” to get us caught up. There wasn’t, because instead the entire first episode was a “previously on”. The world’s longest flashback montage that basically explained, yet again, why Carmy can’t control his emotions. I saw people posting about how that first episode was a masterclass in storytelling and felt like I was going insane. Nothing happened!

But, everything happened! An entire career deftly cut into images of intense training, the contrast of brutal, nasty kitchen overlord v quiet encouragement (from Olivia Coleman, even!). This is the heart of the story: can Carmy shuck his demons and actually make The Bear work? Or is the trauma of the loss of Mikey, the ongoing stress of a problematic mother, compounded by the sense of failure instilled by the very bad boss going to win over? This is highly relatable drama and we all know it cannot resolve, or even unfold, easily. It’s messy, it comes in flashes and visions. This is Real Life TV. Is this making you insane?

Yes because that was the message of the first 20 episodes of The Bear. None of this was news to me as a viewer. Sure it’s nice to be reminded but it was extremely indulgent to expect people to be into a rehashing of the same motivations for an entire episode. And then to basically play the same flashback another 40 times by the end of the season. I swear Joel McHale shot one scene and said three lines and yet takes up about 20% of the screen time this season, that’s how repetitive it felt. You said you like ‘Napkins’ and ‘Ice Chips’, the two episodes where the story deviates from the leads and focuses on supporting characters. Those sorts of episodes are supposed to be fun asides, but because there was nothing else going on, they became the most plot-filled, narrative episodes of the season. Don’t you see how that is an indictment on the show as a whole?

No, because this is how the story has unfolded the whole time: Season two was like an entire season of offshoots into the side characters which to me was showing that a restaurant (or any biz I guess) isn’t about the most visible components, it’s about all of the parts working as a whole. This is a timeless conundrum (a big old ego mucking up what could be so great) and The Bear shows that in the restaurant world it’s an ongoing problem. Season 3 was also situating The Bear (the show and the restaurant) in a post-Covid world where everything is upended, uncertain and sucky. The two episodes we liked most are like islands of sense in a nonsensical operation: everyone involved knows that starting a high-end restaurant today is a major gamble. Season three had to zoom out, survey the landscape, in prep for season four which will surely test Carmy’s mettle even more: can he pull his head out of the past enough to see the present, and the future? You will all be watching to find out. I’d bet a chicken dinner on it. 

Season four will be can Carmy pull his head out of the past enough to see the present, and the future? THAT WAS THE PREMISE OF SEASON ONE, TWO AND THREE! Do you see why this is making me feel crazy?? OK, let’s get hypothetical. I don’t disagree that there is a reason behind structuring the show like this, I just think it was the worst option. Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is far more interesting as a character than Carmy, and his moments and story were the highlights for me this season. Sidney (Ayo Edibiri) is far more interesting than Carmy, and she barely got a look in, narratively, which I am choosing to assume is because she was too busy starring in a thousand other projects.

What I would’ve loved to see was something, anything different. I thought Carmy was going to lose his shit (as per) and leave, forcing Sidney and the crew to step up and develop a new dynamic. But no, it was just same old Carmy doing same old Carmy shit. Again I say – nothing happened. So much so that the cliffhanger midway through the season (The Bear restaurant being reviewed) was not only not resolved in the following episode but was dragged on for like five whole episodes and then became the cliffhanger for the entire season! Do you know how lazy it is to offer a mid-season cliffhanger and then not answer it until the following season? That’s like offering a starter and then offering the exact same dish for dessert. Surely you agree that part was bad?

Look, I don’t disagree that Richie and Sid are gold: we can always have more of both. But the crazy-making cycles of Carmy feel truthful to me. If he was suddenly the world’s best boss we’d all be thinking something was very very off with the storytelling. I’m looking for cold hard truth in my fiction and the messy back and forth / stilted expressions of sometimes-love of Carmy is deadly truthful: he’s like his MUM. Season three’s function in the story of The Bear was to show that Richie and Sid might leave. If they do, the whole thing is screwed. They had to be sidelined because they ARE sidelined. The review part I do concede could have been done better. But we also needed a reason for Uncle to bring in Computer and declare the whole thing as vulnerable as we hoped it wasn’t. 

Restaurant review culture is tough but also it’s not the real nail in the heel here: it’s the economy which is painted so beautifully in this season with the shots of other restaurants flailing, despite the beautiful people trying to make it work. This is the uncertain, crappy economic reality we’re all in. We’re living this ghastly period of history and it’s playing out in real time. That’s where, I reckon, The Bear is nailing it and why perhaps it feels loose and unstructured. There’s no hindsight available for this storyline. That’s why I think the focus on family is so key: at its heart The Bear is still a family restaurant (the increased airtime for the Fak family, Tina’s episode, the joyous success of the sandwich window and the OG team brought back in to run it – all necessary tangents to illustrate the family) and the tension now is whether family is resilient enough to overcome the uncertain pressures of the world (and Carmy). 

Hmmmm I still don’t think that’s enough to excuse the, in my opinion, shoddy pacing and lack of any real character development. And on the broader sector commentary… did you not find that as cloying as I did? Spending a solid 10 minutes of the season finale hosting a literal roundtable discussion of chefs waxing lyrical about why food is important. I felt like I was watching an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary about a champion high school basketball team reuniting. Sure, interesting enough if that’s what you’re into but not cutting the mustard for a critically-acclaimed drama/comedy series. When that roundtable just. kept. going. and then the only reprieve was – surprise surprise – more flashbacks of Joel McHale saying the same one line over and over, that’s when I realised “oh, this show sucks”. But also I’m a hater so I’m happy to let you have the final word on why people should still watch it, because my official recommendation is to save your time and frustration for a different show.

OK, OK that roundtable was pretty cringey but did give Sid some time to sparkle and appear totally at home among the professionals she’s looked up to for so long (looked to me like Ayo was improvising some of that chat and it suited her). Joel McHale is one creepy cookie: anyone who’s had a monster bully boss would have rooted for Carmy at confrontation time (which did, to be fair, end in a very anticlimactic manner. Also realistic though). The Bear is an illustration of when family trauma meets insanely high level artistic and economic world building: it’s messy, it’s beautiful, it’s delicious (mostly – did not care for the meat slabs) and you root for the characters all the way. Blessings on Sid, Tina, Richie, Carmy and sweet (in more ways than one) Marcus. You want to watch because you want them all to thrive because the writers have managed to create characters that shine through even messy plotting and circular habits. Will The Bear work out? See you at season four.

All seasons of The Bear are streaming now on Disney+. Are you a hater or an enthusiast?