When The Bear’s first season came out in 2022, it was an instant success. Its raw intensity mixed with natural moments of levity, its ability to so viscerally replicate the culture of an underappreciated industry, and, above all, its human touch that came bounding out of the screen, captivated audiences everywhere. The second season of The Bear exceeded all expectations, delivering two flawless episodes: Forks (9.7 on IMDb) and Seven Fishes (9.6 on IMDb). The character development got richer, and the storytelling matured. But with season three, The Bear’s weaknesses were finally revealed. A privileging of Carmy’s (Jeremy Allen White) tortured storyline over much more intriguing ones developing with side characters, an emphasis on mood rather than depth, and cyclical plots finally knocked The Bear off its pedestal.
We left The Bear, both the show and the restaurant itself, in a state of precarity at the end of last season. The restaurant’s looming money issues hovered over the employees as always, Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) was tempted by another chef to join his restaurant, Marcus’s (Lionel Boyce) mother passed away, Carmy was fighting a losing battle with his anxiety and rage problems, and a seemingly negative review from The Chicago Tribune had just been released. The Bear had a lot of ground to make up this season, both in quality and story development. Call me an optimist, but I think the old spark of The Bear burned bright this season; a return to its true form. Maybe not its peak, but it certainly stood tall.
Content Warning: This article contains spoilers for the television series The Bear.
A Return For Departure
The show begins with a flashback of Carm and Mikey (Jon Bernthal), as Carm makes marinara and Mikey sporadically interjects cooking instructions. It’s the first time Carm approaches him with the idea of creating a restaurant together:
“It’s fucking hard. And that’s what makes it special right? Its fucking hard, and it’s gnarly, and it’s brutal, and it’s specific, and not a lot of people can do it. But, I can do it, Mike. Look. We could do this. Right? We could take care of people. […] We can make people happy, Mike. [Mikey: You and me?] Yeah, you and me.”
– The Bear Season 4, Episode 1, Groundhogs
Right here, The Bear recenters itself. At its heart, The Bear is about family, loss, and passion. Carm finally has some of that passion in this return to the past after seeing him struggle and lose his way for so long, and suddenly it becomes clear as to why. His love for cooking is so wrapped up in his love for his brother and in the desire to set things right. With Mikey gone, order, cooking, and the restaurant all feel hollow. A starting point that makes perfect sense for where the season ends up, even if the results are a gut punch.
Talent in the Kitchen and On the Screen
The beating heart of The Bear came back to life. Taking the time to slow down and starting to resolve conflict allowed the character’s chemistry to fully return (not just in screaming matches as the last season felt, but with real moments steeped in empathy). One thing about this ensemble is that they will excel with any script they’re given. They’re brimming with talent, and any time we’re given a new character to delve a little deeper into, they never disappoint.
This season Sweeps (Corey Hendrix) got the long-awaited opportunity for character expansion through his sommelier journey alongside fan favorite Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Goodwin), who is finally backing himself and thriving in his business development of The Original Beef window at The Bear. However, there were still instances of leaving star players on the bench. Why we would ever limit Liza Colón-Zayas, who plays Tina, to only one real storyline, I have no idea. A storyline that was just about mastering speed in the kitchen and shaking off self-doubt. Not utilizing Zayas’ talent and depth, especially after being the focal point of the only real standout episode from last season (Napkins), is a massive misstep.
Worms and Bears
Thankfully, season four has quite a few standout episodes, which makes the sting from Tina’s lack of feature a little better. Co-written by Ayo Edebiri and Lionel Boyce, Worms, episode four, where we find Syd on a day off getting her hair braided and agonizing over her career (stay with Carm at The Bear and be subject to his erratic and, at times, egomaniacal whims, but be in the hands of a team who loves her or join a new team that she could mold into whatever she wants as the head chef). We get to delve deeper into Syd’s world in the home of her cousin and hairstylist Chantel, whose airy and upbeat energy largely contrasts with an anxious Syd.
When Chantel steps out to get more supplies but ends up taking hours, Syd is tasked with watching TJ, Chantel’s teenage daughter. They spend the day bonding, cooking Hamburger Helper, and talking out their respective worries. The beauty of The Bear is their ability to pull at the heartstrings without needing to voice it. We know Syd’s mom passed, and we know she is lonely, so when we see her play mother for the day and watch Chantel and TJ’s playful relationship, we can feel the complexity of the emotion. The bittersweetness, the good-natured struggling over the right thing to say, and the yearning for connection that Syd feels as a result.
Bears, episode seven, is sort of a counterpart to the acclaimed Seven Fishes. But this time, we get the good, instead of the bad and ugly. At Tish’s, Richie’s ex-wife, wedding to Frank, the tension is initially palpable. Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is a wreck, Carm is terrified of his mom and anxious over Claire (Molly Gordon), and the family struggles under the weight of their last get-together, where Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis) promptly drove a car through the dining room. Yet, what we get is much different. It’s levity with the occasional blunt blow, but all in the name of healing. This huge extended family, ripe with generational trauma, finally gets a moment to breathe and remember why they put up with each other: there’s so much love there.
A wholesome interaction between Richie, Frank, and Eva (Richie and Tiff’s daughter), where the two fathers crawl under a table to reason with a frightened Eva, turns into handfuls of Faks and Berzatos crowding underneath to tell Eva what they’re scared of. It was the other side of The Bear we only get fleeting glimpses of underneath all the chaos: a strong family bond. We also finally get to see the infamous Francie Fak and Sugar (Abby Elliott Kennedy) come face to face; Brie Larson’s guest star was a comedic highlight for sure.
Best New Chef, episode nine, pulls on a similar cord with Carm and his mother Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis) finally coming to terms with the hurt they’ve caused one another. Jamie Lee Curtis’ performance in The Bear will never cease to amaze me; it’s her at her most untethered, her most raw, her role of a lifetime.
A Bad Goodbye
However, the hyper-emotional final episode of the season, Goodbye, fell flat. Carm and Syd, soon joined by Ritchie, have a brutally honest conversation following Syd’s realization that Carm plans to retire once the debt to Unc is paid off. Carm, much like his mother, is finally trying to say how he’s feeling. But, as the writers have never really had to write Carm expressing his emotions directly, the result is a little stale when it should have been packed with flavor.
It was all the things you’ve wanted this trio to say to each other, so why wasn’t it satisfying? Maybe because it felt like what the title preludes: a goodbye. There’s definitely rhyme to Carm’s reason in going: he just doesn’t love it anymore. Do I think it’s time for Carm to become a lesser figure in the show? Absolutely. Do I think it can survive without him? I’m not sure. What I do know is that if Carm is absent next season, the plot holes may be enough to sink the ship. And only just after such a nice repair job.
The Bear found its way back to its magic. Beautifully, it did so without plunging itself into the darkness but swimming towards the light. While it may not hold the power it had over its audience with seasons one and two, The Bear remains one of the best series running today. Let’s hope for season five, they’re stirring the sauce — and we’d hate for them to get stuck.
Check out Jeremy Allen White’s next role in Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere here.
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