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Warning: This post contains spoilers for all 10 episodes of Season 3 of The Bear.
Fresh off an Emmy win for best comedy series in January (and sure to earn more nominations next month), The Bear made a triumphant return to Hulu this week for its third season. And it remains one of TV’s best shows in Season 3, teeming with superb performances and sharply observed moments of humanity. But once I watched all 10 episodes, I was left wanting more, too. After the frantic, propulsive energy of the first two seasons, Season 3 felt like, if not a step backwards, then a step sideways: a meditative, at times indulgent victory lap that spent a lot of time getting nowhere in particular.
In Season 1, Carmy took over his late brother’s Chicago sandwich shop and decided to turn into a fine-dining restaurant. In Season 2, Carmy and his friends worked hard to open that restaurant, culminating in a bumpy but successful opening night. But the overriding question of Season 3 seemed to be: “Now what?” The season lacked a strong narrative hook, and so the characters were stuck in limbo, seemingly waiting for something to happen. The season premiere was a harbinger of things to come: an atmospheric, nearly wordless journey through Carmy’s memories of becoming a chef. It was beautifully shot, and it did fill in a few blanks about Carmy’s culinary training — but it also didn’t answer any of the questions the Season 2 finale left us pondering.
The rest of Season 3 followed that pattern, treading familiar territory, with Carmy barking out orders and being a prickly genius as chaos swirls around him in the kitchen. He had opened his dream restaurant, but there was no time to celebrate, with a new set of hungry diners coming in every night. (Season 3 almost felt like a meta commentary from the show’s writers, under massive pressure to follow up their own success.) It was a vivid portrait of career burnout, but it was frustrating to watch Carmy battle the same demons we’ve seen him fight for two seasons now. It was also frustrating to watch Ayo Edebiri’s Sydney stuck in stasis all season long, paralyzed by the choice between committing to Carmy or accepting an offer to work at a new restaurant.
Like Season 2, Season 3 delivered a number of excellent standalone episodes that deepened our understanding of its supporting characters. Episode 6 flashed back to Tina’s grueling efforts to make a living before she started working at The Beef, with Liza Colón-Zayas doing her best work on the series yet, and Episode 8 brought back Jamie Lee Curtis as unhinged mom Donna as she helped her daughter Nat give birth. But aside from these detours, Season 3 was almost perversely determined to deny us any sense of catharsis, leaving storylines unresolved and characters treading water.
Let’s go through the list: Carmy never apologized to Claire, or even spoke to her. Sydney never signed her partnership agreement, and she never told Carmy about the offer she got from another chef. We know the Chicago Tribune reviewed the restaurant, but we never saw what the review said. Richie never RSVP-ed for Tiff’s wedding. Did Carmy even meet his new niece after Nat gave birth? It was a traffic jam of dangling plotlines that kept piling up and up. The finale even ended with the words “To be continued”! So we’re supposed to wait another year to get answers to the same questions we had a year ago?
The finale found Carmy and Sydney attending a “funeral dinner” for the acclaimed restaurant Ever, with chef Andrea Terry (Olivia Colman) closing its doors for good. The episode featured cameos from real-life celebrity chefs like Thomas Keller and Wylie Dufresne as they waxed rhapsodic about what food and cooking means to them, and it had some gorgeous moments, like Terry letting loose and cooking up frozen waffles at a wild after-party. But it also left us hanging on so many key issues that we felt a bit cheated. The Bear has always been about the journey, not the destination — but it’s hard to overlook the fact that Season 3’s journey basically brought us right back to where we began.
It’s not official yet, but Season 4 is most likely coming, so that’s a comfort. I know I’ll be seated for it, whenever it arrives. But on its own, Season 3 was like a long, languorous meal served over the course of several hours. Some of the dishes are undeniably delicious… but others have been left out so long, they’ve grown cold.
We’re collecting your comment cards now: Give Season 3 of The Bear a grade in our poll, and hit the comments to share your thoughts on the full season.
It was ok, but still not a comedy.
My only critique is the Faqs, it’s gone too far (even before the guest star faq) every episode having a faq interlude is not enjoyable and detracts from the actual stories…there’s no story in the faqs, please let them go
Seriously! Them going to the hospital to accost Claire about Carmy while she was working was the last straw.
yeah I thought there were some good eps and moments, but overall the season just lacked that special something that made S1 and S2 so good.
The Bear tends to introduce and complete arcs within one season while still setting the building blocks for what to look forward to next season. Season 3 didn’t really do that. The pacing was slower, some characters ate up way more screen time than they should’ve (looking at you, Faks), and the frantic energy didn’t match the first two seasons. With that being said, I enjoyed a handful of episodes and loved “Napkins,” and “Forever.” People are mentioning online that Joanna Calo wasn’t as heavily involved this season and that hurt the show. No clue how true that is, but if she was the secret sauce the show was missing this year, they definitely should try to get her back in the mix for next season.
This season was hard for me to overall like, just because of the frustrating things all addressed in this article.
I loved how the season started, where we finally get to see Carmy’s cooking origins more and it feels like the restaurant took over as the main character for a bit. All these things added depth to the show, which I appreciated.
However, I feel like they left a lot of obvious obstacles to simmer just for the sake of drama and forgot key elements alone the way.
I don’t mind that Carmy didn’t reach out to Clare. That actually made sense to me with how Carmy is.
I did not like that Sydney never used her signal with Carmy to talk about how he was acting or about the other offer. They spent so much of season 2 building their relationship, just to have them act like strangers again.
The fact that no one called Carmy out for how his attitude towards Richie could single handed ruin their dream was strange to me. Everyone just let that keep happening.
By the time the season ended, Carmy felt like the villain of the show and nothing really progressed. We got some great insight and depth into more of the show, but we did not see steps forward indicative of a whole season. Season 2 was going to be almost impossible to top, but they dropped the ball.
I see this season as deepening the stew, providing context to the inarticulate Carmy and circling back to the personal lives and motivations of some of the other characters.
And there is a carthartic moment in the last episode that opens up the possibility of radical change in the way that Carmy runs the restaurant, if it survives. So, that working in the kitchen transforms from a mostly joyless and pressurized grind to working environment that draws upon the delight and inquisitiveness that motivated Carmy before he started working for the boss from hell. It’s painful to watch how he has internalized the practices and attitudes from a place that gave him panic attacks and ulcers.
Maybe the strikes affect quality of shows
This season was all written before the strikes, stop being anti-worker.
Season Three wasn’t greenlit until November, 2023. The strike was over in September. It didn’t start filming until February. Wasn’t affected at all by the strikes.
It hasn’t been said yet but anyone paying attention should be able to tell that season 4 will be the end of the show so this season was very much about moving the chess pieces around to get things in place for the big finish so from that point of view I thought the season did exactly what it needed to. The show has run at such a frantic pace up until now that I’m actually glad we took a bit of a step back and let the characters breath, we of course still had the intensity in episodes like “Next”, “Doors”, and “Children” but at the same time I think we really needed episodes like “Tomorrow”, “Napkins”, and “Forever” to get a chance to just be with the characters and understand where they are at during this part of the story. I loved this season and I can’t wait to see all the time bombs that were set up along the way go off next year and bring everything crashing down into the most epic screaming matches we’ve seen yet.
Got so sick of hearing about hauntings, too.
The show is haunting us, tho. It’s leaving things hanging out there while we are waiting to see if we’ll get hit with something terrible – Syd leaving, a bad review, Carm never reconciling with Claire, etc.
Please save me from the male adolescent genius whose stock in trade is galloping self-pity. Jeremy Allen White gets all the attention for his portrayal of suffering Carmy, but I think Ebon Moss-Bachrach steals every scene. If I were Sydney, I’d jump at the other offer but demand a lot more than $70K first. I’d change my number and block Carmy. As for Claire, she’s right to guard herself against this dysfunctional bunch. Also why is virtually ever frame a closeup? And as sweet and charming as are the Faks, what purpose do they serve? And finally, the only reason to watch Season 3 are Liza Colón-Zayas, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Alison Elliot. When I was in college, I’d listen to her grandfather’s radio programs. Bob & Ray were wonderful and she’s just as wonderful.
The other chef’s offer was $80k plus a partnership stake and benefits.
This felt like half a season. The majority of the big plots of the season were not resolved. The show only covered a few weeks, and the characters don’t feel like they have grown or developed in any way. It wasn’t really a question of good or bad, so much as a question of complete vs incomplete.
It completely felt like season 3a, a tease for 3B to drop in 4-6 months providing movement, closure for some, loss with others. The Bear is Carmy’s nemesis, and he has to leave.
Separate from pop analysis, artistic freedom in screen writing has gone too far when episodes are so uneven from pacing to literal screen time. Some more structure is needed, or we find ourselves drifting on wtf ‘seasons’ such as this
I wouldn’t count my S4 eggs before they hatch. JAT was sort of sleepwalking through the latter episodes. He’s been in, and been courted for, some movie roles. He’s turned into a sex symbol. Ayo Edebiri has lots of other jobs.
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In other words, the two breakout stars have other options. Great other options. Life Changing other options. How eager are they to be back? Getting them available to shoot will be hard.
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I do think there will be a S4, but I’m not sure what it will look like.
Seasons 3 and 4 of The Bear were shot back-to-back, and production began on Feb. 26, 2024.
Yep. Thanks for reminding everybody. Deadline reported it back in March.
I fell in love with “The Bear” season 1 and couldn’t wait for season 2. Season 2 came and I couldn’t get through it. It didn’t hold my interest at all and lacked whatever it was that made it so good in season 1. I’m not even bothering with season 3. Too bad, because if it had stayed on track with season 1 it would be an excellent series.
I think you need to acknowledge that these episodes – not counting the flashbacks – took place in a little over a week in real time. From the opening montage that Ever was closing to the last episode (Funeral) just a few days later compressed a lot of storylines. No wonder Carmy hadn’t called Claire back – it wasn’t that long ago.
Actually, that’s not true. Episode 3 (“Door”) spanned early June through mid-July, based on the dates on the order tickets given to Sydney. The article announcing Ever closing was dated July 25th, and I think the dinner happened a week or so later. He definitely had time to call her and apologize
This was season 1.3. All the back stories, though the newer stuff was to throw you off. I was disappointed. Bored to the point I was skipping through episodes looking for the hook or pay.
I have watched 1 and 2 over a couple times. This season will sit where it belongs at the bottom of the toilet bowl waiting to be flused.
It was boring and stupid!! All they did is argue and the story lines were all over the place. Nothing made sense! Done watching it!