The Bear: Third Season

July 10, 2024 8:48 PM - Season 3 (Full Season)

Thread for discussion of the most recent season of the Chicago restaurant drama.

Sepinwall's nice about it but offers a very mixed review. Jack Hamilton is not very nice about it at all. The Guardian calls the season "unbelievably frustrating." There may be very positive reviews out there as well.

posted by mediareport (22 comments total)

Carmy starting off the season as a complete ass, having apparently forgotten every single lesson he'd learned about the restaurant biz and the awesome people around him in the previous seasons, was not great, but then having him experience zero growth in any direction except becoming a deeper asshole over the course of 9 episodes (his unsatisfying confrontation with Joel McHale in ep 10 will grudgingly count as growth, sort of) was just painful to sit through. I was unhappy with lots of choices the writers made this season, but keeping Carm in stasis and leaving him (and us) on a dumb cliffhanger note was, I think, the worst of them.
posted by mediareport at 8:59 PM on July 10 [3 favorites]

It looks like there's already an episode-by-episode series of posts about this, FYI.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:53 AM on July 11 [1 favorite]

I keep trying to think of positive things I liked about the season, but keep returning to the fact that neither Carmy nor Sydney have any sort of meaningful arc over the 10 episodes. It kills the season as a whole for me, even as I can appreciate the few tour-de-force episodes like the grueling but emotionally rewarding hospital stuff, or the attempt at giving Tina an interesting backstory (they sort of succeeded with that one, but mostly because highlighting the mundane humanity of her pre-Bear life is a great contrast to the smoke-blowing up the restaurant business's ass that happens throughout the rest of the season).

It looks like there's already an episode-by-episode series of posts about this, FYI.

Yeah, I'm aware. I'm not sure if you've been reading them but the episode posts have multiple folks wanting to discuss the whole season (example), which was released as a binge on June 26. Spoilery comments have been removed from many of the early episode posts; so this thread is for folks who've finished the season to avoid spoiling for others. Fanfare has had simultaneous full season and episode posts many times in the past for shows that drop at once; it's tricky sometimes, but not a big deal.

Are you watching the show? Do you have thoughts about this season? I found it to be a huge dropoff in quality - almost inexplicably so, which makes me hopeful that other folks can point me to what I might have missed.
posted by mediareport at 5:12 AM on July 11 [5 favorites]

I haven't finished the season yet, but it feels to me like the creators made a decision: "this show is hot and popular, it's our gravy train; slow down the storytelling, turn up the prestige, and pad out the story so we can squeeze eight or ten seasons out of this puppy instead of four."

Not enough popularity can kill a show outright. Too much popularity can hollow out a show from the inside. There's been critical pushback, so we'll see if the writing gets back on track. But there's an obvious tension between everyone wanting to have a steady job in a tough industry for a little longer and wanting to do the characters justice and tell the best story possible.
posted by rikschell at 5:25 AM on July 11

Which is honestly the exact conflict Michael was facing before the show started and Carmy took on: pump out more decent low-end fare that you know the people want? Or follow a dream, take a risk, and attempt to elevate to the highest possible level? Season 3 seems to be giving us more of the Beef than the Bear.
posted by rikschell at 5:29 AM on July 11 [4 favorites]

There's been critical pushback, so we'll see if the writing gets back on track.

I'm not sure how much time they'll have for incorporating criticisms of Season 3, since filming for Season 4 is already done. They filmed much of the next season at the same time as this one:

Speaking on the Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso podcast, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays Richie, the 'cousin' of head chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), revealed how parts of season four ended up being shot in a non-linear manner alongside the third series.

'When we went in to start season three, we weren’t going in to make season three and four,' he explained. 'But it swelled and some our episodes got quite big and over an hour. I would come in at the beginning of the day and shoot a scene from late in season four and then shoot a scene from early season three and then shoot a scene late in season three,' Moss-Bachrach added. 'It took an enormous amount of war room like Post-Its.'

In another recent interview with Mr. Porter, Moss-Bachrach revealed the cast filmed 'about 18 episodes' over the course of filming for season three. 'We shot about 18 episodes, but everything shifts,' he said. 'In the past, what was one episode on the page has been split into two. I just lose myself in the messiness and chaos of it. It’s very chaotic. I love the big scenes. Scenes with lots of moving parts. People talking over each other.'
posted by mediareport at 6:57 AM on July 11 [1 favorite]

Then we might have to consider seasons 3 and 4 as part of the same arc. I guess we’ll see.
posted by rikschell at 7:21 AM on July 11

The show has all these incredible themes about work and passion and meaning from past seasons: Giving in to your passion so fully that it wrecks your life as a result (Carm), following your passion and trying not to go mad (Sydney), merely searching for a damn routine but finding your passion as a result (Tina), feeling useless amidst a changing environment but finding completely new meaning from strong suits (Richie).

This season it all just flatlines. It's all just fart-huffing self indulgent montages about THE WORK and THE STRESS and THE PAIN and how COOKING IS ABOUT CREATING THINGS or whatever, ugh, especially in that last episode listening to the stilted SHOP TALK between REAL CHEFS doing Anthony Bourdain-lite round table bullshit. I turned to my friend like, what the fuck is this, what are we even watching here?

The Tina episode and Hospital episodes were the only standouts but even those just felt like acting and directing showcases.
posted by windbox at 7:53 AM on July 11 [3 favorites]

The first episode of the season struck me as so inert and, worse, so joyless (with a few seconds-long exceptions of Carmy half-smiling while picking vegetables or something) that I just couldn't bring myself to fire up the second episode to keep going. I will be interested to see what the general reaction seems to be to Season 4, just in case it pays off in a way that might make it worth it to give this season another chance, but in the meantime I am not regretting my decision to bail.
posted by paper scissors sock at 2:04 PM on July 11

Oh man, the first episode spoke to me so deeply but I am a person who went to culinary school based on Anthony Bourdain's writing and I'm 100% a restaurant junkie and some of those chefs are like my idols (Keller and Bouloud for sure). I liked it just as much as Marcus's episode in Copenhagen. I could watch those two eps over and over again for a comfort watch.
posted by cooker girl at 5:36 PM on July 11 [10 favorites]

"Comfort watch" is a great way to describe what it felt like a lot of the episodes were going for this season. Very little plot, but some impressive mood pieces and fleshing out the uh The Bear Cinematic Universe. But I want to know what happens with the characters and their relationships and the restaurant.
posted by entropone at 9:54 AM on July 12

The Tina episode and Hospital episodes were the only standouts but even those just felt like acting and directing showcases.

I felt like most of this season was about acting and directing showcases. I do like some of that; I love any scene with Lionel Boyce for example. But despite various things being up in the air, I feel like there's not enough suspense from minute to minute. I have moments of thinking, "Oh, no! Is Lucas hitting on Syd? Marcus's heart will be broken if that happens!" But nothing like the tension in most episodes of the first two seasons.

That said, I have watched it all and will watch it again, just maybe not two or three times. And not right before Season 4 drops. I think I screwed myself by rewatching 1 and 2 right before this season. It would have been more fun to watch this one-- especially the opener-- while having it bring up somewhat-distant memories.
posted by BibiRose at 12:10 PM on July 12

I hated the first episode. It was the longest "previously on" ever. Yes, it was very pretty, but I'm willing to bet that 50% of those shots were excess B-roll from Seasons 1&2. All it did was establish shit we already knew: Being a chef is tough! Carmy is dedicated! He is also sad! He worked with lots of REAL chefs in REAL restaurants (and Olivia Coleman) and it was tough! The end. It was just spinning its wheels, getting as much mileage out of the empty calories of showing food shots as possible without actually doing anything.

And then I think it was the second episode which started with a bunch of shots of other Chicago restaurants cooking food, complete with the cooks breaking the fourth wall and waving to the camera. What the fuck? Are you doing a Chicago Tourism Board ad now?

I'm only midway through the season so far, but it has really been a slog as almost NOTHING IS HAPPENING. And please, god, I hope they do not keep pursuing the totally pointless Carmy-Claire love story. As I said about season 2, Claire is a complete cipher as a character, and I see no reason why anyone would care whether or not Carmy gets with her. Aw, Claire-Bear! She's great! She used to be chubby! She works in a hospital and gives shots to sweet lil kids! And ... uh ... that's it!
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:11 AM on July 16 [1 favorite]

Saxon Kane lays out my thoughts for the first 2 episodes succinctly. Episode 1 felt like the most fan service of all time. It was beautiful but it was so self-indulgent. The one super touching surprise being that the photo Carm sends to Mickey is called back in Napkins. That hit me good and hard. Napkins in general is up there with Forks and Fishes and the first season one-r (and whatever Marcus' sojourn to Denmark is called).

I did not care for hospital episode. It was way too long and way too static to be enjoyable. The padding out of length didn't teach us anything more about Sugar and Carmen and their mother.

Most of the real chef cameos were also weird and awkward and stilted...like what it was, filming a gifted actor with a novice playing themselves. Daniel Boulud was the only one that came off as completely natural because it was kinda gauzy and not really foregrounded.

I will say that Carmen and Joel McHale's confrontation or lack there of work real well.
posted by mmascolino at 6:44 PM on July 17

I see no reason why anyone would care whether or not Carmy gets with her.

It would have been nice to not go an entire season without him saying anything to her. I don't particularly care if they get back together, but some kind of communication would have been good. Like, maybe, "sorry I was an unbelievable ass to you I'm pretty messed up." And whatever the Fak brothers said to her is not a good enough replacement for that.
posted by axiom at 9:03 PM on July 19

I think that much of this season has been an attempt to capture something of the vibe of what it's like to work at a restaurant – not just for one night, but day after day, night after night, over weeks, months, years – in an impressionistic way. Episode 1 was a sort of statement of purpose in that regard, and something we almost never see in television – an entire episode that drops narrative in favor of montage. I encourage shows that push the boundaries of the art that way.

There are basically four important events that happen this season – Marcus' mom dies; Tina loses her job at the candy factory and finds a new career at The Beef; Natalie has a baby; Adam offers Syd a partnership in his new restaurant, forcing her to confront her relationship with Carm and The Bear, and where her future lies. Only two of those directly involve what happens in/with the restaurant, and one of them happened in an extended flashback, well before the main chronology of the series. So as far as plot, only one new thing happens that will directly affect the restaurant, and it remains unresolved. I can understand why this would be frustrating for those of us who understandably expect plot movement in our television series.

However, I understood Episode 1 as a big ol' signal that this is a show that might not consider plot to be an absolutely necessary aspect of television all the time. Instead, I imagine the showrunners designing this season as a multi-course meal, each episode more an evocation than a narrative, a sculpture more than a story, and a beautiful one at that. I believe that this was their goal, and I believe in judging artists by how well they achieve their goals. So I'm not so bothered by a relative lack of plot, because we do get something else that is valuable, that is well-executed, and that is rarely seen or even tried on television, and I like that quite a bit.

With that said, a couple of notes: I wasn't in love with the multiple real-life chef cameos in the finale, although I get that it's a sort of homage to the people who really live this life. It can also be read, less charitably, as a sort of see-what-we-can-do-now stunt casting. The real story in the season finale lies in the eyes of Syd and Carm, and the banter, though containing bits of potential wisdom for our characters, really seemed disconnected from that.

Secondly: Way too much Fak. There was approximately 80% too much comic-relief Fak, and 50% too many Faks, for my taste. John Cena as a Fak?! That was too implausible for my suspension of disbelief to survive. The Faks jumped the shark for me at that moment. If they insist on continuing to give us this much Fak, then I at least hope that Fak Prime ("Neil") gets his Falstaff moment next season, and a third dimension for once.

"Napkins" was the standout episode of the season. "Ice Chips" was a close second. Neither of them advanced the main plot. But they gave us priceless insights into two ensemble characters, who on a lesser show might have stayed entirely in the background. I think that this is why we've fallen in love with the show – richly drawn characters all doing their best under trying circumstances.

I do think that the show needs to resolve the big restaurant-centric questions hanging over this season in the next one.
posted by skoosh at 7:16 AM on July 20 [7 favorites]

A scripture more than a story. On the fucking nose. This season was about work. The repetition, the exhaustion, the flow, the highs and lows. This was the gospel of service, and I just don't get all the criticism about plot. There is no plot to work.
posted by Stanczyk at 12:58 PM on July 20 [7 favorites]

I really need to wear my glasses more often. Skoosh said "sculpture more than a story" and I read it as scripture more than a story. But I'm learning to accept the mistakes my age continues to aid me in making, because sometimes the thing I think I read or heard, is better than what I actually read or heard. I acknowledge my mistake, but I still think it works.
posted by Stanczyk at 1:06 PM on July 21 [1 favorite]

Stanczyk I wish I could give you a month's worth of favorites for your penultimate comment. Perfection.
posted by cooker girl at 7:46 AM on July 22 [4 favorites]

It was beautiful but it was so self-indulgent

To be fair, the show is about fine dining.
posted by flabdablet at 11:57 AM on July 31

I like the way this season seems to have been put together in the same spirit as the Non Negotiable's list: each episode is done differently, with great effort to make it perfect. This does not always work - and departing from the familiar is always disconcerting. But the team of actors, writers and editors are at the top of their game.

I particularly liked that the episode about the birth did not feature a baby at all - and that it only made a brief cameo right at the end of the following one.
posted by rongorongo at 1:54 AM on August 10

I particularly liked that the episode about the birth did not feature a baby at all

subtract
posted by flabdablet at 1:54 AM on August 11 [1 favorite]