The Bear Season 3 review: The Jeremy Allen White starrer in need of a refire, goes nowhere

This season grapples with challenges faced by a restaurant’s overambitious head chef who might be in for more than he thought he could handle.

Let it rip.

The Bear overview:

The culinary drama series follows the story of Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), a high profile chef who takes a step back from his hectic, sometimes toxic, restaurant career to handle a beef deli left to him by his brother Mickey (Jon Bernthal) after he committed suicide. Carmy tries to raise the level of the deli by turning it into a Michelin Star restaurant. Joining him as his partner, Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri), the two grapple with may challenges. Ranging from reluctant cooks in the deli, especially Richie, also known as Cousin (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). The third season looks at the challenges their restaurant, the Bear, have to face in this long and tedious journey to greatness.

The Bear Season 3 Trailer:

The Bear Season 3 Review: Too large a serving on a small plate

The third season of The Bear takes you through hurdles and conflicts in the lives of the chefs. However, it lacks a certain crispness of the first two seasons. The story, albeit entertaining, went aimlessly through episode to episode. The first two seasons, that pushed the narrative forward at a rapid rate, abruptly halt in the latest season of the FX drama.

The third season of the comedy drama starts with Carmy during his training days in New York. A back and forth of his stressful job and him picking up the broken pieces after the mayhem of the last episode of season 2. The third season doesn’t maintain the same sense of feeling during season 2 of seeing focus being shed on the whole cast as an ensemble.

The third season somehow felt like it took too many plot lines to handle. The show loses focus on the primary story, if there even is one. One episode, set in present time, shows the gruelling kitchen of a restaurant, the next episode focuses on Carmy and Tina’s past. The continuum felt missing.

Hopes of Carmy being slightly less dysfunctional are crushed with this season. He is trying to be a grown man who still can’t text a girl. Carmy was so in his head the entire season that his only form of communication were new menus every day and a list of “non-negotiables.” Richie, whose character arc was so promising in season 2, is still fighting like a child. Sydney and Carmy’s partnership is still rocky.

 The past comes to light

The great part about season 3 was that they finally dove into the time when the family learnt about Mickey’s death. Ever since the first season, Mickey’s death was always talked about but never shown and never experienced.

Episode 6, directed by Ayo Edebiri dives deeper into Tina’s life. Her struggle to find a job leads her to break down in Chicago Beef which kickstarts a sentimental conversation with Mickey. They talk about giving dreams up to support their families and the uncertainty of life. As a result, Mickey offers Tina a job as a new line cook. The rest is history.

7 course meal of humorous chaos

Episode 2 of the third season takes you right back to the stress, the yelling and the cursing that is universally loved about The Bear. The end of season 2 created a rift between Carmy and Richie. The third season begins right from there. An angry Richie and an angry Carmy, a recipe for disaster. A disaster we missed so much. For five minutes Richie and Carmy just keep asking each other to “F—k off.” The bear provides so much humour in their episodes that 30 minutes just fly by without you even getting to know. The entire episode took place in just one location, their kitchen. It was beautiful, it was messy, it was what makes The Bear, The Bear.

Conclusion

The best part about The Bear is that the food always comes first. The precision of slicing a steak, plucking flowers from the hay, the melodic sizzling of a pan, a dip being meticulously placed on a plate so that your eyes feast before your stomach. It is beautiful to watch. The show accurately captures the music of a kitchen and the song in a chef’s heart.

This season grapples with challenges faced by a restaurant’s overambitious head chef who might be in for more than he thought he could handle. With surprise visits from food critics, the intensity is skull crushing. Every season gets better and better at creating an environment which is tense and anxiety inducing.

That being said, season 3 begins on a high note with a beautiful first episode of how Carmy became Chef Carmy, but the season still refuses to move the characters and the plot forward.

The Bear Season 3 rating - 3.5/5

All episodes of The Bear are streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.