The Bear Season 3: Passive, Reflective, Polarising

The third season of the Emmy-winning comedy-drama TV show, The Bear, was released slightly earlier than anticipated. With a ten-episode run, the show is just as captivating and artsy as I remember. However, it was different, and that hasn’t sat well with a sizeable amount of the audience. The third season starts right after a rather eventful season finale from the second season – which featured the opening of the titular restaurant, ‘The Bear’. On opening night, the head chef, and one of the protagonists of the show, Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) gets locked inside the walk-in freezer and, well, breaks down – a lot is said – a lot that shouldn’t have been said, is said.

Long story short, there was a lot to resolve in season 3. Not just with Carmy, but with almost every character in this ensemble show. With season 2 being hailed and celebrated, expectations for the third season were sky-high. And while the critic’s scores have remained high at an aggregated score of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, audience reactions have been more mixed, as evidenced by a measly 59%. Discourse-related platforms like Reddit have reflected a similarly polarised view. 

With a critically acclaimed and almost perfect season 2, audience expectations were through the roof

My personal feeling is that the season was very good. Just not excellent. A lot of it chalks down to the purpose of the season, and that feels important to unpack. Season 3 of The Bear is passive and reflective, deliberately so it seems to me. It seems to be building the groundwork, foundation, and scaffolding for something larger – something conclusive, strong and exciting.

The problem is, it’s an entire season of television, with ten episodes of roughly 30 minutes, and it has a lot to answer to, with respect to the tumultuous season 2 finale. Not everyone likes that. Not everyone has to.

With a critically acclaimed and almost perfect season 2, audience expectations were through the roof. Episodes, ‘Forks’ and ‘Fishes’ in season 2 were especially lauded for their dialogue, character work, performances, guest appearances and plot.

The major themes in this season were grief, reflection and legacy. These themes created an inherent atmosphere of melancholy and gloominess, which gave the season the reflective aspect that distinguishes it from seasons 1 and 2. The themes were dealt with in a fluid and flexible manner that tied episodes together cohesively. 

With heart-warming dialogue and some really out-of-pocket, yet hilarious lines, ‘Ice Chips’ is probably my favourite from this season

The best episodes of this season are all concentrated towards the second half. Episode 6, ‘Napkins’, focuses on Tina Marrero (Liza Colon-Zayas), a chef at ‘The Bear’, who we have been following since season 1. We see her where she was before the show—in a 9-5 job as a shift manager. How she was let go and money was tight. How she struggled with finding a new job. How she found ‘The Beef’ (which, as we know, would eventually become ‘The Bear’). ‘Napkins’ is full of heart, with amazing music supervision. From busy jazz that highlights Tina’s hustle to Beastie Boys’s ‘Sabotage’ signifying the high-pressure environment at ‘The Beef’, this episode is packed with emotion, pressure, and most importantly, love. Lots of love.

Episode 8, ‘Ice Chips’ is another highlight. This episode features Natalie ‘Sugar’ Berzatto (Abby Elliott) – Carmy’s younger sister, who works on all the logistics of ‘The Bear’, as she goes into labour. In an hour of desperation, Nat has to call her mother (Jamie Lee Curtis) with whom she has a troubled relationship. All ends well as the two make heartfelt amends in the unusual circumstances. With heart-warming dialogue and some really out-of-pocket, yet hilarious lines, ‘Ice Chips’ is probably my favourite from this season. 

While I loved the reflective element this season brought with it, I also felt it was a bit overdone

The series finale is extremely strong. Despite criticisms that the latest season felt slow, it brought significant progress to the show’s narrative. Carmy tries his hands at confronting David (Joel McHale), an extremely abusive and demanding restaurant critic, who was one of his former mentors. And sous-chef-turned-chef-de-cuisine Sydney (Ayo Edibiri) starts to feel at home during a chef get-together – she is finally finding her footing in an industry where she has struggled to feel a sense of belonging. There’s a lot of reflection, and a lot of promise.

However, it wasn’t all good. My biggest criticism of this season was the pacing. It felt like a lot of episodes included filler scenes. While I loved the reflective element this season brought with it, I also felt it was a bit overdone, especially as that tone and the accompanying slower pace were maintained throughout most of the season. 

The entire season is a crescendo, the build-up to a beat-drop

Additionally, a lot of the issues set up in the finale and throughout the season are left unresolved. Carmy’s fraught relationships with Claire (Molly Gordon) and Richie never reach satisfying conclusions. Nor do we reach a resolution over Carmy’s constant menu changing throughout the season, or the monetary issues behind running ‘The Bear’. Instead, we get glimmering music and close-ups of intricately crafted dishes – it all feels a bit artsy and pretentious, a little too self-indulgent (interestingly, ‘self-indulgent’ is a word that crops up all too often in audience reviews for the season on Rotten Tomatoes and Reddit). 

Lastly, this season’s key conflict, an unexpected review of the restaurant, is not introduced until the halfway point of the season and lacks the explosivity of prior seasons leaving parts of this season feeling lacklustre and tensionless.

With all that being said, the exponentially lower audience score still seems a bit too harsh. Perhaps it comes as a direct result of high audience expectations due to the absolutely stellar season 2 reception. Season 3 may not live up to those lofty standards, but it is still a very enjoyable season of television, and it has its moments of brilliance. It is neat and tightly written, albeit passive and reflective. And it is very clearly setting up for something bigger. The entire season is a crescendo, the build-up to a beat-drop. We won’t know if the pay-off was worth it until Season 4 comes out. The Bear season 3 is a waiting game. And it’s over. So now, we wait.