REVIEW #388 The Bear (Season 3)

With the refurbished restaurant now up and running, Carmy and co push through the stresses of the industry whilst dealing personal hurdles.

The Bear season 3 falls victim to its own shows success, two pretty much perfect seasons meant it was always going to be difficult to keep that streak going and unfortunately the quality did drop off slightly. The Bear works best when tensions are high, the scenes are fast paced and partnered with anxiety inducing cuts to allow the audience to resonate with the stress of its key characters. However season 3 had far fewer moments like that and instead opted for a lot of calmer flashbacks, which, in my opinion, threw the pacing off and didn’t really push the narrative forward. The characters were no further forward in terms of development at the end of the show, compared to the start of the season. That being said, despite that drop off, season three still has the most beautiful moments, showing what it truly means to be human, that’s our mistakes, our blessings and everything in between. I hope that season 4 has fewer episodes that feel like filler and more dedicated to pushing the narrative forward, bringing our characters full circle. One thing I will say is The Bear really knows how to utilise big star cameos, for such small appearances the characters leave such a lasting impact on the audience and the main characters, it’s really impressive writing in that regard. Still a solid season nonetheless, just not up to the heights of the first two in my opinion.

Overall (7/10)

Thanks for reading.

Callan (Film Review Club)