DUBAI: Season one of ‘The Bear’ was one of television’s greatest surprise hits. A show about the minutiae of everyday life in a restaurant kitchen shouldn’t have been this good, and certainly shouldn’t have appealed to both critics and audiences on such a large scale.
That it did was largely because it’s not really about that. It’s about the sacrifices often required to fulfill creative potential — to become truly great at something. In this case, that creative endeavor happens to be cooking.
It’s also about more than that: Grief, friendship, family, kindness, mental health, love in all its forms… the list goes on.
Season three continues all these themes. And the storytelling techniques remain excellent, from the acting to the dialogue and the cinematography. And it’s as tense, claustrophobic and anxiety-inducing as ever. But the story itself? That doesn’t really move on. And that’s a problem.
Carmen (Jeremy Allen White), the driving force behind the titular restaurant, spends most of the season close to breaking point, driven both by his split from season two love interest Claire (Molly Gordon — seen only in flashbacks for the majority of this season) and the self-doubt that he blames largely on his time working for an abusive former boss Chef David Fields (Joel McHale). Episode one is largely spent on a flashback story of that time, and the finale gives Carmen a chance to confront his tormentor, a showdown that brings Carmen little relief.
Throughout the season, we see Carmen bringing much of the same toxicity into his own kitchen in his quest for the Michelin star he has promised his protégé Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) they will attain. Syd, lest we forget, is supposed to be a partner in the venture, but the will-she-sign-won’t-she-sign-the-agreement story is somehow dragged out over all 10 episodes without being resolved.
That’s typical of the series as a whole. The characters are seemingly all stuck (and if that’s some kind of commentary on the creative process from the writers, then they’ve really overdone it). It’s still a compelling watch — thanks largely to the cast’s obvious love for the work; once again Ebon Moss-Bachrach is a standout as Carmen’s ‘cousin’ Richie, but all the regulars are great — but in terms of forward progress, season three is severely lacking. A large percentage of it consists of flashbacks. And yes, it’s nice to learn more about some of the characters’ backgrounds, but much of that could have been done in far less screentime, and maybe then the show could have looked to the future.
At the moment, “The Bear” feels like a (very good) show treading water. And even the most talented of swimmers can only do that for so long before they need to start going somewhere again. Or sink.
