The Bear season 1 was a great taste of television. In season 2, they upped the ante and improved on every aspect. Now, after a yearlong wait, all 10 episodes of season 3 has come out and perhaps they’ve been cooking for a bit too long.
It has most of the main ingredients from the previous two seasons. The characters are all still likeable and well written, the cinematography is leagues above most shows right now, the music is addictive, and it still has moments that will pull on your heartstrings. However, if there’s one component that’s missing from this dish, it would be purpose. Almost every story thread and plot point that we were left with in the season 2 finale were never resolved in this season. What’s left is character moments that, while are still great moments, feel plotless.
Carmy and Richie are still confrontational about each other, Carmy’s relationship with Claire is still distant, Marcus is still trying to deal with the death of his mother, they still need to pay back Jimmy, etc. The only characters that have any sort of development is in a bottle episode with Sugar and her mother. It was great to see Sugar and her mom’s relationship in a more calm and sweet setting. Sadly, I can’t say the same for everybody else. And when we might actually see
some actual character development with our main players (Carmy and Syd), it’s simply used as a teaser for the next season.
The cameos that show up this season were distracting to say the least. Look, I like John Cena, but was he really necessary for the show? We waited an entire year and a good chunk of an episode is dedicated to this one dumb segment between John Cena and the Faks? The scenes themselves don’t even serve a purpose and was simply down time in a season that’s filled with down time. And although it’s interesting to hear about the philosophy of food from real life chefs in the season finale, it felt ham-fisted. Season 2 had its fair share of cameos, but they all felt like actual characters in the show. Bob Odenkirk, John Mulaney, Olivia Coleman, and many others felt well utilized and actually served a purpose in the season rather than cameos that popped up lik
The episodes that focused more on individual characters were incredible. The show is great at putting us in the headspace of characters and their motivations. My personal favorite would honestly be the very first episode where is serves as not only a recap of all the most important sequences of the show, but an overview of Carmy’s career as a chef. From his travels to New York and Copenhagen, his apprenticeship with chefs that were masters in the craft, Mikey’s death, etc. It might seem somewhat hypocritical to critique the season of being plotless while praising an episode that’s essential a recap episode, but it works since it’s the starting episode. It gets us up to speed of what’s happening while being an exceptionally crafted episode. It doesn’t move the plot forward for a purpose which is something I can’t say with most of the other episodes.
For example, “Napkins” gives us a whole backstory of Tina and how she got employed to the Beef. Again, some great character work in it, but it doesn’t mean anything because the entire episode bares no relevance to the actual season. Sure, we know more about Tina, but there’s nothing there that justified an entire episode dedicated to her story. Sadly, a lot of moments in the season
is like that. Fak’s are the main victims of this where 90% of their screentime are being the boring comic reliefs rather than doing anything important in the overall story.
Season 3 is like an excellent made cake that no one eats. It has all the components; the frosting, the sugar, the covering of all the delights in the world. Yet, if nobody gets to eat it, then of what use is the craft of making it? Aside from two great episodes (“Tomorrow” and “Ice Chips”), the whole season felt like set up for the next season which would be fine if there was any sort of progression in either the story or characters. The problem is that there is too many threads and needles that should have at least shifted around, but there wasn’t which left me unsatisfied. Overall, it’s still worth watching the season for the great characters, but it’s not near the same stratosphere as Season 1 and 2. 3/5.
