FX series takes a step back

SPOILER ALERT: The following piece evaluates season 3 of ‘The Bear’. While major plot developments – including guest stars – have been omitted to preserve the viewing experience, the network has requested spoiler warnings on all reviews.

The second, much-improved season of “The Bear” was marked by a sense of momentum. The ten episodes were transitional in a literal sense, with the FX taking half an hour from the closing of a family-owned Italian beef shop in Chicago’s River North to the opening of a fine dining concept in the same space. Employees developed dishes, oversaw construction and acquired skills with a single goal in mind, culminating in a frantic friends-and-family service that left chef Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) panicking in a freezer.

Season 3 — the first to air after the series swept the comedy categories at this year’s Emmys, cementing its rise from breakout hit to established powerhouse — lacks a similar focus. The beef has become the bear; The obvious follow-up question is: what now? Under the frenetic, dissonant direction of creator Christopher Storer, Season 1 captured the oppressive stress of an everyday kitchen perpetually on the brink of chaos. With the cast reunited at the new restaurant, Season 3 does the same for the higher end of the hospitality industry, where employees wage a swan-like battle to provide guests with a seamless experience despite razor-thin profits and sky-high overhead costs.

Combined with the creative latitude that success affords, this clean slate presents ‘The Bear’ with opportunity and risk in equal measure. The lack of a shared goal sometimes allows Storer and co-showrunner Joanna Calo to continue adding texture to the monotony of restaurant life. As a more encouraging counterpoint to last year’s “Seven Fishes,” this season’s standalone flashback provides insight into how sous chef Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) came to join the team, and Carmy’s sister Natalie (Abby Elliott) becomes a longtime gets into a relationship. too late in the spotlight when she gives birth to her first child. But not all of the detours this season are effective, and without a set destination, the main story itself can get bogged down in repetition and stunt casting before the season ends and most storylines are left unresolved. “The Bear” still finds moments of transcendence in its characters’ pursuit of professional excellence and personal growth, yet the show remains more fallible than its compelling acclaim suggests.

If anything, the premiere highlights the season’s weaknesses, giving viewers an accurate indication of what’s to come. After Carmy’s breakdown, in which he lashed out at his ‘cousin’ turned general manager Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and accidentally alienated his girlfriend Claire (Molly Gordon), the uptight chef goes completely unhinged. Throughout the 37-minute episode, we remain largely in Carmy’s wandering mind. He ricochets between his memories, from his stint in New York City under a tyrannical boss (Joel McHale) to happier times, either with Claire or in less hostile work environments. The results can be lyrical and lovely; Who doesn’t appreciate a glimpse of Copenhagen in warm weather, or the chance to see Chef Terry from Olivia Colman again? It also doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know, making room for cameos from a whole host of culinary legends at the expense of the story’s progression. The structure would work for a longer cold open to establish Carmy’s mood; stretched into an entire episode, it’s an overload. To quote Terry’s mantra: every second counts.

Back in the present, Carmy throws himself into the single-minded pursuit of perfection, with complete disregard for everyone around him. When her brother insists on changing the menu every day, Natalie – who now manages the business side – objects to the food waste associated with research and development, and Richie rightly points out that the service side needs to stay on top of things. Worst of all, Chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) is quietly devastated as she watches her former co-worker make unilateral changes to the dishes they worked on together. No wonder she can’t bring herself to sign a partnership agreement with a man who won’t treat her like a real partner.

“The Bear” sets out to explore how cycles of abuse manifest in pressure cookers like professional kitchens, turning Carmy into the same kind of controlling egotist that turned him into an anxious mess. But opening the season by centering him so completely does not allow “The Bear” to put Carmy into perspective with the necessary distance. It also undoes some of the work done last season to expand the show into a true ensemble. There are moments when Syd brings Carmy under control. They’re fleeting, too, and many montages illustrating Carmy’s state of mind ultimately crowd out more compelling arcs, like pastry chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce)’s attempt to channel the grief of losing his mother into his food. Claire finally gets a handful of solo scenes that highlight her work as a doctor, but this season she’s returned to how she always felt, even as a more active presence: an abstract figure for Carmy to reminisce about and idealize from a distance . While “The Bear” tries to highlight Carmy’s mistakes, such as treating other people as props in his ongoing psychodrama, he ultimately reproduces them.

This blurred line between commenting on a dynamic and perpetuating it extends elsewhere. In some ways, the sometimes aimless feeling of the season is part of its purpose. Even, and perhaps especially, with successful operations, restaurant life is a grueling hamster wheel. There is always another fire to put out, another benchmark to reach. (Richie tells his ex-wife and co-parent that she can visit the restaurant if it’s “perfect,” an impossible goal; Carmy wants a Michelin star, but if The Bear got one, he’d just have to work to to keep it.) The only way out is to quit, as one of Carmy’s mentors chooses in a choice that looms throughout the season.

Yet maintenance and longevity are less compelling incentives than crossing the construction finish line. With no exit in sight, the staff of ‘The Bear’ must confront the problems that the opening has not solved, and which may even worsen. Richie is still figuring out how to be a good father; Sydney is still finding her voice as an artist and leader; Carmy is still a grown man who can’t text a girl he likes. Just like in season 1, the feeling of stagnation is lifelike – and frustrating to watch. Without a cathartic climax, even supposed reprieves, like bringing in the Fak brothers (Matty Matheson and Ricky Staffieri) for comic relief, quickly become scarce.

In Season 3, “The Bear” feels torn between two identities: a voice for the world of restaurants in general, and a specific story about a specific set of characters. As the culture’s most zeitgeisty platform for the industry, there’s a sense of responsibility in the way “The Bear” foregrounds the sentimental arguments for nurturing others as a calling, as well as the price paid by those who pursue this. Understandably, if less nobly, the show is also keen to build on the connections its popularity provides. Last season’s chef cameos largely came from local spots in Chicago, a tradition continued this year by Kasama’s Genie Kwon. Season 3 expands the talent pool to include some of the food world’s most prominent celebrities, several of whom get extended monologues outlining their guiding philosophies.

At some point, such flourishes begin to cross the line from enhancing the authenticity of “The Bear” to hindering its core mission. The finale in particular offers so much screen time to these visiting dignitaries that most of the key players get short shrift, just as the show should be planting the seeds for next season or at least wrapping up the season we just saw. When Tina has a heart-to-heart with Carmy’s brother Mikey (Jon Bernthal), whose suicide prompted Carmy’s return to the Midwest, a meticulously depicted conversation between two driven, wounded people abruptly turns into a broad sermon on why people choose to work. at restaurants. As “The Bear” has continued, it has developed the dysfunction of the Berzatto family – and the collateral damage to the siblings’ colleagues – to the point where it is no longer necessary to rely on such generalizations. For ‘The Bear’, demonstrating his bona fide is a challenge; understanding that it no longer needs them would be a real sign of trust.

All ten episodes of ‘The Bear’ Season 3 are now available to stream on Hulu.