"The Bear," Year Three

Spoilers ahead.

I managed to not binge "The Bear" this year.  I watched season three's ten episodes over four days, which is a perfectly sane, reasonable timeframe, managed to avoid spoilers, and  altogether couldn't have asked for a better viewing experience.  The short review is that "The Bear" is still excellent television, but the third season feels like it's treading water, setting up a lot of storylines that won't pay off until the fourth season, with some episodes feeling more like filler.

This is most noticeable with the first episode, a stream-of-consciousness look inside Carmy's head, which functions like a recap of his story up until this point, and also more plainly lays out all the connections between various figures from his life who we've met in previous episodes.  This also pointedly underlines Carmy's self-destructive perfectionism that comes to the fore this season, as he sets an excruciatingly high standard for the new restaurant that his employees struggle to meet.  The episode is beautifully done, with great editing, sound design, and use of music.  However, the season would have been perfectly fine without it.

There are some other excellent episodes in this year's batch.  "Napkins," directed by Ayo Edibiri, gives Tina (Liza Colon-Zayas) a long overdue spotlight episode that includes the beginning of her relationship with Richie.  "Ice Chips" sees Sugar finally give birth, but most of the running time is spent reconciling with her troubled mother Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis) while they're waiting in the hospital.  I don't mind the slow pace or the slice-of-life vibes of the other episodes.  It's nice to just spend time with these characters, checking up on Marcus after the death of his mother, or Richie fretting over his ex getting married again, or Sugar trying to keep ahead of the out-of-control bills.  Sydney and Carmy haven't made much progress - they're both still failing to communicate and the kitchen remains an intense pressure cooker.     

However, this doesn't excuse dragging out parts of the story to uncomfortable lengths.  Sydney spends most of the season debating whether to sign a partnership contract that would give her part ownership of the restaurant.  The fate of The Bear hinges on an important restaurant review, and at the end of the last episode, despite multiple fake-outs, we still don't know if it was positive or negative.  It doesn't help that the last episode mostly takes place at a party where a collection of real life chefs spend a lot of time waxing poetic about cooking and running restaurants.  Thomas Keller, a major inspiration for some of the characters, gets an extended cameo.  Carmy does have a big character moment here - he confronts the abusive chef, David Fields (Joe McHale), who seeded a lot of his neuroses, but if this was a turning point for him, we don't see the consequences yet.  And while Sydney seems to have made a decision about her future, it's anything but definite.

These frustrations aside, "The Bear" remains one of the most addictive  shows currently airing because it's so good about creating these nuanced, interesting characters who feel like real people.  I love the Faks trying to talk to Claire on Carmy's behalf.  I love Sydney rolling her eyes at her dad.  I love Cicero sticking his nose in the business, and bringing along a guy called the Computer (Brian Koppelman) to help.  I love all the guest stars who gamely show up to do a scene or two, including John Mulaney essentially just showing up to complain that Carmy smells and throw blankets over him in one of the flashbacks.  After ten episodes, I'm a little annoyed that not much was resolved and everyone is kicking their problems further down the road, but on the other hand it feels true to life.  Sometimes we're all just trying to see how long we can ignore something before the other shoe drops.

It helps that I know we're getting another season of "The Bear" soon.  The show has a very fast production, and as everyone's careers are taking off, season four is probably going to be the last one for a while.  Considering the long breaks that other prestige shows are working with these days, getting the resolution to the cliffhanger in twelve months feels positively reasonable.  And "The Bear" has been so consistently good, we all know it's worth waiting for.