The Bear
The Bear season 4 has dropped this week, and while there’s no confirmation yet that it will return for season 5, the cliffhanger finale makes it pretty clear that will happen, no matter the viewership or reception for this season. And at this point, I’d say that season should probably be its last.
It’s true that The Bear season 4 may be somewhat better than the much-derided season 3, but it’s also exhausting, with characters either shoved to the side or forced to retread the same story beats over and over again from past seasons. Or even within this season. Spoilers follow.
What takes up a sizable amount of space are these intense, one-on-one, hyper zoomed-in conversations between characters, including the entire finale. While this is not new to the show it’s used so often that it’s almost a parody of itself. Yes, these actors are talented, but these scenes feel like pure Emmy bait over and over and over. Here’s Carmy and Sydney having an intense conversation. Here’s Carmy and his mom having an intense conversation. Here’s Carmy and Ritchie having an intense conversation. Here’s Carmy and Claire having an intense conversation. Here’s Carmy and Sydney and Ritchie having an intense conversation (the entire finale). Almost all of these involve crying. Mix and match most of the characters from the show, and this feels like half the runtime.
The Bear
The story of the actual restaurant takes a back burner (no pun intended). Tina’s entire storyline this season is trying to figure out how to make a pasta dish in under three minutes. Marcus is being slow at making desserts but then his pastry friend Will Poulter returns. He then wins a best young chef award out of nowhere. Sydney pretends like she’s going to leave The Bear for eight episodes when we know she obviously won’t. I thought the most interesting storyline was Ebraheim seemingly figuring out how to save the restaurant behind the scenes by expanding the beef sandwich side of the business, but just when that’s starting to get interesting, the cliffhanger finale shuts it all down.
I appreciated that there were less screaming kitchen fights this time around, but Carmy having eight conversations that are some variant of “I don’t know how to exist, I don’t know who I am, and I wronged you” gets very old, and again, we’ve been doing this dance for years now.
I do think The Bear should return for season 5, as it simply cannot end after that season 4 finale. But they need to get their head on straight and focus less on tearful Emmy monologues and more on the actual story and getting these characters unstuck.
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