The Bear season 3 review: The show brings back the chaos we love but also misses a few marks along the way

In our review of The Bear season 3, we talk about the show’s new approach this season and so much more!

The Bear season 3 review: Previously on The Bear, we saw an insanely stressful opening night that ended with Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) saying things he really shouldn’t have to Claire (Molly Gordon). This season, he fights his inner demons and lives with the consequences of ending his relationship with the slip of a tongue. The restaurant is fully booked every night but the kitchen is chaotic every night as well. Carmy’s defense mechanism for a heartbreak is going absolutely cuckoo and deciding to change the menu every night. This is too much to take for the rest of the gang as Richie (Ebon Moss- Bachrach) and his team of waiters have to memorize a new menu everyday. It is getting hard for Sydney (Ayo Edibri) and Tina (Liza Colon-Zayas) to keep up with Carmy’s speed. Natalie (Abby Elliot) and their uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) are going berserk doing the profit calculations of the restaurant which are slim given that Carmy buys new ingredients everyday and it is wasteful. Not to forget that Natalie is ready to deliver her baby any moment. All of this tied up together is the perfect recipe for chaos and frustration which the show is popularly known for.

But the very first episode this season gives us something polar opposite from what we’d expected - calmness. While the scenes shown were anything but calm, the background music that accompanied it was surprisingly soothing and there was also no quintessential screaming and shouting amongst the characters. In fact there was barely any dialogue at all which I loved. It set a new tone and approach for this season. Everyone except for Carmy has moved forward in one way or another and maybe showing that was intentional because for most of the season he feels stuck, suffocated and on the verge of a panic attack. Like at some points, his tension seeps through the screen and the anxiousness somehow gets to you as a viewer and you feel stressed out for him. His partner in crime, Sydney is looking at various different possibilities that could give her the future she envisions for herself. After having a phenomenal development last season, Richie continues to be my favorite in this installment as well. He was a short tempered mess of a human when this story began, and now he is a safe space for many. 

Also Read: The Bear Season 2 truly shines with Richie's remarkable character arc, standing tall as the season's most captivating highlight!

In terms of direction and writing, we get the typical Carmy - Richie fights, humor has been on the rise this season with Fak and the underlying theme is forgiveness. It’s about Richie being there for his ex-wife and forgiving the past about not keeping him in the loop about her new life and Natalie forgiving her mom for putting her emotional baggage on her. The episode where Natalie delivers her baby is beautiful because in the time of crisis, whether we like it or not, we turn to our mothers and she did too. It showed how much DD (Jamie Lee Curtis) had worked on herself. But Ayo Edibri who plays Sydney on the show, directed one of the best episodes of the season. It was episode 6 ‘Napkins’ where we get an entire backstory on Tina’s life and how she ended up working for Mickey. With close up shots of Tina’s face, bringing out her vulnerability and emotions so well, Ayo makes you feel for Tina but also watch her win in life like a hero.

The entire season is painted to look like Carmy is prepping to finally go talk to Claire and apologize but it is a bummer when we never get that. Claire is the peace to his mess of a life and she crosses his mind every single day, even in the most stressful situations. Of course Carmy is someone who is absolutely non-confrontational but the makers fully robbed us of not keeping them together at all this season. It felt like, in general, this installment was suddenly more about the past than the future, with a few celebrity cameos. I wish the last episode ended with The Bear crew together instead of making it only about Chef Terry’s dinner. Regardless of all of this, the show does thrill in bits and makes you want to binge it in a night, especially if you’re someone who falls for Carmy’s brooding looks every single time that make you feel like you can fix him. With fabulous background music and relationships at the core of it all, The Bear season 3 is a filler season at best, a small step for probably a bigger twist in the story later on. 

The Bear season 3 is currently streaming on Disney+Hostar

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