Television The Bear

Yeah, not enjoying this season, unfortunately. Finished episode 4 yesterday midday and decided not to continue watching - even though it was perfect weather to binge. I couldn't stop watching season 1 and 2 once I started.

I'll definitely finish the season but yeah, quite a big drop in quality.
 
Loved season 1 and 2. Disappointed reading these reviews
 
I still liked season 3, but it is definitely weaker than 1 & 2. The ending was a little frustrating because it actually started to develop more in terms of the future of the show and then well, without spoiling, what happens happened and we'll have to wait for more.

This season will divide opinion, but I could see it growing on some people depending on what happens next. It might end up being genius in terms of how it planted seeds, added character backstory & development etc.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I actually don’t think I’ll bother. Life’s too short to watch TV I don’t enjoy. The comment by @Solius about the Faks made my mind up. They were like nails on a blackboard for me in season 2. If there’s even more of them in this season then I’m out.
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There are 20% flashes of what made it an endearing show in there, but for the most part it's just groundhog day, and with the most grating people you could imagine.

Simple yet beautiful bits like the birthday party, the 17 minute episode in S1, the forks episode, Syd going out into town, Carmy finding his brothers letter. All tossed for a wanky super edit of beauty shots.
 
Havak said:
I still liked season 3, but it is definitely weaker than 1 & 2. The ending was a little frustrating because it actually started to develop more in terms of the future of the show and then well, without spoiling, what happens happened and we'll have to wait for more.

This season will divide opinion, but I could see it growing on some people depending on what happens next. It might end up being genius in terms of how it planted seeds, added character backstory & development etc.
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When we started S3 I was telling the wife it was a relief a show actually followed through with a season this quickly. Very quickly I came to the realisation they should've taken their time to come out with it. This was like a fan edit by someone who barely understood what the show was actually about.
 
Just finished this season, definitly agree that not as good as the previous seasons with not much of a storyline or plot. Tina's flashback episode was good but there needs to be more of an overarching storyline in the next season.
 
I'm half way through the latest season but have really enjoyed it. Yes there hasn't appeared to be an overarching plot aside from the slow breakdown being caused by Carmy doing all he can to avoid his feelings, but its so well done, the characters are so good and well acted, that it doesn't bother me too much.

I'm sure I remember reading that they had a 3 season plan for the show, but the channel wanted 4, so this season feels stretched and is pretty much season half of their planned story
 
I like the show and I watch it with my wife but man, some of those episodes are a slog. The finale seemed so pointless. It was a like a mid season episode put right at the end. Do we really care about that restaurant that is closing down because the owner is retiring? I mean I get what it means to the characters but the whole premise of the finale?
 
The season was okay. Nothing like the standard of the first two seasons.The finale was
a bit shit. It was so utterly self-indulgent and yet unrealistic. Chefs talking in very wooden, unnaturally delivered anecdotes. Laughing at shit that wasn't remotely funny. Syd being there because.....? And then seemingly being the life and soul of the party, despite the fact she can barely speak or make eye contact in most situations. At least 10% of her dialogue is her looking put upon and going "Er....ooooooooh-kaaaaay".

It was like watching one of those wank shows where comedians discuss comedy, other comedians and deconstruct jokes. The bloke from Community repeating the Don Draper line about not thinking about Carm at all. Not for me, Geoff.
 
Donaldo said:
Season 3 is Not Good. In fact I'm going to put it in the Bad box.

Makes me re-think a few things about S2 (I found the Christmas episode 50% terrific 50% absolute wank, for instance - now tempted to find it full wank).

It's gone overboard in what it thinks the audience loved about it, losing all heart, connection and emotion in the process. A cardboard cutout of a season - put it in the bin without breaking it down.
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One of the most overrated episodes of television I’ve ever seen. Jamie Lee Curtis was a disgrace in that episode.
 
I'm on season 2 and I really liked Richie's episode and his development from a guy who has no skills to the guy who turns the napkin to see if someone who wants to work at the Bear will notice that.

He was really too intense from the get go but even in season 1 you could see his yelling and acting all tough was just a mask and he's an emotional and gentle guy inside. Love how TIff and him still love each other and care about each other despite the fact they got separated.

Christmas episode was all over the place. It made me tired watching it.
 
atkar83 said:
I like the show and I watch it with my wife but man, some of those episodes are a slog. The finale seemed so pointless. It was a like a mid season episode put right at the end. Do we really care about that restaurant that is closing down because the owner is retiring? I mean I get what it means to the characters but the whole premise of the finale?
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Sure I read that the writers had a 3 season plan and season 4 was filmed at same time, so this is really one half of final season.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
:lol: I mean come on...

Finished season 3, enjoyed it overall but I think it will hold up better with the follow-up of season 4.
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One of the worst examples of scenery-chewing, overacting I've ever seen from an otherwise good actor.
 
Just finished season 2.

Love how Richie nailed the expo, opening went great but also lots of stuff going around. Donna getting there but unable to take joy out of her kids success cause she's aware she would make a mess out of it, Peter crying cause of the whole thing, Sydney having fears about herself thus vomiting and Camry seem to have a lot of trauma and demons inside, such a shame he destroyed the thing he had with Claire who really cares about him and love him. Hopefully they'll get back together but Camry needs to sort himself first so to say. The scene in which Camry and Richie yelled at each other was so sad and disturbing.

Also Sydney totally spooked when Marcus asked her if she wants to go for a drink.
 
I like that season 3 is about the series characters, their life and background.

What I dont like is Faks, dont know what's their tiring conversations and their purpose in general. It was fun with just Neil but with more Faks its just nonsense. If its some kind of comedy relief of some sort it's not really working.

Overall a decent season but feels like it isnt going anywhere. I'm at episode 8.
 
Real Name said:
I like that season 3 is about the series characters, their life and background.

What I dont like is Faks, dont know what's their tiring conversations and their purpose in general. It was fun with just Neil but with more Faks its just nonsense. If its some kind of comedy relief of some sort it's not really working.

Overall a decent season but feels like it isnt going anywhere. I'm at episode 8.
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I agree Neil was sufficient as the Fak quota. Adding another, and Cena's cameos, is redundant and tiring.

Otherwise I enjoyed the season. It's more focused on character development and enriching the canvass in general rather than massive plot advancement, but the writing is still overall enjoyable, the acting is great and it's a very easy, pleasant watch.
 
Nice ending to the 3rd season, maybe the good review will 'save' Camry.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
We don't know if it's a good review though!
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On a second look of the scene it looks a mix one, yeah.

Poor Sydney, she's torn apart about the decision.

Also, when will Richie and Jessica finally hook up!?
 
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It would be a hell of a thing to have a four season show where they accepted two great seasons, sacrificing the third to enable a great fourth.

At this point… I want Carmy to fail. He’s become the toxic twat that he served under. Which is obviously the point of the season. But I suspect that he’ll spend season four realising that while a good review highlights his brilliance and the lack of talent in the wider enterprise, he’ll choose love and comradeship and give us a happy ending.

But… after Season 3, I’d rather see Richie and Syd leave for better things, and find love (as they’re both drifting towards it). For Marcus to dip and make pretty desserts somewhere. For Tina to do the same.

Like, every single character in the show would seemingly prefer to work in a great restaurant that showed people a good time. For them to be polished, making phenomenal food in a good work environment. That would be enough.

If Carmy left, everyone is having a grand time. No star. No brat that can’t keep his head on straight. Yeah, sacrificing his brilliance. But none of them have that drive to be lauded internationally. He’s not a leader, the fella is a man child and they’re not holding him back, he’s pulling them into his historic and unresolved chaos and trauma.

I get that he’s not supposed to be the loveable protagonist. But he’s now the only source of problems in the restaurant. He acts like a prick, he drives up costs relentlessly, has zero respect for anyone unless he’s calm and things are going well, and is pursuing a goal that’s unaligned with anyone else.

If they wrote a season four that sees him continue to act like he is, earning a star by demanding everyone else gets to his level of talent… it kind of invalidates the heart of the show.

I guess they could do both? Staff leave, he gets the best of everywhere in the industry to get a pair of stars and all the adulation, realise how empty it is without love and family, give the stars back and get the gang back together after they’ve shone elsewhere, and run a great restaurant.

Ideally, coming back to his senses after the Faks are all killed in a freak electrocution incident where they decide to daisy chain an electricity supply through their own bodies during service as they can’t be bothered to go and buy some cable. The 2.5 of them screaming about a fecking haunting as they fry.

The show feels lost and has torched all the goodwill from the first two seasons in my opinion.
 
UnrelatedPsuedo said:
I get that he’s not supposed to be the loveable protagonist. But he’s now the only source of problems in the restaurant. He acts like a prick, he drives up costs relentlessly, has zero respect for anyone unless he’s calm and things are going well, and is pursuing a goal that’s unaligned with anyone else.
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I disagree with your overall assessment on it, but more importantly on this part - the whole point since season 2, with Jimmy investing in the restaurant, Syd staying on with him, etc. is to pick up a Michelin star, and he's very clearly the only one who knows how to achieve that. He's the only source of problems, but he's also the only one who can solve the core issue they have. The bolded part is just not true (with regards to what the driving force of The Bear is meant to be).
 
Rooney in Paris said:
I disagree with your overall assessment on it, but more importantly on this part - the whole point since season 2, with Jimmy investing in the restaurant, Syd staying on with him, etc. is to pick up a Michelin star, and he's very clearly the only one who knows how to achieve that. He's the only source of problems, but he's also the only one who can solve the core issue they have. The bolded part is just not true (with regards to what the driving force of The Bear is meant to be).
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I dunno man. Carmy has made a Star the target. Everyone else is just going with it. The pursuit of a Michelin Star is another example of his need for external validation. He’s never felt good enough, despite constantly achieving at every turn. He has a hole inside him that he’s filling up through external recognition.

To me, the shows centre is family and friendship. Explored through the toxic and problematic ties that come with that, but also the moments of absolute joy.

Yes, the touring of restaurants, trips to Denmark, Richie finding his passion through forks and a suit… it all goes towards those characters experiencing personal growth and higher expertise, but they’re clearly not all on the same journey. They’re acquiring the skills to work in a starred restaurant, but aside from Marcus “Get us there Carmy”, nobody else seems inspired by it. Maybe that’s just my take.

It could be said that his relationship with Claire straddles those twin themes. She loved him when he was all passion and no achievement. She’s still impressed by his passion, and success, but what he’s chasing professionally has never been a positive force in their journey. The freezer scene making that abundantly clear. “I can survive without love”. Despite being someone that literally runs on love and third party praise.

I think that scene is why I disliked about half of the third season. His talent is carrying everyone to a declared goal, but his emotionality and personality are pulling them back from it.

Opinions and arseholes though.

Edit ::: Obviously Syd wants to be a Michelin Star chef and it’s been mentioned a couple of times. I’m just unsure if she expressed that directly with regards to The Bear.
 
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I don't think there's much point in discussing this too much, but I really think you're dismissing what is quite clearly one of the driving narratives of the show.

All the rest about his need for external validation, his toxicity, etc. is nothing new and has been apparent since the first episode, and is certainly not a new trope in arts in general.
 
The hospital episode was a pain. Great acting & writing but I find this show a bit overrated.
 
El-Manos said:
The hospital episode was a pain. Great acting & writing but I find this show a bit overrated.
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It was not overrated until season 3, first two were really as good as they get. Third one was not so great with the hospital episode boring as feck, I found myself skipping large parts of it
 
I had my issues with Seaon 3, I felt like it setup alot of things with no intention of resolving them, I hear they shot the seasons pretty much back to back so that makes sense, but it didn't feel very satisfying to watch. I hate ambigious endings also, so the end of season was very meh to me.

It's very frustrating to watch Carmy continually be the cause of all his own problems but that's kinda real.

There are moments were the show is just still gangster as hell but it fell a bit flat more often than not. I even liked the Cena cameo but the whole haunted bit went on too long and way too heavy handed, for a show that usually lets the subtext be subtext.

That first episode honestly might be my favourite bit of media I've watched in years. It's almost perfect story telling with no words, no heavy plot, just events, images and vibes, I love it. And man o man, John Bernthal could read me the phone book for an episode per season and I'd be happy.
 
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Sydney is absolutely horrible btw, painful both to watch and listen. "errrhmmmm ummm well yeah." she looks like child and talks like one, but the actress is close to 30. I'd lose my mind if people around me actually talked that way.
 
Finally caught up with this and my word you weren't wrong, that was an awful dip in quality and quite a slog to get through at the end.

I just found this season endlessly miserable with none of the uplifting episodes like the forks one to mix it up. There wasn't really any of the tense ones either which I equally enjoy but for different reasons.

Instead we got lots of shouting (think one early episode was literally just Richie and Carmie saying "feck you" in the kitchen to each other for 30 odd minutes) lots of moping and faux heart to heart conversations between the least interesting characters which was broken up by giving Matty Matheson and that other dude way too much screen time presumably in an attempt to lighten the mood. That John Cena cameo was needless and awful as well. Get in the bin.

The only thing I did find interesting was Carmy's PTSD from working with that dick chef manifesting in his own workplace and destroying his relationships but they didn't really delve much deeper than surface level into it and the pay off was a damp squib unless they come back to it next season.

The way it ended did indicate it was kind of a mid season thing so hopefully they turn it around and finish strong.
 
CassiusClaymore said:
Finally caught up with this and my word you weren't wrong, that was an awful dip in quality and quite a slog to get through at the end.

I just found this season endlessly miserable with none of the uplifting episodes like the forks one to mix it up. There wasn't really any of the tense ones either which I equally enjoy but for different reasons.

Instead we got lots of shouting (think one early episode was literally just Richie and Carmie saying "feck you" in the kitchen to each other for 30 odd minutes) lots of moping and faux heart to heart conversations between the least interesting characters which was broken up by giving Matty Matheson and that other dude way too much screen time presumably in an attempt to lighten the mood. That John Cena cameo was needless and awful as well. Get in the bin.

The only thing I did find interesting was Carmy's PTSD from working with that dick chef manifesting in his own workplace and destroying his relationships but they didn't really delve much deeper than surface level into it and the pay off was a damp squib unless they come back to it next season.

The way it ended did indicate it was kind of a mid season thing so hopefully they turn it around and finish strong.
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I feel like the amount of flashbacks we've had over the seasons has been enough to ram the point home that Jeffrey Winger the chef ruined Carmy's life. The pay-off was a bit underwhelming... but that's sadly how a lot of these things go in real life. I genuinely think they were going for that realism - you build up this monster in your mind, this trauma, it eats you alive, you process it, you deconstruct it, you finally get to confront it... and it's meh.

I also think not enough is being made of how fecking good the first episode is. Maybe because it was the first episode of the season and everyone was expecting something else, maybe had it been in the middle it would have received more praise, but it was truly beautiful, and something different.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
I feel like the amount of flashbacks we've had over the seasons has been enough to ram the point home that Jeffrey Winger the chef ruined Carmy's life. The pay-off was a bit underwhelming... but that's sadly how a lot of these things go in real life. I genuinely think they were going for that realism - you build up this monster in your mind, this trauma, it eats you alive, you process it, you deconstruct it, you finally get to confront it... and it's meh.

I also think not enough is being made of how fecking good the first episode is. Maybe because it was the first episode of the season and everyone was expecting something else, maybe had it been in the middle it would have received more praise, but it was truly beautiful, and something different.
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Yeah I really liked the first ep. Had me in a bit of a trance.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
I feel like the amount of flashbacks we've had over the seasons has been enough to ram the point home that Jeffrey Winger the chef ruined Carmy's life. The pay-off was a bit underwhelming... but that's sadly how a lot of these things go in real life. I genuinely think they were going for that realism - you build up this monster in your mind, this trauma, it eats you alive, you process it, you deconstruct it, you finally get to confront it... and it's meh.

I also think not enough is being made of how fecking good the first episode is. Maybe because it was the first episode of the season and everyone was expecting something else, maybe had it been in the middle it would have received more praise, but it was truly beautiful, and something different.
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Yeah the first episode was easily the best.
 
I found the constant music loop in the first episode really annoying, like it was just a big egotistical montage, a sign of how poor the rest of the season would be.
 
CassiusClaymore said:
Yeah the first episode was easily the best.
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I thought Natalie’s birth episode was really good as well.

But yeah, overall a meandering season with no real direction or focus. Lots of episodes that just felt unmotivated, like the Tina flashback one (it wasn’t a bad episode but did we really need to know how Tina ended up on The Beef? Just felt like filler). Carmy was remarkably uninteresting this season and I was desperate for Syd to take that other offer by the end, just so that something new could happen, and also because it’s basically impossible to explain why she would stay at this point.

The finale struck me as particularly strange. Carmy’s big confrontation was anticlimatic, and instead we got a bunch of unknown characters monologuing endlessly about how divinely important fine dining is. I know they were famous chefs but why would the viewers care? To us they are (bad) actors playing characters we don’t care about.
 
Think the show was better off with the insane premise of "let's run a sandwich shop like a fine dining restaurant" instead of the far-less insane premise "let's run a fine dining restaurant."
 
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