“The Bear” season 3: what critics say about the return of the series

The restaurant drama starring Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrachamong others, arrived in the United States (here it arrives on July 17th Disney+). After sweeping the Emmys earlier this year, winning Best Comedy Series and multiple acting awards, fans are eager to try another season.

However, the reviews are starting to pile up and not all of them are as glowing as fans would have hoped. The season seems to fail to offer a full enough story, character progression and seems to largely repeat many of the same, albeit successful, tropes as the previous two seasons.

Many critics have noted the use of montage scenes in season three, something that is used in many episodes from previous seasons. When pastry chef Marcus visits Copenhagen to hone his dessert-making skills, for example, or when sous chef Syd tries some of the best food Chicago has to offer. These montages were popular before, however, these new additions don’t seem to have been as well-received.

What critics are saying about the third season of The Bear

In a three-star review from The IndependentNick Hilton wrote: “The beginning of season three is just an ASMR montage of people making ravioli and placing edible flowers in channels of luminous foam, which serves as an emotional appetizer for the episodes to come.

“It’s cutting-edge stuff, evoking the confusion felt by the odd third course on a tasting menu, but coming dangerously close to being boring.”

Meanwhile, in a three-star review, The Guardian’s Rebecca Nicholson wrote of the first episode’s style: “Stubborn repetition is the enemy of compelling storytelling. You need to move. This means that the excellent Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) is somewhat marginalized, both in the plot and, to a certain extent, in the season. What a waste.”

And in Variety, Alison Herman echoed: “It also doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know, leaving room for cameos from a host of culinary legends at the expense of moving the story forward. The structure would run for an extended period of open time to establish Carmy’s mood; If it extends to a full episode, it is an excess.”

Another common theme that critics have picked up on is that while there was immense pressure on the show to deliver, the pressure within the story seems to have eased. Both The Guardian and The Independent point out that the stakes are “lower” now that the new restaurant has opened.‘The Bear’.

According to The Independent, this makes the purpose of the season unclear: “If the first series was about returning to your roots and the second about turning those roots into a nice, earthy terrine, what drives this third installment?”

Variety, however, noted that the season’s repetitiveness and lack of direction may influence the purpose of the entire show: “In some ways, the season’s sometimes directionless feel is part of its purpose. Even, and perhaps especially, in successful operations, restaurant life is an exhausting hamster wheel. “There is always another fire to put out, another benchmark to reach.”

The Guardian noted that the episodes seemed unfinished, perhaps because the series filmed the third and fourth seasons consecutively: “For long stretches, these 10 episodes feel like half of something. It’s as if The Bear had done what top-grossing film franchises sometimes do, and split its latest installments into two. I found the ending incredibly frustrating.”

Variety echoed this point, writing, “Richie is still figuring out how to be a good father; Sydney is still finding his voice as an artist and leader; Carmy is still a grown man who can’t text a girl he likes. Just like season 1, the feeling of stasis is true to life and frustrating to watch. Without a cathartic climax, even supposed reprieves like deploying the Fak brothers (Matty Matheson and Ricky Staffieri) for comic relief sell out quickly.”

However, in a four-star review, John Nugent of Empire praised the show’s sporadic story coverage and wrote, “The show’s conceptual audacity and its unwillingness to follow a linear narrative remains its strongest card, and the Highlights come in bottled episodes that deepen the arcs of individual characters.”

This Criticism of the comic aspects of The Bear This is addressed again in The Guardian’s review, as the Fak family appear to have a larger storyline in season three: “The Fak family have a long-running subplot that seems to be a concession towards a lighter mood, but it goes on too long and disrupts the larger themes that are desperate to come to the fore. Dark humour is one thing, but slapstick surely belongs in another.”

However, many critics still celebrate the show’s strengths, including its acting and direction. The Guardian, which called the series “still one of the best shows on television”, praised two individual episodes as “knockouts”. Discussing the episodes ‘Napkins’ and ‘Ice Chips’, he wrote: “Both take their own inventories of the past and hone The Bear’s sentimentality into raw, tender magnificence.”

This is echoed by Empire, which called Edebiri’s directorial debut ‘Napkins’ “the best episode this time around”.

The Independent praised the series’ award-winning cast, writing: “The cast remains exceptional, particularly Moss-Bachrach and Edebiri, elevated to television’s A-list since the show first aired,” while Variety celebrates their standalone flashback episode and the “long-awaited focus” on Carmy’s sister Natalie.

In a four-star review of the third series, NME celebrated the show’s pacing, celebrity appearances and strong opening, saying that “standards have not dropped”.

“Breaking along with its usual mix of slow and fast sequences, the balance in season three is perfect,” the review reads.

The third installment of the series, It will be available to watch on July 17th via Disney+.