What critics say about the third season of The Bear
In a Three star review from The Independent, Nick Hilton wrote: “The beginning of the third season is just an ASMR montage of people making ravioli and placing edible flowers in channels of glowing foam, which serves as an emotional appetizer for the episodes. come.
“It’s avant-garde stuff, evoking the confusion one feels over 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 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 toned down. 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 getting back to your roots and the second about turning those roots into a nice, earthy terrine, what drives this third instalment?”
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 felt unfinished, perhaps because the show filmed the third and fourth seasons back-to-back: “For long stretches, these 10 episodes feel like half of something. It’s as if The Bear had done what blockbuster film franchises sometimes do, and split its final instalments in 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.”
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The third installment of the series can be seen on July 17 through Disney+.
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 is addressed again in The Guardian’s review, as the Fak family appears to have a larger story in season three: “The Fak family has a long-running subplot that appears to be a concession towards a lighter mood, but it lasts too long and interrupts the more important themes that are desperate to come to the fore. Dark humor is one thing, but slapstick surely belongs to 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 A-list television since the show first aired,” while Variety welcomed its standalone flashback episode and “long-awaited spotlight” on Carmy’s sister Natalie.
In a four-star review of the third series, NME praised the show’s pacing, celebrity appearances and strong opening, saying “standards haven’t 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, can be seen on July 17 through Disney+.
