The Bear is about food, emotional abuse, the pursuit of excellence, and trauma, but it’s also very much about its own voice. Rarely has a show shined so consistently by finding and channeling its voice—doing its thing, basically. The third season is another solid case in point, with a handful of pacy missteps but otherwise leaning hard into its trademark strengths: dramatic intensity, visual storytelling, and thematic resonance.
Having completed its remodel and its crew’s transformation, The Bear is now open for business, a promising new fine-dining establishment in Chicago. Right off the bat, though, there are challenges to its smooth operation. Acclaimed but uncompromising chef Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), determined to win a Michelin star, pushes his staff to the limit by changing the menu every day and making other financially risky decisions. He also struggles to amicably share leadership responsibilities with his partner Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), and is nearly incapable of coexisting with his cousin Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), who leads the front-of-house serving staff. The staff’s passion for the work is undeniable, but rampant dysfunction within the workplace threatens to spiral the enterprise into ruin, leading to further strife between the restaurant staff and its business management, represented by Carmy’s pregnant sister Natalie (Abby Elliott) and their avuncular financier, Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt).
The Bear stumbles out of the gate with an ambitious but plodding season opener before finding its feet and doing what it does best: letting the actors shine. It’s another incredible season of performances, and if occasionally the show could stand to scale back of its semi-improvisational theatrics a smidge, that same pressure-cooker collaboration is also key to its voicy uniqueness, leading to many of the series’ finer moments. Chief among these is a highlight standalone episode, “Napkins,” a brilliant flashback origin story for sous chef Tina Marrero (Liza Colón-Zayas) and the job hunt that led her to the Original Beef. Directed by Edebiri, “Napkins” features a brilliant extended scene between Colón-Zayas and Jon Bernthal that punches to the heart of the struggles of the restaurant business and many of its employees, and serves as a perfect intersection of many of the show’s themes. Like its characters, The Bear has a tendency to go too far and suffers from problems of its own making, but that same intense, risk-taking energy is also what pushes it consistently toward greatness.
