Spoilers for The Bear to observe.
As somebody who has binge-watched all 4 seasons of The Bear instantly upon their launch, I really feel uniquely certified to touch upon all of the issues that piss me off about this present. Nothing brings an annoying propensity to make use of lingering musical montages as an alternative choice to good writing into aid fairly like watching so many episodes directly. And after bingeing the present’s much-anticipated fourth season, I believe I’ve lastly found out why The Bear is each not possible to cease watching — and completely infuriating.
Creator Christopher Storer admittedly selected a wealthy world to mine when he determined to make a present about eating places. However so recurrently he refuses to dig into the meat of the trade’s most advanced points in favor of flashy dishes and chef worship. The Bear positions kitchen work as a noble pursuit, a labor with intrinsic, inventive worth past placing meals on the plate, and it definitely is. However the present by no means actually makes a powerful sufficient case for why this work is price placing your self via emotional hell, as its protagonist Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) has achieved for years.
As a substitute of analyzing one thing just like the trade’s unbelievable reliance on underpaid, undercredited labor from immigrant cooks who by no means see their names in a restaurant evaluate or the levels who present as much as peel potatoes totally free, Storer spends most of those 4 seasons of The Bear caught inside the top of his most important character, Carmy. That might be nice if we ever actually acquired to see what Carmy was considering past sheer panic. When he involves his conclusion about what the restaurant truly must survive — his departure — it solely appears sudden and surprising as a result of there’s been no construct as much as that call, and it by no means actually feels earned.
Rather a lot has clearly occurred between Carmy tacking up his record of “non-negotiables” in Season 3 to the tip of Season 4, when he decides that it’s time to stroll away from eating places without end, however these occasions are by no means examined in any significant approach till the very finish. I suppose we’re simply purported to infer that Carmy has been constructing internally towards a call to go away the trade that he loves via the numerous scenes he spends wistfully staring off into area, soundtracked by maudlin dad rock. Or perhaps the emotional arc was secretly happening throughout all these lengthy pictures of characters observing one another blankly earlier than a dialog begins, the prolonged transition pictures viewers slogged via, or the numerous loud arguments between Berzatto relations that by no means actually appear to go anyplace.
One thing that basically frustrates me about this present is that many interactions between the characters appear so floor, so shallow, even when the writers are seemingly trying to dig deeper. When Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) tells Carmy about how a lot he disliked culinary college and the way he didn’t really feel like he was creating worth for the restaurant, Carmy can muster little greater than “that sucks, man.” I get that we’re supposed to know that these are characters who wrestle to course of and specific their feelings, however usually the portrayal comes throughout as flat — and typically simply straight-up lazy writing — as a substitute of an actual examination of why it may be troublesome for Carmy to meaningfully hear the considerations of Ebraheim and everybody else round him.
I additionally don’t suppose that The Bear actually ever makes the case for Carmy because the type of man you’d go to struggle for. That, too, is irritating, as a result of when you actually believed that Carmy’s culinary genius was price all of the melodramatic bullshit he causes, it’d on some degree justify that conduct. Tortured genius is a trope well-trodden, however The Bear expects us to simply take their phrase for it that Carmy truly is one. He doesn’t seem like an particularly good mentor, and even the perfect cook dinner within the room. We see diners responding extra enthusiastically to Sydney (Ayo Edebiri)’s cooking, which appears to simplify Carmy’s directionless chaos into truly scrumptious dishes.
Storer and the writers repeatedly inform us that Carmy is without doubt one of the finest cooks on this planet, however he by no means truly exhibits us why that’s true. In failing to look critically at Carmy’s precise talent as a chef, The Bear misses the chance to point out — not inform — us how he’s altering and rising in a approach that makes him need to depart eating places without end.
What makes this all so exasperating is that The Bear is replete with moments of greatness, and that’s why we maintain watching. As a result of we need to see these moments coalesce into one thing actually distinctive, however that by no means occurs. As a substitute it’s disjointed, chasing countless rabbits till Season 4’s finish. I perceive that the present is exasperating as a result of Carmy is exasperating and since restaurant work is inherently that approach, however there’s solely a lot annoyance a viewer can take. If that is truly the tip, if Season 4 is The Bear’s final, the present went out doing what it does finest: completely infuriating the fuck out of its viewers.
