By Julian Bayan

Since its premiere in 2022, FX’s Emmy-award-winning TV series “The Bear” has been hailed by critics and audiences as one of the best television shows. The series’ popularity can be attributed to its ability to juggle moments of both comedy and stressful chaos, as well as themes of relationships, grief, trauma, and the idea of success in contrast with happiness. 

Seasons one and two depict the gritty, fast-paced life of the restaurant industry through the eyes Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), a chef who has inherited his deceased brother’s struggling restaurant, which later gets renovated into a fine dining joint simply called “The Bear” by the end of the second season. Alongside him is Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri), an ambitious and talented sous-chef who shares Carmy’s vision of turning the restaurant into something greater.

In late June, the series returned for its third season, where Carmen and Sydney attempted to elevate their newly renovated restaurant to higher standards. However, the third season doesn’t live up to the first two.

Yes, the first two seasons rightfully deserve their universal acclaim, which sets a high bar for the third season to surpass. Although season three has been widely praised by critics, it has a few flaws that keep it from reaching the same level of greatness as its predecessors. 

Rather than picking up right after the stressful events of the season two finale in which our protagonist, Carmy, debuts his renovated fine-dining restaurant, season three opens up with a drawn-out, half-hour-long montage of flashbacks of his life,  much of which adds almost nothing to the story.

Fortunately, the season gains momentum after a dull first episode and proceeds to pick up right after the events of season 2, pulling audiences back into the chaotic, high-paced energy of the kitchen.

The core strength of the new season is how character-driven it is. Most episodes add more depth to our beloved characters. For instance, the best episode of the season was a whole episode focused on one of the show’s side characters. Additionally, we see that although our protagonist, Carmy, has gotten to where he wants to be in his professional career (operating a high-end restaurant), he slowly becomes more of an egomaniac who distances himself from his colleagues in his restaurant.

Even though most episodes succeed at being entertaining and further developing certain characters, that’s all it really has going for it. There are little to no stakes, and the storyline about managing the restaurant and holding it to the highest of standards crawls so slowly to the point where this ten-episode run feels more like half a season or is just around to set a few pieces into place for a future season. 

Ultimately, season three of “The Bear” falls short of greatness. Though it is acclaimed by critics, it was underwhelming due to how little the storyline has progressed by the end, making it feel like an odd juxtaposition to the previous two seasons which were far more cohesive, engaging, and gritty.