'The Bear' S3 Review: Like Carmy, the Show Is Trying To Beat Its Own Success

'The Bear' Season 3 is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar and Hulu.

Jeremy Allen White in a still from 'The Bear'.

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)

There's something deeply unsettling about The Bear and that feeling of being trapped in a show, feeling your surroundings become more stifling is what The Bear is good at enticing out of a viewer. The discomfort that comes from watching a show like this is what keeps a viewer coming back for seconds and thirds. 

‘Forks and Fishes’ from season 2, for instance, is still one of my favourite episodes from the show. 

And with a show that is so wildly innovative and absolutely, lip-smackingly delicious TV, there's only one danger – of filling your own big shoes.

Season 1 was a breakout hit and, despite reservations, season 2 turned out to become even more beloved. Every episode seemed to be crafted to perfection – focusing on the main characters’ insecurities and ambitions. 

Every character on The Bear feels ‘human’ – even if you can't relate, you empathise. So when head chef Carmen aka Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and his business partner Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) finally set up a venture of their own, you're right there with them. 

You stay with them through health inspections and team strife, right up to the finale where a preview at the ‘The Bear’ teeters on a knife’s edge because of Carmy’s rage-induced outburst.

Carmy has always been a loose cannon, especially with opening day so close – he works and reworks recipes, and is sometimes self-indulgent to a fault. Does more and fancy equal to better is the question the show asks? And you find yourself bouncing the question back during the third season.

Let's get this out of the way – The Bear is still the finest television out there and some of the episodes in season 3 still have that near-magical veneer over there. The feeling of watching pure cinema happen on screen and one of them is the episode directed by Edibiri which shifts the lens to one of the show's most interesting characters – Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas). 

It's episodes like that that remind you of what the show does best – dissecting its characters to their very bones and sometimes practically putting them in an arena to hash it out. 

Now that Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) has what he has always wanted, a question arises – what next? But season 3 isn't interested in the ‘next’ as much as the ‘now’ and while that makes logical sense, it can also become a little tiresome. For instance, the damaging impact Carmy’s previous boss had on him was touched upon in season 2 and now becomes an overarching theme.

His past and his present are intertwining to make everything around him even more stressful and he is, predictably, crumbling. But what was presented with a few flashbacks and subtext earlier feels unnecessarily spelled out now. It's almost as if the show doesn't trust its audience as much as it used to.

Season 3 seems to still be trying to find its footing – the segue into the lives of the Fak brothers feels out of place because it's not the kind of comedy The Bear is known for. The shift is not nearly as seamless as one would expect. 

The detour that does work is the focus on Carmy’s sister Natalie (Abby Elliot) and her journey into motherhood even as she struggles to handle the finances at ‘The Bear’. On her way to becoming a new mother, her own relationship with her mother starts to press upon her harder.

Then there are the A-list cameos. I have no problem with cameos, in fact I enjoy a well-placed one, but season 3 seems to bring in these popular faces for the sake of it. It's not that seeing them isn't a delight – it just doesn't have the same effect as it did earlier.

At this point, The Bear is just chasing its own perfection and the lack of focus is hurting it this season. For any other show, this would've been a minor scrape, for The Bear, it feels slightly larger.

Over the past two seasons, we watched Carmy function in a pressure-cooker like surrounding – his own spiraling thoughts making him both lash out and alienate those around him. His, unhidden, toxicity continues to spill out in season 3 but the show makes the error of not centering the people who are affected by it from the get go. The focus is too fiercely on Carmy for too long when a distance from the camera would have benefited the character more.

Like Tina, chef Marcus’ (Lionel Boyce) relationship with food was becoming so interesting to watch. This idea of the characters bringing parts of their personal lives into their jobs is one of The Bear’s highlights so here's hoping the show continues to sweat the small stuff instead of trying to become ‘bigger’.

All that being said, The Bear is still immensely watchable; its flaws are only caused by a nitpicking we might've picked up from Carmy. Is season 3 a step down? Yes. Is it a let down? Absolutely not.