Spoilers for The Bear to comply with.
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 unimaginable 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 frequently 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 actually is. However the present by no means actually makes a robust sufficient case for why this work is price placing your self by way of emotional hell, as its protagonist Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) has achieved for years.
As a substitute of inspecting one thing just like the trade’s unimaginable reliance on underpaid, undercredited labor from immigrant cooks who by no means see their names in a restaurant evaluation or the phases who present as much as peel potatoes without cost, Storer spends most of those 4 seasons of The Bear caught inside the top of his most important character, Carmy. That will be nice if we ever actually obtained to see what Carmy was considering past sheer panic. When he involves his conclusion about what the restaurant really must survive — his departure — it solely appears sudden and stunning 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 top 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 means till the very finish. I assume we’re simply speculated to infer that Carmy has been constructing internally towards a call to depart the trade that he loves by way of the various scenes he spends wistfully staring off into area, soundtracked by maudlin dad rock. Or perhaps the emotional arc was secretly going down throughout all these lengthy pictures of characters watching one another blankly earlier than a dialog begins, the prolonged transition pictures viewers slogged by way of, or the various loud arguments between Berzatto relations that by no means actually appear to go wherever.
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 typically the portrayal comes throughout as flat — and typically simply straight-up lazy writing — as an alternative of an actual examination of why it is perhaps troublesome for Carmy to meaningfully hear the issues 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 conflict for. That, too, is irritating, as a result of for those who 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 really is one. He doesn’t look like an particularly good mentor, and even the most effective prepare 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 really scrumptious dishes.
Storer and the writers repeatedly inform us that Carmy is likely one of the greatest cooks on the earth, however he by no means really reveals 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 means 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 hold watching. As a result of we need to see these moments coalesce into one thing really 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 means, however there’s solely a lot annoyance a viewer can take. If that is really the top, if Season 4 is The Bear’s final, the present went out doing what it does greatest: completely infuriating the fuck out of its viewers.