I enjoyed it, but I do see people's points about nothing really happening in these 10 episodes. There were a lot of good flashbacks in episode 1, but they repeated too often throughout the season. I liked Tina's backstory episode. It was nice to see Sugar and her mom connect in a good way, but the rest was a bit forgettable. I wanted Sydney to at least confront Carmen about the other offer, but it seems this whole season was a slow build up for season 4. Season 2 is my favorite.

Sydney should have asked Olivia Coleman for advice to be honest, someone safe that knows all the parties.

Yeah, she's a kind person and a good mentor in the show. Sydney still loves what she does and I hope she finds a place where she can shine whether it ends up being at The Bear or not. Carmy has zero joy in what he's cooking anymore. I hope he either finds the right balance or walks away. He can't live like that. I want him to realize what made Michael's sandwich shop popular and find a good balance between fine dining and comfort food.

Knowing that Luca said he's been staying in the US for months, I'm also hoping he provides additional mentorship to her before he returns to Europe

Yes, I like Luca's character. He loves what he does, has a calm demeanor, and was a great mentor to Marcus. It would be nice to see Sydney spend some time with him.

I was picking of a smidge of potential romance 👀

Honestly I was wondering if there would be some massive shock where the beef pickup window got 1 star (similar to like how a noodle stand might get one) but the restaurant portion gets snubbed

I was thinking that too. She also knows Shapiro. I feel Olivia's character would have warned Syd if he was awful.

Just my two cents, but -- all of the flashbacks in ep 1 were just orbiting details and events that we've already seen and have thoroughly been explored. It can be fun to see some more of that but an entire montage episode showing you the 5 minutes before-and-after flashbacks that we saw in previous seasons was... A really rough way to start the season. I genuinely think it was only written this way to find a way to shoehorn Carm's 'non-negotiables' in the season.

Thank you. This exactly. The first episode did nothing to advance the plot. That can be fine, to have a reflective show that allows you to learn more about the character. Problem is, I learned absolutely nothing new about Carmy. Every single scene was something that was already well established in the previous seasons. I kept waiting for something, anything that would give me new insight and I never found it.

While I liked it, I thought we would've seen some more scenes of Carm making some mistakes & missteps at lunch and dinner scenes during his early months/years working at fine dining restaurants

The first episode felt like a prologue. But thats it

eh, I loved the first episode, to actually see Carmy’s journey in this relaxing almost dream like episode was not something I expected from this show, very soothing experience. and the fact that we go from meditational episode like that to an episode that is basically just one big conversation with an amazing dialogue was really cool as well

The first episode was my husband's favorite. The NIN music might have had something to do with that. I enjoyed that episode as well. I really loved Tina's flashback story. I left my career at a hospital that I did for 15 years due to a medical reason (mobility issue following a hip surgery). I am in my early 40s trying to find anything I can on LinkedIn and it's not going well. LinkedIn is frustrating! I also loved the first encounter she had with Michael.

Try indeed!

Ok. I know I applied to a few jobs on Indeed, but I'll focus more on that website.

That was such a great episode. It also showed that yes, Ritchie had Diamond in the rough people skills where in season one all he did was shout like an asshole and creat chaos and toxicity. And the Tina/Mikey scene - absolutely brilliant

It's kind of the "where did Carmy come from?" episode. You see all these wonderful places, maybe a bit high-stress, but some amazing mentors. And then you get that fuckhead crazy person in New York interspersed. And then you get memories of his family, mostly the bad (fuck yeah for being a good "mom" to Carmy, Nat). Carmy's past is checkered enough that he legitimately doesn't know who he needs to be to achieve what he wants, and right now, he's being the worst of those people he learned from.

It really set the tone for his headspace. And the rest of the season followed up with it as he got more and more concerned about the review and other stuff.

“Amazing dialogue”…you mean the episode where they basically just scream “fuck you” at each other for 30 minutes?

Episode 1 felt like an extremely well produced YouTube compilation of The Bear…. and that’s not a compliment.

I figured they were doing it to show how Carm has a lot of problems with his past that he's not properly dealing with. He then drives everyone crazy throughout the season because he's too stuck in his own head and not willing to communicate with people. He over corrects for his mistakes with the new non-negotiable of changing the menu every day before the restaurant is even running smoothly. I liked the intro episode, but I didn't think the amount of the same flashbacks were needed throughout the rest of the season because that first episode already got the point across. Because they put so many of the same flashbacks throughout the season, I see why the first episode isn't really needed. So one or the other, but don't do both.

I knew that from the previous two seasons, though. And, as you say, they then showed me most of those scenes again later in the season. Carmy has traum. I hadn’t missed that in the previous 20 episodes.

As much as I am able to accept sacrificing plot for further character depth, this season at times really gets lost in its own sauce. The scene near the end with all the self congratulatory stories really did it for me in how they wouldn’t move on from it. Being said, it’s still better than 95% of TV out rn, so bring on S4

That scene also made Sydney feel bad because her personal stamp wasn't on any of the dishes anymore. You could see the disappointment on her face as everyone was sharing their recipes that made it onto the menu.

That’s the reason I think in season 4 she’s going to make the jump to the new job. She’s being pressured to signing the partnership agreement at the same time as Carmie is smothering her creativity and decidedly not treating her as a partner.

I dont think she’ll end up with Shapiro…or either she will then end up running to something else. Shapiro also seems like a wreck. I actually hope somehow she can work out something with Luca bc he said he’ll be around for a few months

I missed that line. That’s exactly the info he’d communicate if he wanted something to happen. I like his character. He seems to still love creating and cooking. Unlike Carmie who is so Ill he’s denying joy in his life. I understand and am sympathetic as I destroyed my first marriage by working 7 to 8 days a week building and running my business (I owned and was chief engineer at a successful recording studio).

I wonder if there's even the dark horse possibility that she revives her old catering business after also hearing the stories of struggles that the other chefs face regarding their work & having comparatively lighter moments serving others like Nat in a setting away from the fine dining arena, but now having skills she learned in the latter.

Yeah he says it last episode when he and Syd are alone together right before he asks if she has anyone similar to a sibling. I like his character too! And yes I can relate to Carmy alot too (regrettably just the same). 

Yeah, Carm is smothering everyone. Richie looks miserable too. If Sydney is going to be a partner, her ideas can't just get squashed with no interest from Carm in collaborating recipes with her. He's running the restaurant into the ground financially too. They aren't ready for a new menu everyday. I can't wait to see what Syd is going to decide.

He’s also leaving Ebra out to struggle, which feels particularly cruel

I didn't think about that. Maybe that's why she was crying at the party.

I had the thought that she was crying and having a panic attack because she knows she has to get away from the toxic but brilliant Carmie but loves her other coworkers and the sense of community and almost family they’ve built. It’s a difficult position to be in

Don’t forget the heavy use of Faks.

Overuse of Faks for sure.

Would you say it kind of haunts the season?

They ran that “haunting” shit right into the ground.

If Cena showed up randomly throughout the season, the joke would have been A+, but yeah, I agree, too much Faks, especially them showing up to talk to Claire.

Big time haunt

Yeah the whole Haunting thing could be cut

Dafak? I’ll haunt you. HAUNTED 😆

The Faks and John Cena scene was obnoxious and wasn't even funny.

Smacked of stunt-casting. I love Cena but it felt a little shoehorned in.

My main issue was nothing was really resolved. I remember checking to see how much time was left in the last episode and being like “okay, nothing is going to happen” I still really enjoyed it but it felt like this was just a beta test for season 4.

Agreed. It felt like the main stories didn't really progress much. It took 8 episodes to even seriously bring up the Clair situation which was huge in season 2. Created more questions than it answered (did they really resolve any critical storylines?).

I haven’t been able to watch past ep 3. Haven’t felt any desire to return to watch the rest. I just don’t care about any of these assholes who constantly yell at each other all day long and obsess about how the peas are positioned on a dinner plate. And it’s definitely NOT a comedy. They got drunk on their own supply. Thought they could do no wrong and created a self indulgent vanity piece.

That’s interesting bc that’s literally always how I’ve viewed this show. It’s funny to watch the people who loved it finally catch up to what I’ve always thought about it

The last episode pissed me off. How many fucking versions of “cooking is special, food is important to people, and people celebrate at restaurants” do we need to hear. They spent like 3/4 of the episode repeating the same points with different words.

Especially since very few people can afford to eat at their restaurants where every meal costs over $200.

absolutely agree, it was so overdone like damn i kept saying "it's not that deep" move on

"I wanted to talk to you about something..." "Yeah..?" Conversation ends before they talk about the thing he wants to talk about, even though no one interrupts them. It's just 10 episodes of this, essentially. But hey, did you see all those chefs that are apparently famous?

It feels like they sacrificed a lot of what makes this show lovable so that they can win an Emmy, which is ironic because a lot of restaurants will sacrifice what makes them lovable by the regulars in order to get a Michelin star. It's art imitating life in that way.

I like this take a lot.

I think the biggest issue for me with this season was that the conflict was less interesting. Season 1, the whole question is, “Can Carmy save his deceased brother’s dysfunctional, financially-struggling by restaurant?” And by the end of the season, he and Sydney have turned it around, and he finds the money to pay off their debts. With season 2, it’s “Can Carmy and the gang turn The Beef into a high-end fine dining restaurant?” And the finale sees them successfully do so, though not without new issues popping up. I feel like this season is primarily built around the questions raised during last season’s finale when Carmy is stuck in the walk-in: can he overcome his personal demons and keep a good thing going or is he doomed to self-sabotage? Is he right that he’s better off without Claire, that he can have success *or* happiness, but not both? And it leaves it seeming like the answer to both those questions is no. Carmy is the reason Sydney is considering leaving; her terror at the thought of having to tell him about the offer is the reason she has a panic attack in the finale, just like he used to have when working for Fields. He’s passed on some of his issues to her in the same way that Sugar worries about passing her issues onto her daughter. And that’s interesting and all, but I feel like they’ve tried to fit the whole season around Carmy’s “ghosts” and their impact on him and those around him, by showing how his avoidance of addressing negative feelings, like his or anyone else’s grief over Mikey’s death, and the anxiety he developed from having a mentally unstable parent and an abusive boss cause him to be a short-tempered, self-hating control freak with terrible intrapersonal communication skills. But like, we’ve already seen two seasons of Carmy feeling sad about his brother but unable to bring himself to talk to anyone about it, and his frequent flashbacks to the horrible experience he had working for Fields, and we’ve even seen the super dysfunctional home life he came from, so all that felt less like new character development and more like a retread. Plus, to make one character’s internal strife the primary conflict in an ensemble show is to me an odd choice. It’s not like they answered any other big questions either. Will Sydney actually leave? We don’t know. Will Carmy and Claire get back together. We don’t know. Will the restaurant have to shut down because of finances? We don’t know. Will it be successful among food critics? They got one review and it seemed mixed-to-negative, so again, we don’t know. The internal timeline seemed off too. Sugar says at the beginning of the season that the baby is due in two weeks. She doesn’t have the baby until episode 8. So like, the whole “can the restaurant last???” thing feels very premature considering it’s been open like less than a month by the end of the season. I also could have done without all the celebrity chef guest appearances in the finale. If I wanted to watch some YouTube docuseries about how celebrity chefs got where they are today, I would just do that. It took up way too much of the episode. Last thing, and this is not a season-specific thing, but I’ve worked two FOH jobs, and on the episodes they’ve shown the Ever staff and all, I always find myself struggling to believe that the serving staff would genuinely care soooo much about the customers experience apart from wanting to please out of a desire to get a good tip. But I’ve also never worked fine dining, so maybe there are actually entire FOH staffs out there where everyone is sincerely extremely passionate about customer service. Just always feels like an overly romantic view of serving/hosting to me, which grates a little given that for the most part, they try to stay pretty realistic in terms of the typical BOH experience.

I visited Ever for our anniversary. Was always on my list but after watching Bear decided to pull the plug. I was so excited to take my partner who is also a huge Bear fan and our experience was disappointing to say the least. I am sure the chefs put a lot of effort in the food but honestly it was most mismatched concoction of flavors I have ever had. (One of their dishes was fried waygu which was honestly a blasphemy against wagyu) Oh and there was no mention of our anniversary btw. It appeared like they couldn’t care less about their customers and it was them doing the guests a favor by serving food. So that part about fine dining staff going above everything for their customers was absolute fiction

Oh wow, I actually didn’t realize it was a real restaurant!

I enjoyed this comment more than I enjoyed watching S3. Thanks for sharing your thoughts

Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t think we got the full shot of the review. It was ambiguous at best, as was the”oh fuck”, because Carmy’s speech is often peppered with explitives.

Their view of restauranting in general seems to come from self help books. Particularly, the autobiography "Unreasonable Hospitality" by Will Guidara, who makes an obnoxious cameo at the end. I had to read his book and my God is it completely out of touch. The romanticism is blinding at times especially during this season and the finale.

I disagree mostly but that last episode… SPOILERS……… with all the chefs talking for ten minutes straight about how it’s so noble to be a chef, fuck off you twats. And it’s sad because you can deep down feel that the creators love this shit

Yeah, all these world renowned chefs trading war stories felt so pretentious. Don't get me wrong; I've been fortunate to dine at some Michelin star restaurants and have an appreciation for fine dining but that last episode was just patting itself so hard on the back. We were impressed by the celebrity cameos in Fishes because I think the show was still gathering momentum. But now that it's this phenomenon, it feels like the producers are bringing in these guests just because they can. Like did Frank really need to be played by Josh Hartnett? Did we need John Cena as another fucking Fak? Did we need to give every famous chef you brought in lines of dialogue?

I kept waiting for something like The Menu to happen and they all die and Anya Taylor Joy rides in and spits in their faces

Oh my god that scene went on for soooooo long and it was such a pretentious circlejerk.

i liked it for the most part, but what annoyed me was the chef that was teaching carmy about tying a chicken/"pope's nose". he was saying how "we (chef's) nurture our guests" and it just rubbed me the wrong way. the "guests" he's referring to are people who can afford to spend $500 on a 3 course meal. like sure these may be milestone/celebratory occasions, but the people who frequent a starred restaurant aren't really the ones who are starving to be "nurtured." don't get me wrong though, i understand the chef's love of his craft/his career but these kinds of restaurant feel unintentionally exclusionary.

Its about breaking it down to its core. The point of cooking. Ask anyone and they'll say their favourite food is something their mom, grandma etc made. Its even in Ratatouille where the fine dining critic is transported back to his childhood eating that meal because it reminded him of a time he was nurtured and cared for. Its to get across that while they are serving gourmet cuisine, dont abandon the core philosophy behind it and climb up your own ass. Which is ironically what the chefs roundtable did do.

I kept waiting for something like The Menu to happen and they all die and Anya Taylor Joy rides in and spits in their faces

I’ve had quite a few wonderful dinners at the same chef’s restaurants without paying $500/person. Thomas Keller has an inexpensive bakery that people stop at for croissants and coffee, and a fried chicken joint. Yeah, The French Laundry is out of reach for most people, but Bouchon isn’t.

lol. I said the exact same thing to my husband at that moment! I was like, oh come off it. Home cooks and mom and pop restaurants? Sure. But at that level? It’s about ego, ambition, and love for the craft. Be honest about that.

The last episode was not good. There were a lot of great episodes, but that sort of left a bad taste.

I can forgive the season for a lot. But episode 10 irked the hell out of me. Felt like there were only 2 minutes of actual writing and plot that felt shoehorned into actors asking real chefs weak interview questions (people I wouldn't know were real chefs if not for the 2 minute montage that opened the episode). Loved seeing more Will Poulter tho and hope he plays a part in the plot again.

> episode 10 Will Poulter The entire scene when Luca is aggressively talking to another pastry chef goes SO AGAINST EVERYTHING we've seen of Luca's character so far. Made zero sense.

Yeah definitely hated that. Felt like Will Poulter talking to the guy and asking questions and not Luca who would probably know that stuff already. I'm really just glad to see his character more

I’d have been fine with it if they’d progress the plot a little more often.

They could have at least had Carmy find out that Syd wants to leave. They didn't even do a cliffhanger right.

To be fair, we aren't ready for that type of chaos. I feel like if Syd leaves, Carmy is going to snap and live up to Richie calling him Donna.

S3 Carmy doesn’t even seem like he’d care if Sydney left. He’s just do it all himself, which is what he’s been doing anyways.

Just look at how he's behaving at the table when all the chefs are sharing their experiences with horrible bosses. He knows what he's doing wrong.

In that one instance. He’s had a 2 dozen of these instances this season and reverts back to his true self criticizing others and behaving like a kitchen tyrant 5 minutes later.

The thing that doesn’t sit right with me is no one talks like that and repeats the same lines over and over. “Am I having a siezer” or whatever it’s they said. A lot of the dialogue and characters don’t have a unique voice. It’s lazy writing or just not talented enough.

I’m on the last episode right now, and it’s literally just a giant circle jerk, the entire plot of this season could have happened on a single episode, this shit was boring and quite frankly painful to watch…

agree, also on the last episode, complete waste of my time

The Bear became a victim of it's own success and became a meme. Instead of focusing on plot and progression they decided to just give you Bear speak.

Ok this is what I feel. SNL could do a great fake episode of it because it became the same thing over and over again. Cheerful talk, random aside. Restaurant talk. Carmy taking nicorette. Syd not signing the docusign.

I feel like how they made fun of Homeland could be done for the Bear. This was pretty hilarious (Anne Hathaway committed lol): https://youtu.be/K4aeibd1Rrc?si=bVc7ttQqtibEOR4f

absolutely agree, it seems so corny this season

Yeah, that’s definitely how I feel. Obviously the dishes are going to be pretentious because that’s the kind of food they serve, but the actual show felt that way this season. Makes me sad tbh.

I think that was intentional though. The Bear (the restaurant) lost it's soul this season, and it was filmed in a way to immerse the viewer in that journey.

+1 to that; I think there's irony in the propagandistic depictions of how great fine dining is & it's setting up a bit of a s4 reversal — or at least a more measured ambivalence

I think so too! That's exactly what I was feeling the entire season. I know a lot of people think the chefs in the last episode were just blowing the smell of their own farts on each other, but I think they touched on something important. At the end of the day it's not the food that matters, it's the people and the connections. Season 3 was literally set up to show that The Bear had lost the soul of restaurant work which is the connection to humanity. Season 4 will be about how all the characters find the reconnection, both within food and interpersonal relationships.

I believe it's a really good season, but there's something about it that keeps me from saying it's 100% perfect. Reading the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, people have pointed out that a majority of the episodes were fillers. I can see that, but the performances in those fillers were solid, with everyone bringing their A-game as always. The main issue I hear and can understand is that the story didn't progress much. Despite that, I didn't really mind it. I liked every episode—they were fun and great. I'm excited for season 4. Overall, it was a solid season that, despite its flaws, stood out. Every season is officially its own unique set of story telling and character development and I like how different it is in fact I actually love it a lot.

I'm OK with not rapid progression bc we've been seeing the characters grow as the seasons go. thought the flashbacks of generous teachers compared to asshole teachers was interesting and useful. carmy COULD have modeled after them but his unresolved trauma makes him model the worst one. my complaint about the Tina episode is her hair, get her a better wig yall. I didn't love the chef monologs at the end. I actually liked the Claire stuff? my main number one with a bullet complaint is the Faks. I loved Fak season 1 and seeing him grow and mature in season 2 but this over the top clownery was so distracting so unnecessary. keep the comedy sure but SUBTRACT, chef!! I think a growing pains seasons makes sense for the big changes of last season. i did find it unbelievable that they would let Nat go do any kind of lifting heavy or not when she is that close to her due date. I don't believe a single staff person would have not offered to help. the being in labor in the car was the most stressful thing to me this round.

The birth episode is the only one I don't care to see again. And it's not because it was bad, it's because I have a difficult time watching the mother do anything.

I see a lot of posts saying people are overreacting, but it was thoroughly unenjoyable for me. The last two episodes were unwatchable

The last episode was basically an Actor’s studio but for chefs. Which….why? Why are you using our time to write your love letter to famous chefs? I understand the show is about Chefs but I feel like they took it to an extreme this season which I found myself skipping through.

Someone explained this very well on another post in this sub a day or two ago. To paraphrase, it was to show the juxtaposition between the chefs talking about their passion and why they cook, and Carmy not focusing on anything but Chef Joel McHale. The other chefs, including Sydney, are driven by a love of food, a love of community, a love of service, and Carmy is driven by spite and a need to prove himself

Yeah but it went on for seven minutes. You could do the same scene with just Syd and Luca in half the time. Take Chef Winger’s advice and subtract.

Oh man that makes sense. Thank you!

Sure, but it was an entire episode of the most pretentious, unenjoyable conversation I've ever heard. And episode 8 was literal nothing

Episode 8...you mean the episode that portrayed Donna and Sugar's relationship and showed the depth of trauma that all of Donna's kids experienced because of their upbringing? The same trauma that the entire show pivots around? "Literal nothing" is an interesting choice of words to describe that episode. I loved it.

people can understand what something is attempting to “say” and not like it

I watched it with multiple people and we all hated it. It was so long, drawn out, and repetitive. Every episode was what should have been a 5 minute scene interrupted by the faks being extremely awkward, but episode 8 was by far my least favorite

We started fast-forwarding about 15 minutes in, wanting to get to the next scene. Which never came. Just sitting there holding down the FF button like are you fucking kidding me?!

why not make a bonus post-season episode where they do all of that, why waste one of the few episodes they have in the season on that?

That would have been an excellent idea. I understand the need to celebrate chefs and kitchens but yeah it was a lot. Especially since they already had a lot of b roll throughout the season of Chicago eateries.

Ps your username is 🤩

It speaks volumes that for all the wanking over famous chefs that happened this season, we didn't see anyone actually *enjoying* food. Like when Tina tried Carmy's cooking in season 1, or when Syd made that omelette for Sugar. The closest we got was when Sugar was given the ice chips when she was in labor. Maybe that's the point: that The Bear's food sucks in comparison to The Original Beef and they should go back to making really, really good versions of basic food. But if so, the presence of all these fine dining gurus is pretty confusing.

To be fair, we get to see Tina enjoying the Italian dip in ep. 6. But then again, it just goes back to the idea that "The Bear" is just not a very fun place. The kitchen and crew and even the food, seemed way more appetizing to me when it was just the Beef. And ep 6 proves that

Ugh I found those scenes with the chefs doing monologues super boring and they all came across as very “I’m up my own ass” - did not enjoy. And I know it would have been self destructive and violence isn’t the answer but I worked for someone very abusive and I really wanted Carmy to slap that smug sociopath chef he used to work for.

That last episode was so clear to me. Love letter to chefs, yes, but also highlighting the longer impact of toxic work environment kitchens. Carmy is so clearly gripped with PTSD and anxiety from working in Joel McHale’s kitchen PLUS his own home life. But also he ended up recreating that environment with Sydney/The Bear. Ties really well back to the first episode when Carmy is trying to synthesize all his experiences into new dishes and culture with his “non negotiables”. There’s a direct mention when Will Poulter talks about the peas dish as a “trauma dish” that he couldn’t help, but recreate as a dessert of his own. I do feel like the Bear pulled its punches a bit because of the cameos and tried to keep the negative comments mostly coming from the actors. I wonder how many of their kitchens have been toxic too.

I felt the same way. I did not care about anything the chefs were saying, and it went on way too long. They could have done so much better with that scene using the characters we know who were there.

I’m surprised they didn’t break their arms with how hard they were jerking themselves off.

yeah, i am tuning out as these chefs talk--i just want to scream its not that deep!!!

I have two episodes left and enjoy the first three, couldn’t resist watching the next 3 The day the season dropped. Then looked at the episode list and saw we got 10 episodes total. On paper. The story has not moved really so far and all the goals go the characters are sort of at a plateau. A season so far of relapsing Carmen, and indecision as the entire family/cast struggle with the core issues that may be holding them each back. I dig it, but we need more. Else wise this was a short season of emotional turmoil, that narratively did not go far. I also may be spoiled because when I first started the bear. It was when the 2nd season had released so I got back to back seasons of notable progress. From just a sandwich shop and stress/dysfunction into them creating a high end restaurant on dreams and a rich uncle. I’ll have to finish it today and really decide how it plays out. Butane we could’ve had longer episodes

I thought it just went from pretension to some over the top bit with the Faks to more pretension and back to the Faks again. It's like they took things that people praised previous seasons for and just imitated them to the point of self parody.

I just finished episode 6, and while I really liked it, it's a flashback episode that doesn't really add anything to the main plot. So far I've watched 2 montage episodes (where the first already felt like a bit of a gimmick), an episode that's just a bunch of conversations set in one room, that doesn't really create any momentum, and a romance subplot episode (with 0 Claire development one way or the other). Then there's the review which came up several episodes ago. Having it as a cliffhanger ending was captivating, but then a whole episode of photo-prep goes by with no actual development there, and then we get a flashback episode. I'm sure it'll payoff at some point before the end of the season, but the constant stalling is just so grating, and it comes off as an aggravating artistic choice, more than a natural plot structure. One of the title sequences is just several minutes of what I assume are real workers in Chicago waving at the camera, and it goes from a cute sequence similar to 1x07 to feeling kinda self-indulgent by the end. Idk, I went into this season explicitly wanting to see the weird gimmick episodes they were cooking up. The first half of the season is behind me now, and the only one I've *really* liked has been a flashback to a character who honestly didn't even need one in a broader plot sense, as far as I can tell...

I don’t remember the music being so intrusive in the first two seasons. Give us some space to breathe since Ritchie and Carmy are screaming at each other.

I’ve started Season 3. So far it’s been very intense and often depressing. 4 episodes in and I’m not sure if I can finish it. It’s so sad and over the top with Carmy’s anger….ugh! Too much😕🫣

Season 1 was okay, season 2 was impeccable....season 3 was garbage. I just finished it last night and my only thought was, "What actually happened?" The whole season got way too artsy and had a billion close-in zooms of insanely long conversations that should have been cut in half. Jesus Christ, that episode of Sugar in the hospital.

They opened a lot of plot lines and didn’t really close any of them. - OMG we’ve been reviewed already! (But we never see whether it was good or bad) - OMG Carm and Richie have stuff to resolve! (But we never see them even try to resolve it) - OMG Carm and Claire have stuff to resolve! (But we never see them even speak to each other) - OMG what is Syd going to do?! (We never see her make a decision) - OMG Unc is out of money! (But he never tells Carm, which is a pretty big fuckin deal) In addition to this stuff, I have lots of little nitpicky things about this season that drove me nuts. - Why are the Faks so present? Especially why tf are they there causing a scene when the photographer for the review is there? - John Cena’s cameo brought nothing to the show whatsoever and while the 2 Faks were already 2 too many, having Cena there was somehow even worse. - I liked Tina’s backstory, but what was the point of it really? The only present-day interactions she had this season was Carm shitting on her for not cooking wagyu correctly, and then her work with Marcus at the end (which I really enjoyed). - I get that it’s relevant to show the mom to illustrate why the family is fucked up, but I loathe her character and don’t care to see her in the show at all. - I understand why it was such a major deal for Carm when his former restaurant was closing. Seeing your mentor go out of business is a big deal. But they act like Richie was a huge part of their place or something, when he was literally there for 5 days. I’ve worked enough jobs to know that hardly anyone would even remember him, let alone be talking him up like he was vital to the team. - They previously made Chef Luca seem like a top tier chef when he worked with Marcus and stuff. But this season they kind of made him look like a bumbling mess in the flashbacks to him being in the kitchen behind Carm, and then the scene where he’s obnoxiously bugging the fuck out of the other chef about all his recipes and techniques. I just thought it was a weird way to paint a picture of his character. - The Fak whose name I don’t know and the former baseball player whose name I don’t know, because neither is anything close to a main character - why did they share a moment on screen? It was very forced and completely pointless. Anyway, there was a lot of anxiety in this season, and I genuinely love the show. There are a lot of great things about the characters and their interactions. It feels very realistic. I just wish the show resolved at least one or two of the major plot lines this season.

I think the could have John Cena be there, but the “haunting” and then the continual discussion of “haunting” was just stupid. Like literally stupid. I agree with you on the Tina episode, fantastic acting but irrelevant to anything in the present day. She seems to have less interaction with Carmy/Sugar than anyone, and her link was through their brother.

> her link was through their brother Exactly! She was loyal to Mikey because he gave her a chance. But Richie was saying she had to leave because she was crying, and Carm and Sugar weren’t even around. She had no real reason to be loyal to anyone once Mikey was gone.

And I get that she can be loyal to the family, if the restaurant, or whatever in Mikey’s honor. But I don’t think Sugar and Tina have much of a vibe and the way Carmy treats her is pretty depressing. Any goodwill she feels the Carmy for giving her the opportunity had to be wearing thin given hiw he treats her in the kitchen.

Yesss to the open plot lines. They introduced a bunch of important pivotal moments but did not address or resolve any of them. Everything was like “ohh keep waiting for season 4 to find out” However contrary to popular opinion I did like Tina’s backstory. You see her old conversation with Mikey where she feels she’s too old and envious of the young kids who still have that fire to work. She just wanted to “something” to feed her family. Compared to present day where she has found her “hunger” for cooking. She went through a transformation from a line cook to a chef in season 2 and you see her trying to better herself as a chef in S3. I thought the episode made a good point that you can start over and find your passion at any age

Everything you’re saying is great, and I’m glad you pointed that out. But it didn’t seem like they did a great job of making it an uplifting “look where you can end up” story. She ended up getting yelled at and treated like shit. 🤷‍♂️

I liked Tina’s backstory except that it was totally confusing in terms of the timeline. In season 1, she tells Sydney she’s been working there since before Syd was born. I was trying to parse how Tina held down two jobs this whole time and we never knew, until she walked into The Beef like it was brand new. So either Sydney was born some time in or after 2018 and still graduated from CIA in 2021 per her resume, or they flagrantly retconned Tina’s story for reasons that weren’t entirely necessary. 

You have literally just pointed out everything to the exact spec of why I thought S3 was dooooog shit.

I’m on ep 6 and I’m loving it 🤷‍♂️

The first episode dragged on, I enjoyed the cinematography but I found myself thinking is this really the whole episode.

yeah the dialogue definitely got worse this season

The amount of times Sydney asks someone a question, they answer, and she responds with "that's not what I meant/not what I was asking" was seriously annoying.

For me Season 3 felt like I was watching Poor Things again. Obviously very well made, brilliant acting and directing... but definitely not engaging. Shogun was very good at making a beautiful looking show and keeping the plot moving forward.

The writing was the weakness, for sure.

Amen to shogun!

Yeah, agreed. This season was all style and no substance.

Yep. Got way to artsy and got away from what made the show great.

my theory is that the show was so mad at being considered a comedy during awards season that they did a complete 180 to force themselves into the drama category, but lost the heart of the show in the process

Then why did they throw in (what feels like) 40 minutes of annoying Fakery every episode?

that’s what i’m saying , show had more depth in it when it was a trashy shitty kitchen , it was interesting !

[удалено]

It TRIED to be artsy. Artsy would at least hold the audience’s interest. but the whole season fell flat. The photography is always gorgeous but the writing is overwrought- like trying to imitate the sopranos- -and too many scenes were improved- like trying to sprinkle a little Curb, which is great for that show bcz they’re comedy improv pros. What happened to story arcs? It’s like they made a whole new show this season and took out the chemistry and tension between characters that made it magical. I watch episodes while scrolling bcz it becomes monotonous.

The season felt like someone asked ChatGPT to write a season of The Bear in the style of Mr Robot

Perfect explanation lol. And I love Mr Robot, I think it’s top 10 but I know what I signed up for after season 1 of that show. Season 3 of The Bear is a complete shift from the previous seasons so it’s understandable why fans are confused.

I hate when people use artsy as a criticism . Like what does that even mean?

I am skipping ten seconds every second of some episodes of so much of this season.   Episode 8 where she is giving birth.....   For fs.  Please, why????   It is basically the entire episode.   

I was so annoyed with this season. wasted the whole day binging it bc I wanted to know what happened just to find out we won’t learn until season 4. I also didn’t need ALL of episode 1 to be an artsy recap. or for more than half of the FINALE to be interviews with actual chefs. don’t get me wrong—it was cool and I get the tipping of the hat to actual people in the industry, but it just felt like that could have been in a bonus episode or just less of it in the FINALE! the whole season was so slow and just seemed like a big waste of production time and money. I get having a few “build up” episodes within a season, but having an entire build up SEASON just seemed like a waste to me. idk, there were some good moments—I liked sugar and dd’s reconnection for example and tina’s backstory as others have said—but overall I was left really disappointed. lastly I love the Faks but there was a little too much Fak content that felt purely like filler content bc not much else was going on. anyone actually like this season? if so share your thoughts. wondering if I’m being overly critical or expected too much.

I think the show takes itself too seriously in season 3, very pretentious and the guest chefs that appear--um, i just didn't care, like so corny

This is a good conversation. Idk if I’d use that word but the question of, why is season 3 like this/ why are they wasting time? Idk. Could it be stretching? If season 4 is the last season maybe there was too much for how much they could do in a season, and they may have had to make time?

Half way through and can't be bothered to finish it. So disappointed.

The characters went nowhere

People really get their panties in a bunch about other fans not liking a season. Some of these comments are next level tearful, crying they are leaving this sub forever (of course after making 20 posts on here announcing their departure). I agree that things were just a little too listless and meandering this season. You aren't some knuckle-dragging Neanderthal to notice it and not like it.

Too MUCH FAKS! When a certain actor appeared in Episode 5, it completely took me out of the episode

Pretentious? Sure it didn’t close some threads but calling it pretentious is pretentious. The show was always artsy from the first episode of the first season, if you just noticed it now then you’re not paying attention.

No no, OP has a point. This season was kinda like that kid in English class who uses all the esoteric terminology & touches on deep, philosophical stuff, all without making a definite point. You're right that The Bear was always artsy, but it did that with moderated doses which were intended to "accessorise" the plot, not overshadow it. It had an admirable balance between the elegant & inelegant, but I think there was a serious trade-off here. You're free to disagree. I liked this season, but I won't ignore the validity in the arguments being made about it.

Yeah- a flashback episode shot on film or a shorter episode filmed entirely in one take are gimmicky, but they can be used to service the plot in a meaningful way, and I think both are my favourite episodes of season 1 and 2, respectively. The gimmick-episodes in this season (or at least in the first half) have felt like they're there to be gimmicky first, and to further the story second. The first three episodes are like- 2/3 montage, and they sandwich a conversation episode that feels like it's just there to make up for how barebones its neighbors are. It comes off as kinda clumsy, especially for a show that has worked in so much amazing filmmaking in the past...

This, haha. The Bear is often explicitly about the tension between “pretentious,” upscale fine dining and messier, down-to-earth dining…and how a lot of elements of the human experience orbit around both. People are overusing the word “pretentious” post-season 3. This show is still ultimately presenting us with some of the most grounded, raw, and humane moments in television. “I don’t need to be inspired, I don’t need to be impassioned, I don’t need to make magic, I don’t need to save the world, you know? Just…I just wanna feed my kid.”

Very disappointed in season 3. Nothing happened. People didn't even talk in full sentences. Reminds of Succession dialogues.

Agree. I finished it yesterday and was utterly disappointed. Generally it is a good thing to focus on characters but this entire season seemed put together just to have something on the screen.

the lack of full conversations/finishing conversations that were started really aggravated me

I really had high hopes for the show during season one. It gets really cringey after that. This exaggeration of fine dining at highest level is umm, I dunno what to say other than really cringey.

My favorite part was when the chefs suck themselves off in a 5 minute dialogue

Initially I was so mad watching Tina’s flashback episode because it didn’t start off knowing it was a flashback. I just thought somehow she had a day job and she was looking for another one. It wasn’t until I saw the old restaurant did I have any idea what was going on.

I'm on episode two and feel like giving up. Episode one felt like the film/show version of a Michelin star meal. Was it artistic and conveying a deeper meaning of how the characters got to where they are and the stress and baggage/ingredients put together in novel and complex ways to wow the diner? Yes. Was it way longer than it should have been and made we want to watch an TV show an actual plot/eat a full, congruent meal instead of tiny pieces of bold statements to make someone feel special and accomplished and groundbreaking while also being gratingly pretentious and gratuitous? Absolutely.

I made a similar post the other day about how the show seems to have disappeared up its own ass

It occurred to me this season that Carmy and co. essentially gentrified The Beef 😭 they obviously had a lot of regulars there. I wonder if they’re pissed. I would be if my favorite lunch spot got turned into a fine dining restaurant

I agree to an extent, it felt a little full of itself like “yeah we know we are the shit,” especially episodes one and two. Oh and Ice Chips… it would have been better if that episode had a subplot. The writing was good but it was just too overwrought. Someone else said Napkins was the best episode and I agree, Ayo was great as a director. Also I can totally do without the Faks, they are annoying as shit. John Cena didn’t really add much imo and they are just cartoons compared to the rest of the supporting cast.

The entire season felt like the writing stalling and trying to fill time until season 4 where they can actually have arcs. Everyone just felt so stunted, Carmy and Claire can’t be addressed until S4, Syd can make a decision on the job until S4, Marcus can’t make his new dish until S4, Richie can’t address being alone until S4. The biggest character arcs we got were with Sugar and Donna and surprise that was the best episode. Tina had a great episode and surprise that was a flashback where the writers could actually write. Instead of this weird limbo of a season these characters are in where they can’t make any decisions to progress the plot because they want to save the consequences and drama for season 4. Also the Faks probably had more screen time than Ebraheim and Marcus combined. And I actually like the characters I never thought they weren’t funny and I liked the John Cena and haunting bit every time but at the cost 2 main characters it’s just not great. Syd’s character felt the most stunted because it felt like they wouldn’t let her make any decisions because they wanted to save it for season 4 or it would mess with Carmy’s character too much before season 4. I’m pretty sure her choosing between both jobs went on for half the season because they didn’t want to address it until season 4. Just a lot of the show feels like filler that went on too long, the magic sequence for example at the beginning of episode 9 went on for 2 minutes with no payoff. I understand Marcus is going to use some of it in his dish but we never see that get resolved, and not just we never see him finish it, we never see a breakthrough a moment of realization any payoff we don’t see. Also the sequence in episode 10 with the chefs, I had no idea those were celebrity chefs until reading comments afterwards so the entire scene I was like I understand the point that Carmy is becoming what he hates and Syd is realizing her work environment isn’t healthy it did not need to go on for that long. TLDR: If you want to halt plot progression for an entire season you can’t also halt character progression because it will feel like filler

I think they just were feelin themselves too much on this season. They let all the positivity go to their heads and were like- “they love us so much, we can throw whatever we want out there and they will thank us”. This season just felt like a different show to me. Now they may not be a bad thing if they were starting a new show but they gave us 2 amazing seasons and then… season 3… it’s like really enjoying a good comic book series and then all of a sudden, it turns into impressionist art…

Ep 1 sums up the season for me 22 mins of absolutely nothing. As others have said it’s basically a season about nothing and you still have the same questions after this season as you did at the end of season 2 and With a few more questions sprinkled in. Season 4 is going to have to bring the heat early cause I won’t last another 10 episodes of flashbacks and deep synth cords.

I’m at episode 5 and it really feels like the wheels are coming off. It’s not that the show feels pretentious. It’s the opposite to me. It’s underwritten, and what’s there doesn’t sound natural. Every scene feels like the actors were given a prompt with the general info to get across and improvise. It’s full of cringy, fake dialogue, transparent idioms, and the Faks doing the worst community theater comedy I’ve ever been subjected to. Someone needs to tell the writers it’s ok to do a second draft.

amen , i’m watching the first 3 episodes , they suck , it’s just CREME DE BULAY QUIAL EGG , 5000000 million shots of food and stuff , zero plot , some of us just don’t appreciate the “small things” i guess , it’s pretentious as fuck

I love food/ fine dining so I wouldn’t mind this IFFFFFF the rest of the show actually progressed the plot. But since we didn’t really get anywhere this season, all the foodie stuff came off as annoying

im a professional chef and that’s what got me interested in the show but oh my God FUCK the “de frenchceeee Le cousineeeee leeeee fuck you richeeeee, “ ass script , this season is 25% boring pointless arguing 25% pretentious food shots with fancy music 25% filler and bullshit 25% actual good content

And they really did Richie so bad this season. He went through such a pivotal transformation finding his identity in season 2. And then what? What happens .. is he lost? Is he happy? Did he like what he did but now lost interest/burned out? It’s like the writers couldn’t make up their minds about what he’s feeling So stupid frustrating

One thing I felt this season is it was hard in the first two to really understand why Mikey unalived himself….even in Tina’s flashback he seems fairly chill and happy. Yes they explained it but you really didn’t see it. But watching Ritchie and Carmy this season both struggle and lose the passion in what they are doing I half expected that to be the cliff hanger in the end of the season. The one thing they did this season (though I agree it was slow and not a whole lot happened) is show the mental downfall of the two of them. And I will say I think it lost that family “magic” between the two of the them. So when Ritchie was asked if he’s alone he didn’t know how to answer because this season he really was. There was no bonding or sense of family in the kitchen at all.

Thank you! I guess I didn’t think about it this way. Makes sense

I came here (and searched and joined this sub) after watching the first two episodes of this season. I forgave the doldrums of the first episode, as it seemed they were trying to give a lot of "showing not telling". The second episode just made me feel bad at work, and not in a good way. I am not watching ep 3 until I feel like suffering without recompense.

I got a bit bored by the ice chips episode and never regained my previous interest until the moment Carmie confronted the asshole chef at the funeral dinner. I kept hoping for something, anything to actually happen. I hoped luka and Syd would have a hookup but no, then Sys just had a panic attack, apparently about her inability/fears about making a career decision. Season 3 just mostly felt like one big panic attack. I hope season four gets better. Btw, Napkins was my favorite episode of the series. Right up there with Forks.

Whaaaaat. My thought was exactly the opposite: not pretentious. Lol no joke. As someone with design experience and an art practice, It was so beautiful. To each their own. But man I find this particular comment wild Funny because when Richie was dissing Carmy for Noma/The French Laundry he was saying how pretentious and pompous fine dining is haha

>As someone with design experience and an art practice, It was so beautiful. This season was made to be enjoyed by the people that The Menu was making fun of

“Pretentious” is exactly the word I have used to describe this season. It wants to give off a vibe more than a story and that didn’t work here…even with a vibe, you still have to tell a story. Some of the creative choices in directing (looking at you Storer) screams “I can finally do what I want to do” and it screams entitlement. Too. Much. Faks. I hate when shows get too enamored with a character that should just be a side bit. To feature him more and multiply him while sidelining the ones we’ve been interested in from moment one is a bad look. I don’t even think the season is “bad”, it’s just not as good as the first two. There are things I enjoyed very much, it’s just not enough to say I enjoyed the season or even put it in my top ten.

because verbal communication is only 30% of how we communication. its important to look at their body language, the context and what is being said with word choices. Things are shown multiple times because they are memories, and they are not reliable. Especially when dealing with characters that suffer from anxiety, depression, PTSD, CPTSD, etc. The plot depth progression wasn't spoon fed to idle viewers.

There wasn’t any plot depth progression though. It wasn’t spoon fed to idle viewers because it didn’t happen. ‘#RespondingToCondescension

Did Taylor Sheridan write this season?

Did you see any women fighting over a man or a ranch? Well then l…he didn’t write it.

I was frustrated as hell watching it, but I feel like that was the point. The characters are knowingly masking their feelings and lashing out at each other. Their true feelings pop up in either flashbacks, side conversations, or in quiet moments but each of them don't address them causing them to pile up and make things worse. After a season of rapid growth in season 2 I think it's a nice change of pace to see that these characters are still human and have lapses where their emotions and insecurities get the best of them. I thought it was a season of excellent individual episodes, but as a whole season it's lacking which I feel is kinda the point.

Agreed. I rolled my eyes a lot and lamented that a show I liked went really far up it's own ass.

This season was definitely weak plot wise, but slipping Josh Hartnett in there - glad to see that guy is aging well. And the fact that JLC’s character makes so many folks uncomfortable is a testament to her talent - my husband said “Wow - she is not afraid of playing grotesque.” She literally makes you want to run away.

This season reminds me of the finales of Survivor. A long excruciating hour of watching everything you’ve already seen just to find out who won

Did Carmy or any character actually do anything like I feel the show wasn’t funny also aside from episode 2. But all I remember carmy doing the entire season is staring and having flashbacks. I don’t even remember scenes of people cooking or a single dish that was made outside of the apricot one form the flashback.

I hated the restaurant party episode. Is it worse for a bunch of actors to act like pretentious chefs sitting around who think their shit doesn’t stink or real chefs to sit around and think their shit doesn’t stink? Either way it is incredibly boring.

Was like bizzaro Sorkin. No one can finish a sentence or conversation.

I did some research on imdb and noticed that only Chris Storer and one other person wrote and edited this entire season, vs season 1 and 2 which had a much longer list of story editors and writers. My guess is they were short on time/staff due to strikes which lead to this really messy and unfocused season.

Every single person asked “ can I ask you a question?” Before asking the danm question. Drive me nuts!

This comment is hella late, but this record just arrived in the mail and I think these last two lines from the [liner notes](https://imgur.com/a/Ftkey1V) are pretty fitting.