Note: This review contains spoilers of season 4 of “The Bear”.
Let’s start by answering the most important question: yes, season 4 “The Bear” is better than season 3.
Once the dramatic of the FX restaurant goes from the indulgent coast which has returned season 3 so little, it finds certain moments which feel like the best of the seasons 1 and 2. It is as confident and singular in its artistic vision as never. But even if more occurs than in season 3, it is not enough to give a shape to the show. His overestimation on the character and the atmosphere to the detriment of the narrative momentum makes him repetitive and flabby. As the Chicago Tribune Mixed Restoration Review says, it lacks bear necessities – namely, a sufficiently convincing plot.
Season 4 resumes following this review. The problematic press will make success even more difficult for Carmen Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) and his team of chiefs of Ragtag in a very professional manner. Jimmy “Uncle Cicero” Kalinowski (Oliver Platt), the main investor of the restaurant, gives them two months of financial track, but after that, they are alone. If Carmy wants his business – and his life – is durable, he will have to find a way to make him less chaotic. This is where the season begins and roughly where it ends too.
Stylistically, “The Bear” is different from any other television program, and four seasons, you know if what it is for is for you. Each ingredient is specific to the show – wall music on wall, the unique use of assembly, stylized chaos in the way the characters shout on each other, etc. – And the show is totally attached to each of them. Everything that happens could only happen on “Bear”. The artistic integrity of the creator Christopher Storer & Co. is admirable. Unlike their characters, they are not afraid to make daring choices.
The paralysis of Carmy’s decision and under chief Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri) – by apologizing to his ex -girlfriend Claire (Molly Gordon) and if we must leave the bear for a new, less crazy job, respectively – are what made season 3 so narrative stagnant. Although they avoid taking the necessary measures, the intrigue could not go ahead. Season 4 finally moves, finally, but it takes its time. The first two episodes remain in stuck mode, because the bear staff makes small adjustments that are not enough to make the big changes they need. The show is not subtle; Carmy watches “Groundhog Day” on television to lead the point of being stuck at home. Very few consequences occur, and the episodes end with almost identical kitchen montages. If you don’t like season 3, you will be tempted for 86 “Bear” for good at this stage. But once Carmy goes to Claire’s apartment to apologize at the end of episode 3, the program finally moves – and improves just enough to make you want it more.
The characters barely change, but they talk about how much they want to change to the point of exhaustion. Syd takes all season to make a decision – it’s 20 episodes of respect – but in his fourth autonomous episode (and star), written by Edebiri and the pastry chief Marcus, the actor Lionel Boyce and directed by Janicza Bravo, she plays at least an active role in her process. After a visit to the space of the new restaurant with chef Adam (Adam Shapiro), which means well but is not Carmy, Syd goes to the house of his cousin Chantel (Danielle Deadwyler) for a hair appointment and ends up spending the afternoon hanging out with the age girl of Chantel (Arion King). While Syd gives advice to always how to manage a complicated friendship situation, she has a clearer perspective on her own dilemma. Meanwhile, Deadwyler takes the best side of a rare comic role. The way she is amazed in rabid silence when TJ gets clogged towards her will have you checked if your TV is frozen.
Deadwyler is one of the many notable invited appearances, a “Bear” brand. The actress Kate Berlant has an impressive cameo with a scene as a woman from the meeting of Al-Anon de Carmy who tells a story about her brother Toxicomane. It is not as intense as the legendary monologue of season 1 of Carmy, but it has a better punchline. And a wedding episode serves as a way to bring back many guest stars, including most of the extended family of season 2, as well as a new notable face. No spoilers for this particular surprise guest if you have not yet watched the season, but an appearance of an Oscars winner as a character referenced for a long time but previously invisible will make you googler if she is from Chicago (she is not).
Cameos have become uncontrollable in season 3, but they come back to a more manageable level here. Sammy Fak by John Cena, the Nadir of the Sur-Indulgence of the show with the guests of celebrities, is fortunately absent.
The best moment of the season – the kind of scene that you tolerate the “bear” faults to be reached – implies one of the guest stars. Bob Odenkirk returns as a mother distant from Carmy, the mother Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis), the boyfriend Lee, and he and Carmy have a nuanced conversation on Carmy’s late brother, Mikey (Jon Bernthal), who helps understand how people can change. “Sometimes to break the models, you have to break the models, man,” says Lee, which could be the thesis statement in Carmy’s story this season. The underestimated dialogue of executive producer Joanna Calo gives White and Odenkirk the possibility of digging in the subtext. It is a masterful scene that allows two formidable actors to present their talents. And even if he does not directly make the plot, he serves a clear narrative objective by allowing Carmy’s mind to change.
In normal shows, most of the scenes serve this kind of goal, with a handful of non -narrative scenes strewn for flavor. “The Bear” opposite this, with mainly non -narrative scenes, and a handful of intrigue scenes by episode. For each scene like Carmy and Lee, there is a scene where the characters repeat the same sentence again and again in a way that is supposed to be funny, followed by a scene that is too long and boring where the characters speak repetitively and inadious about their feelings. The worst offender is that of episode 2 where Carmy and his sister Natalie (Abby Elliot) only say serious platitudes towards each other while a whole song of Bob Dylan plays. These episodes are quite short, but they are not tight. If the things that would be considered filling on a more traditional program were reduced – which should not and should not occur, to be clear – the episodes would last approximately 10 minutes.
In the end, “the bear” must be “the bear”. The show has always put the character and the atmosphere before the plot. It is not an intrinsically bad thing, and it makes “the bear” what it is. Sometimes this results in very narrative viby scenes like Carmy visiting the Frank Lloyd Wright museum. However, there is a dissonance in the precision of “the bear” with its dynamic of character and its aesthetic details, but how indifferent it is to trace. The characters are on a slow emotional movement, and most of the scenes serve these stories, rather than the global question of “Will the restaurant remain open?” ” And things that happen in a cause and effect sense do not seem to have much importance. The first introduces a literal ICT clock which means that the restaurant will lack money and will have to close when the countdown will reach the end. But then all the season, the program continues to minimize the importance of the clock until the Natalia Manager and Accounty Computer (Brian Koppelman) realize that they really work enough to continue. The clock is still exhausted, but after “the bear”, there is no gain. It is a violation of the narrative rules commonly accepted and effective without a clear goal to do so.
It is simply unusual for a show as well made as “the bear” to stop if one of the essential components of television. It is the most daring choice of the most daring “bear”, and it is the least successful. But hey, at least this season has a plot.
Season 4 of “The Bear” is now streaming on Hulu.
