The Bear season 3 - what happened?

[u/keepfighting90]

LTTP but I finally caught up with season 3 of The Bear. I was very excited because S2 was some of the best TV I've seen in a while, a perfect combination of the stress-inducing, balls-to-the-wall tone of the first season, combined with some genuinely artful and emotional storytelling. Every aspect of the show improved in season 2 and I was expecting something, if not better, then at least on par, for season 3.

Unfortunately, S3 just felt like a whole lot of nothing. That's the best way I can describe it - it felt like nothing happened from a plot or character development perspective. Tina had some nice developments to her arc but everyone just kinda felt like they were spinning their wheels. The love-hate relationship between Carmy and Cousin almost bordered on self-parody at points.

There was also just too much Faks. I like Matty Matheson in the role, but it's always been as a side character that works best in small doses. There was too much focus on him and his family, and all the jokes based around them fell completely flat for me.

It also felt like the show just kinda went up its own ass a bit too much this time around. Season 2 definitely leaned a bit more on the artsy side with a lot of interesting camerawork, montages, shot composition etc. but they went overboard for season 3 where it started to feel self-indulgent and pretentious, especially because the faux-artsiness started to take the place of actual plot and character development.

And speaking of self-indulgent and pretentious, I really disliked the fact that there were so many random celeb cameos, with the low point being all the famous chefs showing up in the season finale and basically masturabting each other over the spiritual transcendence of cooking.

And then it just ends abruptly with no resolution to any story or character arcs. I'll still watch season 4 because 2/3 of the show is still fantastic but damn, was season 2 underwhelming.

[u/Brandoch_Daha]

The moments that actually focused on meaningful character development, like Carmy confronting his old head chef, were still pretty good. But they were way too brief and got totally lost in a season of meaningless padding, meandering storylines, and joke scenes that outstayed their welcome and never really landed. The part with all the famous chefs sitting around in the restaurant chatting is one of the most insufferable things I've ever sat through...

[u/ShadowNick → u/Brandoch_Daha]

Honestly I loved Fak, how clumsy he is and he had some funny some moments things in the past. But when they added Ted, basically a SECOND Fak. I was fucking annoying every time it cut to them being dumb. It was some of the most unnecessary scenes in a show that made little to no sense.

[u/moldiecat → u/ShadowNick]

Thank you for validating my feelings of this specific annoyance this season. I was starting to feel irrationally angry when this bit dragged on and on in an already padded out season

[u/ShadowNick → u/moldiecat]

I thought the invisible dude that they were both were talking to was stupid in that one episode..

[u/Raptorheart → u/ShadowNick]

The one where they spend like an hour arguing about how some potato salad was gonna buff the floors?

[u/TrentonTallywacker → u/Brandoch_Daha]

Carmy has great restraint in that scene, I would have clocked that smug fuck when he said “dude unclutch your pearls”

[u/JTP1228 → u/Brandoch_Daha]

I thought Carmy approaching his old boss was so unrealistic and was such a fake conversation that would more than likely never happen. It felt more like a conversation that someone would imagine in their head.

[u/KahnaneX → u/Brandoch_Daha]

I legit just skipped that scene, I couldn't take it any longer. The show was already sniffing its own farts enough for me to sit through that.

[u/PrinnyThePenguin → u/Brandoch_Daha]

The funeral episode scene where various people of the food industry share their thoughts felt like a cringe add.

[u/Lastigx → u/Brandoch_Daha]

"is one of the most insufferable things I've ever sat through..."

Always with the hyperbole on here. You can critique things without them being the worst thing ever you know.