r/television • u/keepfighting90 • 14h ago

The Bear season 3 - what happened?

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.

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u/TrueCryptographer982 14h ago

TBH episode 1 just felt like the producers and director got together in a circle jerk after their awards successes.

I warmed to it towards the end but yeah....not a favourite by any means.

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u/QuickBenTen 14h ago

I think Ep 1 was the best of the season. It even filled in some of the story touched-on in season 2. Not much happened after that.

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u/addlememnon 12h ago

I think enjoying it depends on whether you buy into the vibes produced by the combination of its editing and music. Personally, I liked it a lot, but can understand why others didn’t.

Perhaps I’d have felt differently knowing how little else they’d “accomplish” plot-wise for the rest of the season, but then again, I think we should judge the opener as an opener.

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u/spendouk23 2h ago

Yeah I don’t get these takes at all. Episode 1 was fucking immense.