Needs more Cousin; The Bear (Season 3)

Spoilers will be avoided as much as possible since this is a show that must be watched, as long as you’re interested. For those who don’t know, The Bear follows Carmen (Carmy), who is a well versed chef that comes back home to run his deceased brothers sandwich shop. Carmen is played by Jeremy Allen White, popular from Shameless, a show also based in Chicago—at least the American version. If you like him in The Bear, do give Shameless a try as I enjoyed that show as well.

I do believe the first two episodes of The Bear for season 3 should be watched back to back. Episode one feels like a recap, because it is a recap of Carmen’s life—giving the audience a reminder of why he is pushing himself to this extent. Why I believe episode two is a must for back to back viewing, is because it feels like the first actual episode of the season. While episode one is very character focused, episode two brings it back with the full cast. On the plus side, the opening for episode two plays a homage to service workers of Chicago, reminding the audience that Chicago itself is a character.

Compared to the previous two seasons, overall this one is lacking. Doesn't mean it’s bad, but it does not live up to the hype. This season feels very lore heavy; I enjoyed the deep dive into character’s psyche, but the main objective should also have been pushed forward. Honestly, this feels like the calm before the storm. If season four does not go hard from the get go, then this season should not have existed.

I like how the show has a real life chef in the main cast, but he plays as the maintenance guy. They even have a ton of cameos of real life chefs which is a delight to see. The characters mesh well, we want to see them bounce off of each other. Characters other than Carmen get episode spotlights or character growth and that's good!

As someone who enjoys slice of life, this season was still fun, but you can’t have the majority of the episodes be about lore while the minority of it be plot. There’s even plotlines that don’t get resolved that should have been. As a standalone season, it falls short.

The previous seasons were amazing, but now, it's just good. There's nothing wrong with good, but there's also nothing memorable about it.

Score - 7 out of 10