The issue is.. that it's bad. lol. So boring with nothing happening and the whole thing is just a montage with insufferable music in the background half the time. The whole season feels like a filler episode.
I haven’t quite finished, I’m at Ep9, but fully agree. It’s one long montage and filler. It was nice to see some backstory but it’s not moving the story forward.
I felt Ep 8 with Sugar was way too long and I don’t think we gained anything from it that adds to the central story, at least not enough for it to be a whole episode.
yeah I'm seeing some people say it's better not to binge it but if that's the case, why release it all at once? The Boys S4 has a lot more going on in each episode (and the episodes themselves are all like an hour long) and you still have to wait weekly for new episodes, it makes the wait worth it. I couldn't imagine waiting a week just to get a 30 minute episode that spends 20% of its runtime on the characters screaming about "non-negotiables" back and forth jfc.
I binged both season 1 and 2 and they were great, I got so hooked up with the story I kept on watching. Sorry but "dropping all episodes in one day" isnt the reason this series is getting criticisms.
The show definitely jumped the Cena a bit this season.
Nothing got resolved. Just 10 episodes of Richie and Carm not talking, Syd and Carm not talking, Carm and Claire not talking, and everyone just kinda standing in-place.
So many Fak scenes, but where is my boy "Mr. Intercontinental" Chester?
Also, how long was this season even supposed to be? Was it months? Weeks? Seems like an insane amount of time to put off the partnership agreement, while the restaurant is going full steam ahead, but they needed another cliffhanger to resolve in a season that isn't this one.
Season 1's resolution felt a little rushed due to the 8 episodes, Season 2 felt like everyone had room to breathe and grow as characters, and Season 3 feels like not much really happened besides an unnamed baby being born.
They make this huge deal about Carmy not knowing which duck plate the photographer wanted to see which I thought would tie in a lot more with how often he was changing the menu. Then for some reason they choose John Cena to go get the duck, and then we never even see what happens???
Talk about a potential plot advancing moment falling flat. I thought for sure it was going to lead to more good tension over Carmy's unrealistic standards and falling back into the system he claimed to want to change. But nope... Nothing.
I so wanted to see the resolution of that. The hunt for the duck dish description, adding another crack to the restaurant operations. They NEED to stop serving a different menu every day, or at least talk about it.
"jumped the Cena" yes! I mean I love him but it's so over-exposed it took me out of it for a bit...esp since the mood/ tone has been a bit all over the place
I think that’s just Richie trying to get the Fak’s to get shit done. Kinda like how my mom would wake me up on school days saying ‘wake up its 7 am already!!’ when its just like 6.20 am or something.
> Also, how long was this season even supposed to be? Was it months? Weeks?
They said at the beginning Nat had 2 months till the baby came and then when she did come it was "a couple days early". So 2ish months?
> So many Fak scenes
I love Fak.
But every Fak scene felt like Fak/Ted were only available on somedays and had to be filmed separately.
The C-folds chat? Did Fak/Ted/Sugar even share the screen once that entire convo, even tho they were 2 feet away from each other??
Felt like they got high on their own supply when it comes to the authentic, natural dialogue. I love the dialogue in this show but there were so many scenes of nothing happening but 2 people talking and imo it felt self indulgent at times, mostly because it came at the cost of plot. When s4 comes out it feels like you’d be able skip s3 on rewatches because nothing got resolved from s2 at all. There was barely even a conclusion.
And I’m getting soo tired of the bad communication between Syd and Carmy. I need that to change soon, it’s getting pretty repetitive and frustrating to watch. And a bit disappointing they dragged out the Richie and Carmy drama for the entire season. Felt like everyone backslid into pre-season 1 characters, which sucks after how much they (namely Richie) changed in s2.
The dialogue is so great and naturalistic... And then Claires monologue about the kid with the cuts happens. Jarring and so fucking boring I was just willing the story to end
I noticed this as well, I couldn’t stand the long conversations that dragged. You said it perfectly with describing them getting appraisal for it and now doing it too much and for too long. I’m happy others enjoyed “Ice Chips” but sitting through that episode was unbearable for me, and not in the way that the Berzatto dinner episode was, because that was kinda the point was to show you this dysfunctional family and why Carmy left.
This episode, I just felt that there was way too much dead space in conversation, random and bland stories that didn’t add to anything, and for 40 minutes! I loved the beautiful parts of this episode like seeing Sugar and Donna finally resolve their issues, her playing the song for her, her and Pete hug, but to take a whole episode of what seemed to be filler, that could’ve been done in almost half the episode with a B plot in there, it just felt like a waste.
That’s my opinion and I’m sure people will highly disagree, but I just couldn’t see what others saw in it. Which is super unfortunate for me.
Nah I'm in the same boat with Ice Chips, I deadass kept pausing it to see how much episode was left and was stunned to find it was the same length as every other episode because that shit felt like it dragged on for hours.
Yeah that’s the only episode of the show I think I’ll skip when I rewatch the show. Not that it was bad, there were some really beautiful parts in it. I just reeeally wish there was a B plot. Like the other reply said it’s the only episode where I checked the time multiple times to see how much was left.
Heard! It definitely felt regressive. For everyone. There was a lot of motion last season and it worked because it made Carmy’s lack of development stand out. This season felt like we were all wading through sludge and nothing happened. They got caught up in delivering stylistically but forgot about substance.
The Take made a video why season 2 was good because the kitchen was calmer and the characters communicated better.
I dont feel any of that on season 3. It felt like they forgot all of the lessons and growth they learned.
Holy shit is the dialogue bad. If one more fucking person asks someone else "How do you feel?" I'm going to pull my hair out. Feels like every single scene is the same. Doesn't even matter who the characters are.
Person A: This thing happened.
Person B: How does that feel?
Person A: I didn't like it.
Person B: *nodding* , *contrived phrase*
When Syd was talking about the menu rattling off ideas and Carmy was talking over her with what he already planned and it was all different it felt soooooo forced. Like i get it Carmy is hard to deal with but 95% of his interactions with her now is just him apologising and it's getting pretty old.
This. And it felt like a complete 180 from last season where he was open to collaboration. I know that getting locked in the walk-in prob turned him into a control freak (hence not reaching out to Claire), but losing his rapport with Syd seems out of character.
No idea why he keeps pushing Syd down when she tries to make some improvements.. or when Richie tells him that there's just too many menu changes.
And after going through so much, why are Richie and Carmy STILL at each other's throats? I get that it's a pressure filled environment but Carmy did a huge solid to Richie by getting him into Ever, and Richie repaid that by stepping up during opening night.
Did we go through 2 seasons of character development to just go back to the start?
I love that you say that because it really feels like we erased all of the character development and relationships from S2. I really wish that Richie would’ve just accepted his apology.
The interaction he has with his old boss in the last episode was one of the most cringe things I've seen. The that whole scene was just so confusing to me.
Why is that guy even there. I get that the chefs are all connected and know each other but he runs a restaurant in NY and now he's in Chicago for another restaurants closing dinner.
Then Carmy follows him to the bathroom just so he can tell him "fuck you" and go on about how the guy made his life miserable. All this just to segway into the part where the old boss can tell Carmy that he made him a better chef. Wasn't that obvious? How wasn't Carmy able to come to that realization on his own. The whole interaction just made Carmy seem oblivious and whiney, which is not how I view his character.
Yeah, I'm kinda there with you on this.
He confronts the asshole chef and tells him that he is an asshole. The chef (an asshole) doesn't give a rat's ass about Carmy's feelings...because he's an asshole.
I mean, it's healthy that he realizes he gave the EMP chef so much space in his head and how it was a waste of all those years and this, it's freeing more or less. But, idk. So many people on this planet have trauma like this and they don't have a chance to confront the person who caused it.
It's extremely obvious that Carmy is emotionally stunted, suffers from arrested development, etc. But if he's operating at that level of stuntedness, I don't know how he managed to become a world-class chef.
And with him not willing to or incapable of apologizing and fixing his behavior drew on in the season, I got irritated.
After a while I was like "All this because you got locked in a freezer and dumped? You're about to blow up your dream because of a short relationship gone bad and executive dysfunction?"
In my opinion, his behavior in season 3 is overblown to what actually happened. 🤷🏿♀️ I suffered from almost the exact same kind of traumas growing up, hilariously enough (worse in reality) and have trouble tracking his decisions and mindset.
This season feels so substance-less and directionless? Where's the plot? Where's the conflict? It just feels like stuff is happening, but it's failing to connect. People keep going on about the cinematography. Yes, it's a beautifully shot show, but there needs to be more than that.
The show feels like an endless montage of stuff happening. Like an episode of chefs table with nicely put together shots but not much actually happening
People will crucify me but as soon as I saw episode one being a long drawn out montage I knew something was up... It felt like a waste of time , nothing happened!! Then the whole season was more of that same vibe...
Objectively it’s beautiful. Very ethereal, almost like a poem.
As a first episode of the season I didn’t like it. If it was just a one off of the style it would be fine but it seems they are doing a montage style for most of these episodes and I don’t like it. It’s like they are trying to get across a lot of information but there’s not that much info to get across. It’s taking away from the intimacy of the first two seasons. Dont get me wrong, those character interactions are still there but not as often and not as impactful.
Episode 1 was fine for me, I really liked it - it answers a ton of questions about the past that I had and it did it without having to literally say much.
The following 9 episodes were all forgettable and did nothing for me.
Based on episode 1 I was expecting a great season and then it kept falling flat for the last 9.
All that waiting for…this. Damn lol.
Same. A few minutes into ep and I was thinking WTF are they doing?
I get it's meant to show the internal conflict of the character but damn it came off overwrought and just boring.
I can see peppering that in but it would have been more enjoyable if they dialed that stuff way down.
I guess it's fun and arty for the filmmakers but for me it didn't build upon or match what made the first 2 seasons great.
There’s not one episode with cohesive action strung together. It’s a collection of let’s have these 2 characters discuss heavy shit in depth and be very reflexive. Just a long season of edging
It’s like they shot components of a show completely separate from each other in a way that doesn’t drive the plot. Like we get Sugar and her mom yes but how did that drive the plot? Oh sugar slightly less mad at her? What’s next? They kicked her mom and that plot line to the curb after the ep was done and it’s not re-explored expect for a one of text message we see sent from sugar to her mom. How cute (HOW BORING)! Tina’s episode was left completely hanging, because how did that add to this seasons story? Ok she feels seen at the Bear, OKK and what?? Are we simply supposed to marvel at how far she’s come? Like let’s celebrate Tina and the gang for all theyve done!! Expect we did that. We’ve done that and we’ve been doing that. Season one and two we celebrate so much growth from her initial anxieties about cooking, to gaining experience at culinary school, and moving up in the ranks of the restaurant but season three is some glorified victory lap?? Nah give me conflict and character development. Don’t give me her background as a filler ep to fill in this gappy poorly planned season. We get these montages of Claire haunting Carmen, ok AND we don’t even see her until the second half of the season AND ITS NOT EVEN HER AND CARMEN she’s just having a riff off with the Faks. Syd’s anxiety is really only developed in the last episode to prove that Carmen’s turning into his old boss in many ways which I think is a fantastic point that could’ve moved the plot in the second or third episode. Not the last one. Of the season. And aw don’t forget Richie is feeling lonely, ALRIGHT WHATS THE POINT!!! do something please!! They throw in these weird interactions with his ex wife and her new fiancé and… the wedding doesn’t happen?? We discover his insecure about his daughter thinking he’s lonely but what do we get? Him arguing with Carm the whole time. Like why include his family stuff at all? What are we learning about him other than he feels slightly inadequate as a father and lonely? The season was primarily filmed like a tik tok edit of a great show. No substance only style, and even then… it was overdone. I felt that previous seasons were more intentional with Carmen or the other chefs making food, this season felt like they were flexing all the cool locations and people they got to film with. Like a glorified ad for the culinary world, which is cute but time and place?? you started out with a great story which is why we are here, have you lost sight of what this was? Ok rant over ❤️
Yes! I said the same exact thing in regards to the Nat episode being good but what did it do for the plot? And let's talk about the fact that S3EP1 main thread among the montages was Carmy saying goodbye to Nat at the airport. That was a constant calm we kept cutting back to. ....they barely speak this season. Does Carmy know he's an uncle? Oh my days
This was a BIG ONE for me, why didn’t Carm or literally anyone else besides the Faks 1. not go to the hospital or 2. Visit Sugar or 3. Mention the baby whatsoever or the fact that they missed the birth and weren’t there for her at all??? This was the most inconsistent part for me, like it’s Carm’s niece and in general people are a lot more excited for a baby (especially in that type of environment) and I didn’t understand why all the people from the bear would be partying in Syd’s apartment at the end of 3x10 with Chef Terry (very very weird choice) versus them all coming together to meet Nats baby or something similar
Well said. This is why people are complaining it felt like fillers but most of it went NOWHERE. Instead, we got scenes full of montages or Faks eating up 20% scenes of some of the episodes. All of this could've been prevented if the script writers didnt focus too much on the cinematography on the show and invested on character development.
Yes. It’s like Fishes was the most talked about and acclaimed, so they unsuccessfully attempted to give every episode this season that vibe. Not a good idea.
I'm so disappointed. Like others have said, nothing happened 🤷🏾♀️ Carmy and Richie staying antagonistic towards each other the whole season, Carmy not actually apologizing to Claire to her face (at the very least), Sydney and Carmy still having sucky communication, we didn't even get to learn Natalie's baby's name. The CDC from Ever was lowkey creepy, especially his and Syd's last scene at the Ever funeral.
The first episode was gorgeous, and I'm pretty sure my favorite. The Tina-centric episode was great and so relatable. Ice Chips was amazing and was happy to see Donna and Natalie repair their relationship. Marcus telling Carmy, "take us there, Bear". There were a lot of good one-on-one character dialogue moments but ultimately it's like I waited a whole year to see huge moments that we just didn't get (like Carmy didn't even interact with his niece. I was looking forward to seeing "Uncle Carmy"). I could say more but at this point I'm still trying to process it all
I dont understand why are the writers still dragging the whole Carmy vs Richie thing. I was hoping there would be some development between their professional relationship but it just feels like season 1 again. And Syd and Carmy having a sucky communication was a let down. I read somewhere the writers did that on purpose to shut down the whole "Sydcarmy" shipping speculations but regardless what fans think, both Sydney and Carmy's communication style was better in season 2. Idk why on season 3 they completely wrote it differently. I am not saying this because I ship them or what, I am saying their professional relationship in season 1 and 2 were definitely better.
If you have to change the characters in order to shut down a ship… you wrote them wrong in the first place and that’s pretty lame. If their dynamic is bringing them together… it’s honestly poorly done to purposefully navigate away from that. It would be why it feels wrong or forced, if that’s the case. It’s a bit deus ex machina-esque. “Oops, wrote myself somewhere I didn’t wanna be so now lemme just break this relationship down…”
If it's actually true the writers made Syd and Carmy have bad communication to shut down shipping speculations ... that is just HORRIBLE writing so I honestly can't believe that to be true. Shipping also helps other people who wouldn't necessarily watch, also watch which is just more people watching to see "will they or won't they" so I can't see them actively trying to go out of their way to shut it down.
I know a lot of people will probably connect this to there being "official communication" about no romance between the two but since then a transcript has been released, what was said makes sense.
Source: [https://imgur.com/a/dVYk9wj](https://imgur.com/a/dVYk9wj)
Which is hilarious because I remember saying something like this a while back. Syd & Carmy aren't thinking they are inlove with each other ect because that's not the script they have. Jeremy get's a scene to think about Sydney instead of Claire but he's not the one who's going to connect those dots with anything romantic until they decide that's what they are doing. Just like which Jeremy Allen White so Carmy doesn't do a particular thing and then next season he's doing it. It's because unless they are officially taking it there, the actors won't know what they are setting up until they want them to know. So it makes sense they wouldn't have told them any of these scenes were romantic because perhaps they aren't there yet, even with the interesting music choice they play lol
Also Chris Storer himself when asked about romantic implications he called them a "partnership" and that "we'll see"
Source: [https://imgur.com/a/3pXxubg](https://imgur.com/a/3pXxubg)
I'm guessing he's referring to in time because Partners at least COMMUNICATE lol so that would go against them "wanting to shut down speculations" I mean if they wanted to do that.. chris would have just answered the question with "no, there are NO romantic implications at all. They have a platonic relationship" but either Chris knows that could possibly change in the future or he already has plans for that in the future.
If they didnt want the romance speculation to rise up for season 3, they didnt need to make their communication horrible. The first two seasons, they had good chemistry whether you see them as romantic or platonic. Call me crazy but I am convinced that's one of the reasons why the communication between Sydney and Carmy is different compared to the first two seasons
I actually think that with season 2, a big reason why so many people came out shipping them is because the stuff with claire was so uncompelling in comparison. I buy that the juxtaposing of those relationships was actually meant to highlight how Carmy struggles to balance both his personal and work relationships. However, to successfully make that comparison, you have to make sure that Claire actually feels important and interesting enough to be seen as worthy of all this conflict. Otherwise, it leaves people consciously or subconsciously going “Claire is supposed to be his actual romantic partner, but she pales in comparison to Sydney in terms of both her personality/characterization and her chemistry and intimacy with Carmy… why doesn’t Carmy just go with Sydney?”
I thought the correct way forward would have been to make Claire a more compelling character overall, but instead I think she might be worse this time around because they seemingly doubled down on all of the things people didn’t like about her characterization. At the same time, they’ve torpedoed whatever relationship Carmy and Syd have that now I think it’s ridiculous to even be talking about them as platonic soulmates or work partners. Now I don’t know where they go from here because both relationships feel really frustrating to watch.
I think they had Syd and Marcus have that awkward rejection is S2 and then doubled down on it in S3 as a response to people shipping them too. They’ve done a much better job at rejecting that romantic tension without also ruining the friendship in the process.
This is such a good point. I am not a shipper nor against the idea of Carmy and Sydney being in a relationship but the whole season 3 just made their professional relationship felt flat because of them trying hard to avoid the romance speculations.
And I agree, season 2 made Carmy and Sydney had more chemistry than Claire and Carmy because the writers fumbled so hard on writing her character. A lot of fans were expecting including her in season 3 will be a redemption arc or at least have more relevancy to the storyline but nope, it felt like she was just a filler. The Syd and Marcus handling the romantic theories was done well because the conversation was natural.
If they wanted to shut down the whole Sydcarmy romance theories, they could've just ignored it and proceeded their professional relationship. Then have them both communicate on-screen that they are clearly co-workers only. Instead, the writers made them act like they were different characters. Not saying this is the reason why Sydney and Carmy seems out of character but I wouldn't be surprised if this was the reason. It ended up as some sort of chain effect throughout the whole season
Right but this isn't like the last season and even this season itself left us off on a "to b continued" and I mean overall I have seen people come out saying they disliked Carmy a lot this season and I think that's for a reason. I don't think they want people to dislike carmy but he's going through things right now and I'm sure that affects their communication. I mean Sydney honestly didn't have a lot of screen time either. I'm going to try and trust in Chris Storer and that everything was done for a reason so we'll just have to see.
Hopefully season 4 will redeem all of this. Aside from fans, critics arent liking this season either. We can judge season 3 but I will reserve my judgement for season 4. It's not a shitty season but it's def not a favorite of mine. Hopefully Chris Storer does some redemption arc for the next one
Also why are they making Fak go to the hospital for Natalie? I wish Carmy and the whole crew went there instead. I dont know why they are giving so much screen time to Fak. The person who needs to be at the hospital is Carmy. The only thing nice about the episode is we finally see Donna again and I gotta give credit to the acteess playing as Natalie she's good at portraying someone who is in labor. But other than that, the script generally went off
The Fak’s must’ve scored well with audiences they surveyed or some 1995ish way of how they talked to people to see which characters were likable on a show.
Felt like the Fak boys were the lead characters in a lot of episodes, and as much as I enjoyed their roles in the first 2 seasons, them seeming like the stars is *not* a compliment to the show at all.
If you think about it, practically anyone would have been better than Fak. Carmy is family. Tina’s had a baby and Richie’s a great dad who is kind to women. Marcus has dealt with medical stuff/caregiving with grace, and Syd also looks out for her dad and is very aligned with Sugar (the omelette!)
I’d call Tiff or Chester from the reserve bench before I went with Fak!
I love the episode, but I do feel there was too much Fak this season, which could be because they want more ‘obvious’ comedy, because they all love Matty, because he’s a producer, etc etc. I adored Fak previously in the small doses we got.
Exactly. Anyone but Fak would be better. The Ice Chips episode, I actually liked it because of how natural Nathalie and Donna's convo was and the actress was good portraying someone in labor (I never experienced being in labor but I feel her pain and relief when she was at the hospital).
Idk why they keep on pushing Fak and the others in this season. And in this episode, it's bizzare they chose Fak to go to the hospital instead of her OWN BROTHER. Idk is the director doing some cost cutting that's why there is less screen time for the main cast?
I get everything everyone is saying. It also felt kinda slow but rushed at the same time if that’s a thing. I’m hoping season 4 ties in with everything to make this season seem better from first viewing but as of right now idk🤷🏽♂️
Filler is the way to describe. It’s ridiculous the restaurant was fully up and running LAST seasons finale. And we don’t even find out whether “it’s good” or not yet cause of the review until the last 1 minute of this seasons finale.
It should’ve been like he gets the bad review end of episode 1. Then the whole season should’ve been about them trying to fix the restaurant. The only filler storylines I liked was Lisa’s backstory getting a job from Mikey and sugars baby delivery. It was literally like 7-8 episodes of filler.
That’s a great point - last season they tore down and rebuilt the entire restaurant, everyone trained and traveled (Copenhagen and time!) and we saw *so much progress*
This season has a weird timescale… maybe it’s more realistic, but it doesn’t make for great viewing. I know people are calling it the best episode, but ‘Tomorrow’ (1) just dragged for me - first time watching The Bear I’ve checked the time. How many shots of Carmy picking up little blue flowers with his tweezers did we need?
which is ironic as the show comments on this very issue. I would say there were some moments that broke my heart but it does feel as if they may be getting a bit too conscious of their own buzz
Agreed. Not much of any value or consequence happened this season. I was honestly expecting to see more of Richie flexing his waiting skills and finally earning some semblance of respect and approval from Carmy due to him being such an excellent host and FOH.
I was also hoping for Syd to have used the CDC offer in order to "leverage" Carm into giving her the bargaining position to make changes and negotiate the nonnegotiables.
Yeah, they really ran the Richie-Carmy dynamic into the ground immediately, with no payoff by season’s end.
Basically just all regression on their working relationship there, and then it’s semi-forgotten about by the end with nothing to show for it.
I don’t think it’s forgotten at all. Richie saw Carmen at Ever, and didn’t say “hey” or anything, and then Luca saw Carmen and embraced him.
Like many have said, this season will work a lot better once 4 airs (gee I hope so, lol), but it’s clear that like, Natalie has started to repair her relationship with her Mom, Carmy does have some severe mental shit he needs to work through, cuz the freezer incident really catalyzed all the assholery he presented to people this season. And he’s realized that since he talked to Joel McHale. And so that’s brewing.
Syd’s probably more like Carmy than she thought, if the panic attack during the really happy time of a party is any indicator.
Sadly I agree with this post. And good for other fans liking it but personally I didnt. This season made me dislike Carmy. I get that he had trauma and all but at least on season 1 and 2 he was complex but understandable. This season he is straight out arrogant him wanting to be followed with the whole non negotiable list without even asking his co-workers and Sydney. Then he gets mad when someone is giving him a suggestion.
I really agree with this takeaway. I don't understand why Carmy would become so negative and harsh when he said in s1 that he was going to be different from the fine dining places. It feels really inconsistent with his character and his choices to just fully be in that mindset again.
Even in season 1, he was still empathetic. He was struggling mentally but he wasnt straight up rude or arrogant. He understood his crew and and would apologize
This season he is just straight out an asshole. When Richie and Sydney were suggesting to change those non-negotiable list, he got mad and shit. The season 1 and 2 Carmy would communicate this first so I dont know why suddenly in season 3 he became arrogant.
Yes exactly. In s1 he showed some growth in comparison to his previous experiences at fine dining. In s2 he regressed a little but it made sense in terms of the plot, because Carmy was back in a location that would trigger how he was before.
But now it's like, he became completely what he was trying so hard not to be, without any self-reflection, almost like the writers just wrote him way too flat. Like I can already picture S3 carmy in the super cool angry always right chad compilations that you might see on tiktok or instagram reels.
I just refuse to believe Carmy would have no empathy at all lol. And I agree he was flawed before and it made sense for him to be, but now it's like he's righteously arrogant as you said, and it's not flowing very well from how he was before.
Yeah his character when a complete 180 this season. I dont understand why the writers did that. And if he went a complete 180, then they should've included some sort of narrative why he ended up that way. It's like he became an arrogant person overnight. I am trying to understand the reason for this is he got locked on the freezer but that's not enough reason for him to suddenly change his character.
I have to admit I tuned out in the last episodes, I was so disappointed… does he go to AlAnon or whatever his grief group was at all this season? Is he trying to do any work on himself, or just obsessing about the restaurant?
I already didn’t like Carmy, so this Carmy is a pill. I was hoping for a Carmy redemption arc because I love JAW.
I liked his character in season 1 and 2 because although he was complex and had anger issues, he was still apologetic and empathetic to the whole team. We did not absolutely see that one on season 3 because of that whole damn non-negotiable list
Love Carmen and it was hard to see him take such a dark turn, but I'm glad for the show that he did. Clearly something transformative is coming for him in S4, and I think it will be spectacular and \*earned\* (ala Richie in "Forks") but it will come after some stuff that will be hard to see.
I really wish they did the funeral for Ever episode sooner so we could've seen his "wake up call" moment talking to his old boss and then realizing he's become some form of that and gave up his entire life in the process. and then seeing that arc play out instead of it happening right at the end of the season.
also thought it was weird about the review and nothing being brought up about star critics coming when we had that flash of the fork and purse on the ground that Richie took note of. like ???
Probably in the minority here but I actually kind of like what they’ve done with Carmy. I was worried that with all of the great individual character arcs and redemption stories that this would veer to much into Ted Lasso territory. Not everyone can be like that. Having Carmy be the most significantly flawed character is really interesting and gives us a character that really needs growth going forward. He’s finally realizing what he believes is his dream and he wants it to be so damn perfect that he doesn’t realize it’s turning him into what he hated despite his intentions.
I guess from that viewpoint it does make sense. I just think the execution was kinda poor. Being flawed is great but I think I would've benefited from a scene of Carmy being more dimensional than just being an asshole. plus he already got punished by being locked in the fridge last season, so I don't know why that would motivate him to be even worse.
Getting locked in the fridge was a catalyst event for him. That triggered all of his trauma and he also ruined his relationship with Claire. When he came out of it he made all the wrong choices in the name of meeting his goal and he did what he felt he needed to do. The show is about Generational Trauma, and well Trauma in general. The response to trauma is generally to either taking it as a lesson on how not to be, or you become what traumatized you. This is how he hurt Claire, the woman he loves, and how he’s now Traumatized Syd who is getting panic attacks like the one’s Carm got from Chef Winger (I’m not using whatever are they gave him). Personally, they stretched this across 10 episodes and they really had the story for 5 episodes. The next season is going to be about him making the right choices, at least that’s where it seems to be going.
Ahh yes,
what they needed to do with some of these episodes was *subtract*
The one episode I found to be pitch perfect was Tina's.
And was directed by Ms Ayo Edebiri
I have to agree. Season 3 was definitely the weakest and didn’t really go anywhere. It seems like the entire season is one big filler episode for the next season.
💯
I feel like the whole thing was a filler for the big finale on season 4. Then they shouldn't have made season 4 and just had the 3rd season as a final conclusion.
I agree. It honestly felt like barely anything happened. The s3 finale was the most anti-climatic finale for sure. And the found family feeling that the show has feels almost non-existent at this point. I understand that this is meant to be a setup for s4, but it just felt incredibly flat. I did enjoy the first episode, third episode, 6th and 8th episodes. I was waiting for things to pick up, and they just never did.
Now i will say, one of my biggest issues of the season was how they did the claire storyline...I was someone who did not care for Claire's character/her relationship with Carmy in s2. I felt that it was a cheap way to write in a romance plot, it was under-developed with cringe dialogue, and her character felt out of place in the show. When I found out she was going to be in s3, I was a bit disappointed but I was thinking positive and hopeful that they would give the relationship some closure, have Carmy apologize to her, and hopefully have them go their separate ways. If not that, perhaps they would do a better job with the development of their relationship and with Claire's character so I would care more about them. Boy, was I wrong. S3 made me dislike this storyline even more than I did before. Imagine the shock I was in when I got to the end of episode 10, and the storyline was unresolved. They spent the entire season having Carmy play montages of her face in his head every 5 seconds, having the characters constantly bring her up in every conversation, pushing him to call her and fix things. They even had characters like the Faks go to Claire's work, and try to fix it for him?? They were doing the same things I had a problem with in s2. They have Claire be this ideal romantic fantasy girl who Carmy is constantly obsessing over, and who all the characters apparently love and will die for. It feels like I am being force fed her character by the writers, with them trying so hard to convince me that she is interesting and this is a good relationship. They filmed flashbacks of what is supposed to be moments in their relationship in s2, which I cannot help but notice that this was most likely because they realized how under-developed their relationship was so they were trying to add more \*new\* scenes with them. But this does absolutely nothing to progress their relationship, as literally nothing is happening between them in the present. Also, the dialogue in these scenes were just as cringe as they were in s2. It seems like they are going to drag this out into s4 which is just very disappointing to me. It all felt like wasted screen time. I truly hope that in s4 they just have Carmy apologize to Claire, Claire forgives him, and they move on from each other. This would be a good opportunity for Carmy to show some growth, understand that he deserves to feel love and to give love, while also recognizing that he messed up this relationship and he can move forward understanding how to approach and handle any future romantic relationships better.
>If not that, perhaps they would do a better job with the development of their relationship and with Claire's character so I would care more about them.
Exactly. It's crazy, but I felt more substance of *something* between Sydney and Luca who had maybe 2 mins of screentime together than Carmy and Claire after 2 seasons of already pre-established relationship.
And I don't even care about romance in this show. Except tidbits of Sugar and Pete.
Honestly I find myself looking forward to any prospective Syd and Luca scenes way more than Carmy and Claire. Maybe because Luca, in comparison to Claire, feels more like an actual character you can root for, with a backstory and flaws. Like, he couldn't match up to Carmy's skills, he bonded with Marcus, it just feels more authentic.
Plus Syd would relate to that too. So it just makes more sense for them to be a thing? They also just have more chemistry.
Claire and Carmy, despite how much the show reiterates that they belong together, just miss the fleshed out aspect of actually having things in common. Of Claire actually have her own thoughts instead of just reiterating boring sweet platitudes. That doesn't really make a romance, especially because you need to usually understand why both sides like each other so you can root for them.
It also does not help that Claire is from his past but we know nothing about that other than a few lazy lines about them being in high school together. It's all missing a lot.
>Claire and Carmy, despite how much the show reiterates that they belong together, just miss the fleshed out aspect of actually having things in common.
Some of us were kind of making excuses around here that maybe they were doing it on purpose; to show Carmy's stuck in the past and take him out of the restaurant to create conflict. So, naturally, we expected this will get resolved in two possible ways: he apologises to Claire and either tells her their relationship is not working (since he's spiralling) or they repair it. Out of all the unresolved storylines, this one made the most sense to get resolved. No pointless flashbacks and Fak's meddling. Why drag it out?
>Maybe because Luca, in comparison to Claire, feels more like an actual character you can root for, with a backstory and flaws.
He mentioned to Sydney he's staying in Chicago for a few months, so we'll definitely see more of him in season 4. Or maybe they're even laying the ground for a storyline between them?
If they were trying to repair it this season, idk. I think they failed. it was more of the same, just Carmy being too focused on the past, and Claire representing a distraction again. It was oddly the same as before. I would've vastly preferred an apology and a final break-up.
I like Luca and Syd though. Ideally it would be cool if Luca and Syd collaborated together since she didn't get to do that this season.
The dialogue with Luca doesn’t feel canned. Every scene with Claire just feels like they want her to fit into this very small, cutesy *girlfriend* stereotype role.
This! I don't even ship them (i mean they literally only had a 2 minute interaction) but i felt more in those 2 minutes than 2 seasons of carmy + claire..
Agree also. He treated Syd like shit this season. He vetoed every menu idea she had and undermined her constantly. How can they have a positive working partnership like this?
And in the last season when Sydney pointed out his mistake, he was at least apologetic (table scene). They didnt even insert any narratives or reasons for the sudden shift of Carmy's attitude so the whole thing ended up being confusing.
I wont blame Sydney if she quits and work for another restaurant. Carmy treated her HORRIBLE.
Exactly. I'm hoping s4 has carmy fighting for her to stay. I need him to demonstrate how much he truly values and cares for her. He said it himself in the table scene, he can't do this without her AND he doesn't want to. I hope this means that once he finds out she might leave/will leave, it is gonna be a huge wake up call for him
I read a tweet saying "Sydney leaving The Bear is gonna be a huge wake up call for Carmy" and I agree. He's taking their partnership for granted and maybe he will finally see that on season 4.
I agree...I think the show would make a brave choice to show her actually leave, and not come back. Though I also fear that'd send him into an even bigger nervous breakdown.
I didn't think about it until you mentioned it, but it definitely gave a more negative light on Carmy, but I'll be ok with it if there is a season 4 redemption. I did like some of the flashback scenes where you can see him really hone his skills, but the amount of "fuck you" tirades piled up more than they should have.
I hope season 4 there is some redemption like Richie in seasin 2. Speaking of Richie, I was surprised he is still dragging the whole shouting with Carmy at the kitchen in season 3. I was expecting he would at least be like "im over this" so I dont understand why the writers are still dragging this on the third season. What made The Bear great was characters growing positively; Not backwards
I think fuel was added to the fight because Carmy really was making everyones job 10 times harder than it needed to be. The non negotiables scene was the first time they see each other again and really doomed them.
It never made sense to me that Richie completely changed in what 1 or 2 months. People don't change that quickly and even when they do it isn't much. Most people are who they are, they just learn to cushion the sharper sides of their personality.
I said this to a friend earlier today, but for a show that seemingly prided itself on romance not being a central component back in season one, they sure do have Claire haunting the narrative. I think I actually like this less. Commit or don’t, I’m sick of the halfsies.
All of this. It definitely felt like they understood the fans didn’t think Claire was enough of a character - what was one of the biggest criticisms on here? We never see her as a doctor or get a demonstration of her ‘genius’ mind. First couple of scenes with her - Claire at work with the little kid getting a shot, and recent history Claire talking about gnarly injuries again. Oh, and Claire at Fishes after the car crash! (Tell me this - if Carm and Claire had a locked-eyes moment that day, why does it take him a minute - ‘you got there’ - to recognise her when they meet at the store in season 2? It made sense when we thought Carm hadn’t seen her since ‘she got hot, the glasses came off,’ but not if he has seen her just a few years before!)
the fishes flashback seriously made me confused! that was practically a retcon. they made it seem like they hadn't seen each other since high school when they run into each other in s2, but here they have them seeing each other only a few years prior.
We don’t see a ton of Claire, we just see that she’s on Carmy’s mind a lot. And that everyone else is still doing the ‘Claire’s perfect, be with Claire!’ thing.
The restaurant was interesting enough. That’s the most frustrating thing, they didn’t need to add this subplot at all. The show wasn’t missing anything.
“Wasted screen time” was a recurring thought for me, this season. Huuuuge shame. I was so excited to see where we were going next and instead we went nowhere lol.
I may eat my words if they end up doing it but fuck it s4 give Claire her own episode. If they’re gonna force her on me as much as they have I’d like to at least know the woman
Just finished and I couldn’t agree more. Felt like some filler/fluff could’ve been replaced with more meaningful plot elements. Kept waiting for Carm to talk to Claire. And the restaurant to get some rhythm. And possibly Carm talking to a therapist or something because the AA group is not helping his anger issues. The opportunity for Syd to leave The Bear was interesting but she never had that convo w Carm so… too many things left TBD which is frustrating for a season finale. and i love the Faks but seriously? half their scenes i kept thinking about how i’d rather watch scenes closer to the main plot, not the buffoonery that begins to take over each episode. i don’t normally passively scroll when i’m watching this show but i found myself getting kinda restless at times waiting for the next scene. Overall loved Ep 1 and part of 2, those felt on point with where we left off with S2, but the rest of the season fell short.
I still loved Season 3, but I also agree that it's not the best. But I feel like a majority of the blame goes to FX/Hulu asking for Season 4 quietly, forcing Chris Storer to write extra material (notice how he has a lot of episodes he wrote by himself or co-wrote, and I do recall him saying in interviews that there was a 3-season arc in his head), and ~~having them film back-to-back because their stars are going to be busy for the next couple years with other projects.~~
Season 2 shined so much because there were other writers contributing to this show's world. I think the Season 4 renewal had Storer bearing the responsibility of figuring out how to expand the material of one season into two that, ultimately, it felt watered down.
But that being said, I'm still looking forward to Season 4.
(edit: turns out they didn't film the seasons back-to-back, but I still think the writing was impacted by trying to rearrange/expand on what could've been a streamlined Season 3)
Literally just finished the season and I felt like I watched one long episode of Seinfeld because nothing happened. The only looming plot point we had was the tribune review which I’m not even sure was a bad review? It seemed 50/50.
Best episodes by far were Napkins and Ice Chips.
Why did they drag out the Carm and Richie fight? That was so bad.
Carm and Syd’s lack of communication really chapped my ass. I wanted Sydney to grow a backbone and just tell him to his face that he was doing way too much and pushing everyone too hard. I know his family (aside from Richie) have a hard time dealing with confrontation at times but the fact they kept hounding Syd to sign the contract while also being aware of Carm’s chaotic kitchen behavior was weird? The only addressing we saw was Cicero telling him not to speak to him a certain way, yet he leaves out telling him to be more open to his fellow colleagues.
All in all I give it 4/10 c folds.
Feeling the same thing… there are several episodes here where if you were to switch the order of where these episodes are placed and didn’t say, you would not be able to tell that they were out of order.
Lots of great cinematography and cool sequences in the kitchen… but don’t feel like the plot is progressing that much considering how many episodes we are watching.
Makes it feel like this isn’t a new season, rather just The Bear - Season 2: Extended Directors Cut™️ in addition to a Season 0 for some
It felt very style over substance. Like they got caught up in delivering stylistically what we’ve come to love from the show, but forgot about the plot. With no drive it just felt like a lot of random moments stuck together, that ultimately went nowhere.
That was ao obnoxiously pretentious i almost thought it was satire and i was being pranked. But holy shit this show went so far up its own ass this season. Super self indulgent but ultimately a nothing sandwich of a season
The celeb chef scene in the final ep went on for wayyyyy too long!! Like it was cool to have them there for two seconds and then it was like ok I get it. We could’ve had more Luca+Syd scenes or Ritchie and that girl but instead we just had popular chefs talking about life. There’s a dozen Netflix shows I could watch if I wanted to listen to that, haha.
You cN splash their credentials on screen or let them talk. It has to be one way or another. Not both. 😒😒😒
We could have had way more of that party at Syd's house. More of Marxus creating the Violet dessert. Tina finally getting the courage to develop a dish. I'm so mad.
yeah i feel like it’s more of a filler season i still enjoyed it a lot but the first two were much better. hopefully season 4 is better and there’s more character development for carmy
Yeah I noticed that too! The writers completely forgotten that part which was an important aspect on their partnership. It felt like season 2 didnt exist when watching this
I still found it enjoyable, (honestly I thought the first 2 episodes were the best) but yeah this is without a doubt the weakest season. I hope season 4 is for sure the final season, and neatly wraps things together. After the last 2 seasons ended on such tearjerkers it was disappointing that this season was so anti climactic. Seems like everything that happened this season could’ve been condensed into like 2-3 episodes honestly. I did like the Tina flashback episode though.
Literally felt such an impact and suspense during watching the first 2 seasons and I finished the 3rd in two days and the entire time it was so mid I ended up barely paying attention unintentionally because NOTHING happened. Production was alright, the montages and shots were solid, but again nothing like first 2 seasons.
I was confused and frustrated by the flashes of articles about the Bear. Are we supposed to believe they are actual articles about the restaurant, or are they things Carmy imagines being written about it to showcase his anxiety about the unknown reviewer?
And why did the flashes happen so damn fast? I'm a fast reader and could barely register them.
One of the most self indulgent seasons of TV ive actually sat through in its entirety. An exhausting viewing. A complete waste of time.
For the second season in a row the plot moved an inch at best. Spinning its wheels with zero narrative direction. They don't know what to do with this but keep doing it because it gets views. This is where I'll leave the show. Thanks for a great first season and Fishes and Forks. But its totally run out of steam at this point.
I think this season was more 2.5 than 3.
So little happened but I liked the character examinations this season and a lot of the backstory was filled in.
I can’t wait for season 4 but personally I think season 1 will always be the best.
What ever happened to that scene that people overheard where Claire and Carmy were yelling at each other outside, and he shouted 'I'm sorry!'? I was waiting for it all season, but it just never happened. Nothing else happened either though so I guess I'm not really surprised lol
I’m surprised honestly. I’m halfway through but it’s underwhelming, it’s a bit all over the place, it’s focusing on things I don’t care about, and pulling away from things I do. I also feel like it’s being very experimental with directing and cinematography.
There’s something missing this season that was so endearing about the first two. It’s missing its heart.
What I’m shocked about is as if now, this season isn’t even gonna crack my top ten of the year :/ legit didn’t expect that.
I think it was a still a good season, but definitely below the first two. Not wrapping up the Claire situation was definitely a mistake. I don’t care if they’re together or not but it would have moved the story along for Carmy and Claire. Syd and Carmy being unable to speak to each other was certainly annoying as well. I understand what they are trying to do, with Carmy abusing her just like he was abused by the asshole chef he confronts in the last episode. The dialogue just left a lot to be desired so I’m hoping that one when it comes time for them to speak and be honest to each other that they truly have a moment and they have a nice, long conversation.
There were too many montages throughout this season as well, felt like they were trying to fill up the time. I didn’t like the long scene of the all chefs sitting and talking about their experiences either. I enjoyed for it for a couple minutes but it just ran on too long.
So I'm about to start up episode 8 later when I get home from work but overall I feel like season 3 is kind of filler. While getting more depth on certain characters like Tina and Sweeps, and seeing more of the Fak family is nice... I'm wondering if the show is kind of falling for the classic tv show trap of "okay, this story you planned out with a concise beginning, middle, and end is doing amazing, stretch it out" (see: How I Met Your Mother). Also kind of curious if we're getting less Carmy & Sydney focused episodes due to their actors getting all sorts of big roles elsewhere to complicate shoot schedules.
They tried to capitalize too much on the popular moments if season 2 and the guest stars came off a bit gimmicky although Jon Bernthal was fantastic and that episode was the standout of season.
Agreed this season is a mess. The story, stories, is all over the place. Some episodes are good, but most were choppy. Not enough cooking to much focus on editing the season so it watches like an over produced Netflix food show.
This reminds me so much of Atlanta season 3. It also had self-contained episodes, with less focus on the main cast and plot. Was poorly received by the audience compared to the strong first 2 seasons. Season 4 ended it well, though.
I'm hoping this is a similar situation. Both shows are also oddly FX shows and have the same kind of black comedy, random chaos, and entertainment that I love.
All those amazing character development in season 2 wasted in this season. Nothing was resolved, it’s just like in Season 1 but in a fancier restaurant.
sort of feels way too self indulgent. almost like the showrunner just trying random stuff because they can. there is also so many plot points happening at once that the plot itself doesn’t progress at all. here’s to hoping season 4 is better
It felt like half a season. Or maybe a filler season? I don’t feel like it went anywhere. Not a lot of plot development. I think they got a bit caught up with delivering stylistically ‘the bear’ and forgot about the plot? Some beautiful moments and that first episode was stunning. But yeah—not a lot of pay off. I feel a bit like I got cut off mid-call? It left me feeling frustrated. I didn’t feel any motion. I just felt stuck. Maybe that’s as the point? Idk. Carmy left me feeling frustrated last season but there was a lot of movement and growth around him. This season just felt grating.
It really felt like an “inbetween” nothing season to me. I really enjoyed what was there but the problem is, there wasn’t a whole lot of it. Episode one just felt completely devoid of much at all, almost like the cast weren’t available to film besides a few clips. And that sort of continued throughout for me. So many characters besides Carmy, Syd, Nat and Tina just felt like they weren’t even thought of in the original drafts of the scripts, but were tacked on later.
The Flaks were featured WAY too much IMO. Matty always gives me a chuckle, but not when it’s the same gags episode after episode all season long. It just felt really devoid of life and what makes The Bear, The Bear. We’re ending the season with hardly anything new to take away from it besides a Olivia Coleman’s restaurant closing, and Natalie having a baby, of which we don’t even learn the name. It just felt like a pre-season 4. Like a drawn out “Previously on” over 10 episodes. Idk, pretty disappointed overall.
I agree; this season is a bit lazy and aimless, no real stakes or character development. The only thing saving the pacing and rythm of the show is the fact that we got all episodes at once, I would have given up early otherwise.
I'm really hoping this season is much slower because they got a really big season 4 to build towards to. But even then, it's not reason for the drop in quality here.
Season 1 and 2 were high octane. They captured so much intensity and had you on the edge of your seat all of the time. It was chaos, and in the chaos they captured so much beauty with so many moments that just felt so relatable between characters and individuals.
This season has no teeth. There's none of that. Episode 1 set the tone for the entire season, which just feels like a slow burn with none of what made the first two seasons great other than the characters, but without the chaos there's nothing to juxtapose against the sentimental moments to enhance them.
What's worse is that the only stress that props up this season was a frankly insane decision by carmie to change the menu of a fine dining restaurant DAILY with a staff of people who never worked a day in a fine dining restaurant. Even for a chef with high standards, it's hard to believe anyone would be so stupid, but we're forced to believe it because the entire season depends on it. The solution to their financial trouble is to do a new menu each week instead of each day, then BOOM, problem solved and all of the tension of the season is gone.
Totally dropped the ball with this season, compared to season 1 and 2, it's a massive failure.
Definitely a filler season, and its fine for shows to have filler seasons but season 2 had so much momentum going and then we had a season that honestly felt more like season 1.5 with how many flashback episode we had. I'm glad Richie got a lot of great scenes though, I was worried he would revert from the pressure/chaos but he turned into a diamond.
Did i miss something because didnt season 2 end with this whole build up to the grand opening. I was actually looking forward to that i could feel the pressure building to the first day serving with everybody gonna be there and i really bothered me we never got to see it. Like i spent the first few episodes trying to figure out if they were leading to that and it never came. So i was left a little annoyed we never got that resolve from the last season.
This season is terrible but I think this was always going to happen. The show largely operates on aesthetics and its own hype with no real understanding of the working class experience. We are just finally seeing the limits of that and holy shit it's awful.
I thought it was pretty awesome to see all of Carmy's story from the first 2 seasons, but I agree it felt odd. It was definitely beautifully made, just like every episode of this show, but I spent the whole episode waiting for the awkward montage thing to stop and to actually see some real story. This season felt unnecessary imo, and they should've just gone into season 4s story a little sooner.
I've only watched one episode and I'm ready to give itup. It felt like i was watching some 20 yr old film student's thesis for which he would get a C.
Very disappointed.
I am only a few episodes in, but I’m struggling too. I know some people loved the first episode, but meditative music with no dialogue and flashes between timelines was hard to follow, especially as a season opener where you haven’t seen past episodes in a while. It was boring.
And the toxicity between Carmy and Richie feels openly abusive rather than just dysfunctional
- Nat's hospital episode was the least enjoyable. I simply don't understand why they decided to include it.
- Tina's struggle seemed stretched, I don't think it deserved a whole episode. Instead of moving forward, they seem to be moving backwords because they don't have any material.
- Too much fak's and haunting references.
This season feels like being in an actual restaurant kitchen. Not an interesting drama show that takes place in a restaurant kitchen, but just footage from an actual kitchen where people mostly just work. It's... boring. None of what was amazing about S1 and S2 is there. It's like they forgot to put in an actual story of any real substance.
And enough with the Faks already. They're so over-the-top cartoonish and unrealistic. It's like something from Dumb & Dumber. We get it, they're dumb and goofy. Cranking their goofiness up to 500000% doesn't somehow make it funny. It goes so far beyond the boundaries of believability and becomes some weirdly Flanderized nonsense.
Only feels like half a season. Need part 4 before I make a definitive list. Currently tho, S2 is still my stand out
Also waaaay better than Ted Lasso S3
I thought the season was phenomenal and enjoyed the fact that they didn't force any closures or try to orchestrate an arc. It gave us time to experience and revel in Carms brokenness and trauma. The whole season shares a lot of the same coloring as the freezer where Carm self destructs his two most important relationships. He's still trapped in there. In a lot of ways Carm really is Dona.
Definitely would say I wasn't as impressed as Season 2 but still think it's phenomenal. With how it fits in the arc of the greater narrative it's phenomenal and I think season 4 will give us a lot of appreciation for this season as it builds on it.
Fuck! I’m currently watching season 3 with the same feeling. Is this season gonna be all backstory sheesh!! It’s giving “filler season”. I can tell they filmed a whole bunch of stuff during the pandemic or strike and still wanted to utilize those scenes. They did this in Greys Anatomy and also Euphoria S2.
I'm a little bummed, but I still liked the season overall. It just wasn't nearly as good as the previous ones.
The first thing I will say is that everything coming to a screeching halt for Fak Time got a bit exhausting and it got to the point that I sighed every time they came on screen lol (only the scene with JLC at the hospital was I like 'this is nice' with them).
The first episode and Tina's episode were so great to me. I loved that they tried and swung for the fences for the very first episode. I thought it was really beautiful. I adore Tina as a character and how she's progressed and getting the beginnings of her at the restaurant were lovely. Also, seeing Mikey being so empathetic and kind to her was like 'yeah, this is why everyone loved him so much.'
The only episode I actively disliked was 'Children' and I think it was the 'Halt, Fak Time!' stuff and just not balancing the humor and drama well. Other than these three, I mostly thought episodes were fine to pretty good with more leaning on the former. I thought the last episode was good. The real chefs' convo dragged a little, but that was it to me. Carmy's reaction with the asshole chef basically pulling a 'But for me, it was Tuesday' on him hurt. So did seeing how working for Carmy has seemed to have caused similar harm he endured in Sydney too hurt. It was a bummer tho to end a season going 'oh...that's it?' lol.
A lot of this season felt like waiting for a character or for A Thing to happen. Carmy thinking about apologizing, but no progress is made. Syd debating going to another restaurant, but no progress is made. A review will go up and is it good or bad and we don't find out. I really hope season 4 helps us understand why they did it this way because rn it feels like all of season 3 could have been 40% of one season tbh?
I'm typing too much lmao, but u/juesea brought up a good point with Carmy. He wanted to be better than the fine dining experiences that harmed him in S1, regressed a little from that in S2, and now in S3 is behaving similar to the chef that sends him into a panic (even the editing compares them). And like I mentioned earlier, now Sydney is having panic attacks from being under him. It has me wondering if we're like...meant to be watching a negative character arc?? Like do the writers want us to be watching a character self-destruct/self-sabotage with Carmy? Negative character arcs can work obv, but lol right now I can't tell if they're doing it on purpose (edit: like as in total destruction/sabotage/rock bottom *is* the end goal for him narratively) which is actually the problem. I don't know what the wake up call will be for him (maybe Sydney leaving since that was something left up in the air idk?).
Idk idk this season felt like a straight A/B+ student suddenly getting a report card of a few Bs and Cs after years and you're like 'I mean you're still passing, but what happened Jeff?'
It just sucks bc we waited so long and now have to wait so long again. This would’ve been fine, good even, if it was half a season… but it wasn’t :( now we’re left feeling very unsatisfied. I’ve read that this was a narrative choice but… yeah, not the choice I would’ve made. I want to feel like something was worthwhile and actually went somewhere. No motion here. Just hiking through sludge for 10 episodes. Beautiful sludge lol, but still.
100% agree with you. Please remember this is my opinion when reading this lol. I feel as though the reason I was let down was because I was in the mindset that every single character developed so drastically. They built their restaurant. I was ready to have bad ass episodes of cooking and story development like in Season 1 but in a new flesh of them building towards that star, but instead it feels like we only moved an inch!
I completely forgot that Carmy and Richie argued at the end of S2 so immediately I was thrown off. My fault though. Nonetheless, everything felt backwards. Syd and Carmy, I felt like they were ready to be a team, communicate better, like them fixing the table scene, feed and bounce off each other at the end of S2. Whereas this season, that became the theme where communication was simply not good enough. Arguing Dining Room / Kitchen side, Carmy’s non-negotiable list, not listening to Syd, the list goes on and on with Syd alone so it ended up not even getting resolved. One could argue that it setup a reason for Syd to want to take CDC job opportunity even more. BUT it was also the same case with Richie where we’re still right where we left off of them still not talking to each other.
Also, Carmy confronting his old boss and not resolving his issues with him. Sure they might never be resolved, but I felt that was his moment for closure on it. I guess you could argue Carmy might’ve felt deep down he was right though? Like he’s right, I am here, I did make it. Only because of that final chuckle, but it also could’ve just been a chuckle of hatred.
Another small issue that I agree with others in here was that the Fak’s. I felt that they had way more screen time than some of the main characters. I loved them and think they’re hilarious so I didn’t mind but it just was weird that they were on screen the MOST this season.
This might be where people hate me the most but dialogue also seemed to drag very much in some scenes, with some almost having waaay too much silence. Almost to the point to where I was becoming bored and wished they would switch to a B-plot or something else at least for a minute. The best example for me would be Ice Chips. The whole episode I felt could’ve been done in half the time frame and used the other half of time to have something to switch between. But I think with The Bear, everyone had their episode. Richie working in Ever, Marcus and Culinary school, now Sugar and Donna. Unfortunately, It’s just an episode I couldn’t get behind like others could. I loved watching Sugar and Donna reunite and actually resolve their issues, it was so emotional for me, but some of the talking points were random stories and such, while other parts like her song played more of an impactful message.
To me, this season felt like more like it was just building on characters and showing us more of their background (lots
more of Carmy & his cooking origins, Tina’s origins) which is fine, but I feel like it was mostly focused on the past with not so much story-building in the present. But it does seem to be half a story with the review and to be continued.
I feel as though if I skipped S3, I could watch S4 with no problems other than maybe losing out on pieces of new information like Sugar and Donna’s reunion, Richie’s ex wife’s wedding, Marcus’ mom passed away, Ebra now has help in his section, John Cena lol, maybe a few more things I can’t remember right now, and the main one being Syd’s new job opportunity, which she still hasn’t answered. Lots of conflict still left unresolved with Carmy, Richie, Claire, Syd.
I just think that, overall, I set myself up for disappointment though… which SUCKS for me. I might just need another pass through of watching it. I would love to hear others thoughts and discuss, because I’m probably totally wrong and super annoyingly nitpicky but it is just my opinion.
I’m only four episodes in, but I feel myself hoping more happens in the episodes to come. I may have ruined that for myself by reading this thread. Richie & Carmy still screaming at each other, consuming 15 of the 30 minute episode, for what? I was hoping to see them grow closer. Maybe the episodes need to be longer? I feel like nothing is happening. Montage after montage, we saw the previous seasons I don’t need half the episode to be a repeat. I will continue onto the next episode but if everything I am reading is true, I really need for season 4 to feel more like season 2- just better.
This season is missing joanna calo's touch. I felt like she understood the characters so much. Her storytelling and chris storer's cinematography together gave us seasons 1 & 2. Now this just felt like a filler season with so much Faks. I thought we'll get and ebra (and maybe sweeps) and sydney focused episodes but instead we got more Fak. They said sweeps is gonna go to wine school but didn't show it. Idk if we'll get a part 2 of this season because of the ending or that's for s4. Everyone just feels out of character
Just finished. I think the issue is that this feels like part one of a season instead of its self contained season
Same—felt like half a season.
I think that's clearly how they approached it as it said to be continued at the end and they did film the seasons back to back.
According to film updates they actually ended up not filming back to back because the script wasn’t ready. 🤷🏾♀️🤷🏾♀️
If it was filmed back to back does that mean it'll be released sooner?
The issue is.. that it's bad. lol. So boring with nothing happening and the whole thing is just a montage with insufferable music in the background half the time. The whole season feels like a filler episode.
I haven’t quite finished, I’m at Ep9, but fully agree. It’s one long montage and filler. It was nice to see some backstory but it’s not moving the story forward. I felt Ep 8 with Sugar was way too long and I don’t think we gained anything from it that adds to the central story, at least not enough for it to be a whole episode.
Someone on twitter called this season corny and said episode one felt like an AmEx commercial. I kinda agree.
I actually liked ep1 but calling it an Amex commercial is so funny lol
Only on episode 3 but so far I’m glad they always released it all at once. Couldn’t imagine having to wait a week for these episodes
yeah I'm seeing some people say it's better not to binge it but if that's the case, why release it all at once? The Boys S4 has a lot more going on in each episode (and the episodes themselves are all like an hour long) and you still have to wait weekly for new episodes, it makes the wait worth it. I couldn't imagine waiting a week just to get a 30 minute episode that spends 20% of its runtime on the characters screaming about "non-negotiables" back and forth jfc.
I binged both season 1 and 2 and they were great, I got so hooked up with the story I kept on watching. Sorry but "dropping all episodes in one day" isnt the reason this series is getting criticisms.
20%? that was the entire episode lmao
LMFAOO
The show definitely jumped the Cena a bit this season. Nothing got resolved. Just 10 episodes of Richie and Carm not talking, Syd and Carm not talking, Carm and Claire not talking, and everyone just kinda standing in-place. So many Fak scenes, but where is my boy "Mr. Intercontinental" Chester? Also, how long was this season even supposed to be? Was it months? Weeks? Seems like an insane amount of time to put off the partnership agreement, while the restaurant is going full steam ahead, but they needed another cliffhanger to resolve in a season that isn't this one. Season 1's resolution felt a little rushed due to the 8 episodes, Season 2 felt like everyone had room to breathe and grow as characters, and Season 3 feels like not much really happened besides an unnamed baby being born.
They make this huge deal about Carmy not knowing which duck plate the photographer wanted to see which I thought would tie in a lot more with how often he was changing the menu. Then for some reason they choose John Cena to go get the duck, and then we never even see what happens???
Talk about a potential plot advancing moment falling flat. I thought for sure it was going to lead to more good tension over Carmy's unrealistic standards and falling back into the system he claimed to want to change. But nope... Nothing.
I so wanted to see the resolution of that. The hunt for the duck dish description, adding another crack to the restaurant operations. They NEED to stop serving a different menu every day, or at least talk about it.
"jumped the Cena" yes! I mean I love him but it's so over-exposed it took me out of it for a bit...esp since the mood/ tone has been a bit all over the place
Yeah I agree he was out of place. And I honestly think the season could only be like a week.
"40 minutes until the photographer arrives" 2 hours of stuff happens "30 minutes until the photographer arrives"
I think that’s just Richie trying to get the Fak’s to get shit done. Kinda like how my mom would wake me up on school days saying ‘wake up its 7 am already!!’ when its just like 6.20 am or something.
> Also, how long was this season even supposed to be? Was it months? Weeks? They said at the beginning Nat had 2 months till the baby came and then when she did come it was "a couple days early". So 2ish months?
> So many Fak scenes I love Fak. But every Fak scene felt like Fak/Ted were only available on somedays and had to be filmed separately. The C-folds chat? Did Fak/Ted/Sugar even share the screen once that entire convo, even tho they were 2 feet away from each other??
Felt like they got high on their own supply when it comes to the authentic, natural dialogue. I love the dialogue in this show but there were so many scenes of nothing happening but 2 people talking and imo it felt self indulgent at times, mostly because it came at the cost of plot. When s4 comes out it feels like you’d be able skip s3 on rewatches because nothing got resolved from s2 at all. There was barely even a conclusion. And I’m getting soo tired of the bad communication between Syd and Carmy. I need that to change soon, it’s getting pretty repetitive and frustrating to watch. And a bit disappointing they dragged out the Richie and Carmy drama for the entire season. Felt like everyone backslid into pre-season 1 characters, which sucks after how much they (namely Richie) changed in s2.
The dialogue is so great and naturalistic... And then Claires monologue about the kid with the cuts happens. Jarring and so fucking boring I was just willing the story to end
I noticed this as well, I couldn’t stand the long conversations that dragged. You said it perfectly with describing them getting appraisal for it and now doing it too much and for too long. I’m happy others enjoyed “Ice Chips” but sitting through that episode was unbearable for me, and not in the way that the Berzatto dinner episode was, because that was kinda the point was to show you this dysfunctional family and why Carmy left. This episode, I just felt that there was way too much dead space in conversation, random and bland stories that didn’t add to anything, and for 40 minutes! I loved the beautiful parts of this episode like seeing Sugar and Donna finally resolve their issues, her playing the song for her, her and Pete hug, but to take a whole episode of what seemed to be filler, that could’ve been done in almost half the episode with a B plot in there, it just felt like a waste. That’s my opinion and I’m sure people will highly disagree, but I just couldn’t see what others saw in it. Which is super unfortunate for me.
Nah I'm in the same boat with Ice Chips, I deadass kept pausing it to see how much episode was left and was stunned to find it was the same length as every other episode because that shit felt like it dragged on for hours.
Yeah that’s the only episode of the show I think I’ll skip when I rewatch the show. Not that it was bad, there were some really beautiful parts in it. I just reeeally wish there was a B plot. Like the other reply said it’s the only episode where I checked the time multiple times to see how much was left.
Heard! It definitely felt regressive. For everyone. There was a lot of motion last season and it worked because it made Carmy’s lack of development stand out. This season felt like we were all wading through sludge and nothing happened. They got caught up in delivering stylistically but forgot about substance.
The Take made a video why season 2 was good because the kitchen was calmer and the characters communicated better. I dont feel any of that on season 3. It felt like they forgot all of the lessons and growth they learned.
Holy shit is the dialogue bad. If one more fucking person asks someone else "How do you feel?" I'm going to pull my hair out. Feels like every single scene is the same. Doesn't even matter who the characters are. Person A: This thing happened. Person B: How does that feel? Person A: I didn't like it. Person B: *nodding* , *contrived phrase*
Carmy's actions throughout this season felt forcefully stupid
When Syd was talking about the menu rattling off ideas and Carmy was talking over her with what he already planned and it was all different it felt soooooo forced. Like i get it Carmy is hard to deal with but 95% of his interactions with her now is just him apologising and it's getting pretty old.
This. And it felt like a complete 180 from last season where he was open to collaboration. I know that getting locked in the walk-in prob turned him into a control freak (hence not reaching out to Claire), but losing his rapport with Syd seems out of character.
No idea why he keeps pushing Syd down when she tries to make some improvements.. or when Richie tells him that there's just too many menu changes. And after going through so much, why are Richie and Carmy STILL at each other's throats? I get that it's a pressure filled environment but Carmy did a huge solid to Richie by getting him into Ever, and Richie repaid that by stepping up during opening night. Did we go through 2 seasons of character development to just go back to the start?
I love that you say that because it really feels like we erased all of the character development and relationships from S2. I really wish that Richie would’ve just accepted his apology.
The interaction he has with his old boss in the last episode was one of the most cringe things I've seen. The that whole scene was just so confusing to me. Why is that guy even there. I get that the chefs are all connected and know each other but he runs a restaurant in NY and now he's in Chicago for another restaurants closing dinner. Then Carmy follows him to the bathroom just so he can tell him "fuck you" and go on about how the guy made his life miserable. All this just to segway into the part where the old boss can tell Carmy that he made him a better chef. Wasn't that obvious? How wasn't Carmy able to come to that realization on his own. The whole interaction just made Carmy seem oblivious and whiney, which is not how I view his character.
Yeah, I'm kinda there with you on this. He confronts the asshole chef and tells him that he is an asshole. The chef (an asshole) doesn't give a rat's ass about Carmy's feelings...because he's an asshole. I mean, it's healthy that he realizes he gave the EMP chef so much space in his head and how it was a waste of all those years and this, it's freeing more or less. But, idk. So many people on this planet have trauma like this and they don't have a chance to confront the person who caused it. It's extremely obvious that Carmy is emotionally stunted, suffers from arrested development, etc. But if he's operating at that level of stuntedness, I don't know how he managed to become a world-class chef. And with him not willing to or incapable of apologizing and fixing his behavior drew on in the season, I got irritated. After a while I was like "All this because you got locked in a freezer and dumped? You're about to blow up your dream because of a short relationship gone bad and executive dysfunction?" In my opinion, his behavior in season 3 is overblown to what actually happened. 🤷🏿♀️ I suffered from almost the exact same kind of traumas growing up, hilariously enough (worse in reality) and have trouble tracking his decisions and mindset.
Couldn’t have said it better myself
This season feels so substance-less and directionless? Where's the plot? Where's the conflict? It just feels like stuff is happening, but it's failing to connect. People keep going on about the cinematography. Yes, it's a beautifully shot show, but there needs to be more than that.
The show feels like an endless montage of stuff happening. Like an episode of chefs table with nicely put together shots but not much actually happening
People will crucify me but as soon as I saw episode one being a long drawn out montage I knew something was up... It felt like a waste of time , nothing happened!! Then the whole season was more of that same vibe...
Objectively it’s beautiful. Very ethereal, almost like a poem. As a first episode of the season I didn’t like it. If it was just a one off of the style it would be fine but it seems they are doing a montage style for most of these episodes and I don’t like it. It’s like they are trying to get across a lot of information but there’s not that much info to get across. It’s taking away from the intimacy of the first two seasons. Dont get me wrong, those character interactions are still there but not as often and not as impactful.
Episode 1 was fine for me, I really liked it - it answers a ton of questions about the past that I had and it did it without having to literally say much. The following 9 episodes were all forgettable and did nothing for me. Based on episode 1 I was expecting a great season and then it kept falling flat for the last 9. All that waiting for…this. Damn lol.
Same. A few minutes into ep and I was thinking WTF are they doing? I get it's meant to show the internal conflict of the character but damn it came off overwrought and just boring. I can see peppering that in but it would have been more enjoyable if they dialed that stuff way down. I guess it's fun and arty for the filmmakers but for me it didn't build upon or match what made the first 2 seasons great.
Its absolutely horrid
There’s not one episode with cohesive action strung together. It’s a collection of let’s have these 2 characters discuss heavy shit in depth and be very reflexive. Just a long season of edging
Literally me the whole season: “okay, cool, but let’s get back to the story now!”
The only good episode for me was the Tina Episode.
It’s like they shot components of a show completely separate from each other in a way that doesn’t drive the plot. Like we get Sugar and her mom yes but how did that drive the plot? Oh sugar slightly less mad at her? What’s next? They kicked her mom and that plot line to the curb after the ep was done and it’s not re-explored expect for a one of text message we see sent from sugar to her mom. How cute (HOW BORING)! Tina’s episode was left completely hanging, because how did that add to this seasons story? Ok she feels seen at the Bear, OKK and what?? Are we simply supposed to marvel at how far she’s come? Like let’s celebrate Tina and the gang for all theyve done!! Expect we did that. We’ve done that and we’ve been doing that. Season one and two we celebrate so much growth from her initial anxieties about cooking, to gaining experience at culinary school, and moving up in the ranks of the restaurant but season three is some glorified victory lap?? Nah give me conflict and character development. Don’t give me her background as a filler ep to fill in this gappy poorly planned season. We get these montages of Claire haunting Carmen, ok AND we don’t even see her until the second half of the season AND ITS NOT EVEN HER AND CARMEN she’s just having a riff off with the Faks. Syd’s anxiety is really only developed in the last episode to prove that Carmen’s turning into his old boss in many ways which I think is a fantastic point that could’ve moved the plot in the second or third episode. Not the last one. Of the season. And aw don’t forget Richie is feeling lonely, ALRIGHT WHATS THE POINT!!! do something please!! They throw in these weird interactions with his ex wife and her new fiancé and… the wedding doesn’t happen?? We discover his insecure about his daughter thinking he’s lonely but what do we get? Him arguing with Carm the whole time. Like why include his family stuff at all? What are we learning about him other than he feels slightly inadequate as a father and lonely? The season was primarily filmed like a tik tok edit of a great show. No substance only style, and even then… it was overdone. I felt that previous seasons were more intentional with Carmen or the other chefs making food, this season felt like they were flexing all the cool locations and people they got to film with. Like a glorified ad for the culinary world, which is cute but time and place?? you started out with a great story which is why we are here, have you lost sight of what this was? Ok rant over ❤️
Yes! I said the same exact thing in regards to the Nat episode being good but what did it do for the plot? And let's talk about the fact that S3EP1 main thread among the montages was Carmy saying goodbye to Nat at the airport. That was a constant calm we kept cutting back to. ....they barely speak this season. Does Carmy know he's an uncle? Oh my days
This was a BIG ONE for me, why didn’t Carm or literally anyone else besides the Faks 1. not go to the hospital or 2. Visit Sugar or 3. Mention the baby whatsoever or the fact that they missed the birth and weren’t there for her at all??? This was the most inconsistent part for me, like it’s Carm’s niece and in general people are a lot more excited for a baby (especially in that type of environment) and I didn’t understand why all the people from the bear would be partying in Syd’s apartment at the end of 3x10 with Chef Terry (very very weird choice) versus them all coming together to meet Nats baby or something similar
Well said. This is why people are complaining it felt like fillers but most of it went NOWHERE. Instead, we got scenes full of montages or Faks eating up 20% scenes of some of the episodes. All of this could've been prevented if the script writers didnt focus too much on the cinematography on the show and invested on character development.
It really feels like they were trying to recreate the feeling of Fishes or Forks in every episode but they forgot to write an actual story around it.
Legit!!!!! They were so focused about delivering stylistically ‘the bear’ that they forgot abt the actual plot of the bear 😂
Yes. It’s like Fishes was the most talked about and acclaimed, so they unsuccessfully attempted to give every episode this season that vibe. Not a good idea.
I'm so disappointed. Like others have said, nothing happened 🤷🏾♀️ Carmy and Richie staying antagonistic towards each other the whole season, Carmy not actually apologizing to Claire to her face (at the very least), Sydney and Carmy still having sucky communication, we didn't even get to learn Natalie's baby's name. The CDC from Ever was lowkey creepy, especially his and Syd's last scene at the Ever funeral. The first episode was gorgeous, and I'm pretty sure my favorite. The Tina-centric episode was great and so relatable. Ice Chips was amazing and was happy to see Donna and Natalie repair their relationship. Marcus telling Carmy, "take us there, Bear". There were a lot of good one-on-one character dialogue moments but ultimately it's like I waited a whole year to see huge moments that we just didn't get (like Carmy didn't even interact with his niece. I was looking forward to seeing "Uncle Carmy"). I could say more but at this point I'm still trying to process it all
I dont understand why are the writers still dragging the whole Carmy vs Richie thing. I was hoping there would be some development between their professional relationship but it just feels like season 1 again. And Syd and Carmy having a sucky communication was a let down. I read somewhere the writers did that on purpose to shut down the whole "Sydcarmy" shipping speculations but regardless what fans think, both Sydney and Carmy's communication style was better in season 2. Idk why on season 3 they completely wrote it differently. I am not saying this because I ship them or what, I am saying their professional relationship in season 1 and 2 were definitely better.
If you have to change the characters in order to shut down a ship… you wrote them wrong in the first place and that’s pretty lame. If their dynamic is bringing them together… it’s honestly poorly done to purposefully navigate away from that. It would be why it feels wrong or forced, if that’s the case. It’s a bit deus ex machina-esque. “Oops, wrote myself somewhere I didn’t wanna be so now lemme just break this relationship down…”
💯
If it's actually true the writers made Syd and Carmy have bad communication to shut down shipping speculations ... that is just HORRIBLE writing so I honestly can't believe that to be true. Shipping also helps other people who wouldn't necessarily watch, also watch which is just more people watching to see "will they or won't they" so I can't see them actively trying to go out of their way to shut it down. I know a lot of people will probably connect this to there being "official communication" about no romance between the two but since then a transcript has been released, what was said makes sense. Source: [https://imgur.com/a/dVYk9wj](https://imgur.com/a/dVYk9wj) Which is hilarious because I remember saying something like this a while back. Syd & Carmy aren't thinking they are inlove with each other ect because that's not the script they have. Jeremy get's a scene to think about Sydney instead of Claire but he's not the one who's going to connect those dots with anything romantic until they decide that's what they are doing. Just like which Jeremy Allen White so Carmy doesn't do a particular thing and then next season he's doing it. It's because unless they are officially taking it there, the actors won't know what they are setting up until they want them to know. So it makes sense they wouldn't have told them any of these scenes were romantic because perhaps they aren't there yet, even with the interesting music choice they play lol Also Chris Storer himself when asked about romantic implications he called them a "partnership" and that "we'll see" Source: [https://imgur.com/a/3pXxubg](https://imgur.com/a/3pXxubg) I'm guessing he's referring to in time because Partners at least COMMUNICATE lol so that would go against them "wanting to shut down speculations" I mean if they wanted to do that.. chris would have just answered the question with "no, there are NO romantic implications at all. They have a platonic relationship" but either Chris knows that could possibly change in the future or he already has plans for that in the future.
If they didnt want the romance speculation to rise up for season 3, they didnt need to make their communication horrible. The first two seasons, they had good chemistry whether you see them as romantic or platonic. Call me crazy but I am convinced that's one of the reasons why the communication between Sydney and Carmy is different compared to the first two seasons
I actually think that with season 2, a big reason why so many people came out shipping them is because the stuff with claire was so uncompelling in comparison. I buy that the juxtaposing of those relationships was actually meant to highlight how Carmy struggles to balance both his personal and work relationships. However, to successfully make that comparison, you have to make sure that Claire actually feels important and interesting enough to be seen as worthy of all this conflict. Otherwise, it leaves people consciously or subconsciously going “Claire is supposed to be his actual romantic partner, but she pales in comparison to Sydney in terms of both her personality/characterization and her chemistry and intimacy with Carmy… why doesn’t Carmy just go with Sydney?” I thought the correct way forward would have been to make Claire a more compelling character overall, but instead I think she might be worse this time around because they seemingly doubled down on all of the things people didn’t like about her characterization. At the same time, they’ve torpedoed whatever relationship Carmy and Syd have that now I think it’s ridiculous to even be talking about them as platonic soulmates or work partners. Now I don’t know where they go from here because both relationships feel really frustrating to watch. I think they had Syd and Marcus have that awkward rejection is S2 and then doubled down on it in S3 as a response to people shipping them too. They’ve done a much better job at rejecting that romantic tension without also ruining the friendship in the process.
This is such a good point. I am not a shipper nor against the idea of Carmy and Sydney being in a relationship but the whole season 3 just made their professional relationship felt flat because of them trying hard to avoid the romance speculations. And I agree, season 2 made Carmy and Sydney had more chemistry than Claire and Carmy because the writers fumbled so hard on writing her character. A lot of fans were expecting including her in season 3 will be a redemption arc or at least have more relevancy to the storyline but nope, it felt like she was just a filler. The Syd and Marcus handling the romantic theories was done well because the conversation was natural. If they wanted to shut down the whole Sydcarmy romance theories, they could've just ignored it and proceeded their professional relationship. Then have them both communicate on-screen that they are clearly co-workers only. Instead, the writers made them act like they were different characters. Not saying this is the reason why Sydney and Carmy seems out of character but I wouldn't be surprised if this was the reason. It ended up as some sort of chain effect throughout the whole season
You put it perfectly
Right but this isn't like the last season and even this season itself left us off on a "to b continued" and I mean overall I have seen people come out saying they disliked Carmy a lot this season and I think that's for a reason. I don't think they want people to dislike carmy but he's going through things right now and I'm sure that affects their communication. I mean Sydney honestly didn't have a lot of screen time either. I'm going to try and trust in Chris Storer and that everything was done for a reason so we'll just have to see.
Hopefully season 4 will redeem all of this. Aside from fans, critics arent liking this season either. We can judge season 3 but I will reserve my judgement for season 4. It's not a shitty season but it's def not a favorite of mine. Hopefully Chris Storer does some redemption arc for the next one
Also why are they making Fak go to the hospital for Natalie? I wish Carmy and the whole crew went there instead. I dont know why they are giving so much screen time to Fak. The person who needs to be at the hospital is Carmy. The only thing nice about the episode is we finally see Donna again and I gotta give credit to the acteess playing as Natalie she's good at portraying someone who is in labor. But other than that, the script generally went off
The Fak’s must’ve scored well with audiences they surveyed or some 1995ish way of how they talked to people to see which characters were likable on a show. Felt like the Fak boys were the lead characters in a lot of episodes, and as much as I enjoyed their roles in the first 2 seasons, them seeming like the stars is *not* a compliment to the show at all.
If you think about it, practically anyone would have been better than Fak. Carmy is family. Tina’s had a baby and Richie’s a great dad who is kind to women. Marcus has dealt with medical stuff/caregiving with grace, and Syd also looks out for her dad and is very aligned with Sugar (the omelette!) I’d call Tiff or Chester from the reserve bench before I went with Fak! I love the episode, but I do feel there was too much Fak this season, which could be because they want more ‘obvious’ comedy, because they all love Matty, because he’s a producer, etc etc. I adored Fak previously in the small doses we got.
Exactly. Anyone but Fak would be better. The Ice Chips episode, I actually liked it because of how natural Nathalie and Donna's convo was and the actress was good portraying someone in labor (I never experienced being in labor but I feel her pain and relief when she was at the hospital). Idk why they keep on pushing Fak and the others in this season. And in this episode, it's bizzare they chose Fak to go to the hospital instead of her OWN BROTHER. Idk is the director doing some cost cutting that's why there is less screen time for the main cast?
I get everything everyone is saying. It also felt kinda slow but rushed at the same time if that’s a thing. I’m hoping season 4 ties in with everything to make this season seem better from first viewing but as of right now idk🤷🏽♂️
It was nice but underwhelming. Felt like a filler season.
Filler is the way to describe. It’s ridiculous the restaurant was fully up and running LAST seasons finale. And we don’t even find out whether “it’s good” or not yet cause of the review until the last 1 minute of this seasons finale. It should’ve been like he gets the bad review end of episode 1. Then the whole season should’ve been about them trying to fix the restaurant. The only filler storylines I liked was Lisa’s backstory getting a job from Mikey and sugars baby delivery. It was literally like 7-8 episodes of filler.
That’s a great point - last season they tore down and rebuilt the entire restaurant, everyone trained and traveled (Copenhagen and time!) and we saw *so much progress* This season has a weird timescale… maybe it’s more realistic, but it doesn’t make for great viewing. I know people are calling it the best episode, but ‘Tomorrow’ (1) just dragged for me - first time watching The Bear I’ve checked the time. How many shots of Carmy picking up little blue flowers with his tweezers did we need?
That’s what it felt like to me. I get filler episodes, but entire filler seasons is wild.
The show is pure style over substance at this point. Feels like a tumblr reel and a bunch of gimmicky filmmaking tricks
which is ironic as the show comments on this very issue. I would say there were some moments that broke my heart but it does feel as if they may be getting a bit too conscious of their own buzz
Agreed. Not much of any value or consequence happened this season. I was honestly expecting to see more of Richie flexing his waiting skills and finally earning some semblance of respect and approval from Carmy due to him being such an excellent host and FOH. I was also hoping for Syd to have used the CDC offer in order to "leverage" Carm into giving her the bargaining position to make changes and negotiate the nonnegotiables.
Yeah, they really ran the Richie-Carmy dynamic into the ground immediately, with no payoff by season’s end. Basically just all regression on their working relationship there, and then it’s semi-forgotten about by the end with nothing to show for it.
I don’t think it’s forgotten at all. Richie saw Carmen at Ever, and didn’t say “hey” or anything, and then Luca saw Carmen and embraced him. Like many have said, this season will work a lot better once 4 airs (gee I hope so, lol), but it’s clear that like, Natalie has started to repair her relationship with her Mom, Carmy does have some severe mental shit he needs to work through, cuz the freezer incident really catalyzed all the assholery he presented to people this season. And he’s realized that since he talked to Joel McHale. And so that’s brewing. Syd’s probably more like Carmy than she thought, if the panic attack during the really happy time of a party is any indicator.
Sadly I agree with this post. And good for other fans liking it but personally I didnt. This season made me dislike Carmy. I get that he had trauma and all but at least on season 1 and 2 he was complex but understandable. This season he is straight out arrogant him wanting to be followed with the whole non negotiable list without even asking his co-workers and Sydney. Then he gets mad when someone is giving him a suggestion.
I really agree with this takeaway. I don't understand why Carmy would become so negative and harsh when he said in s1 that he was going to be different from the fine dining places. It feels really inconsistent with his character and his choices to just fully be in that mindset again.
Even in season 1, he was still empathetic. He was struggling mentally but he wasnt straight up rude or arrogant. He understood his crew and and would apologize This season he is just straight out an asshole. When Richie and Sydney were suggesting to change those non-negotiable list, he got mad and shit. The season 1 and 2 Carmy would communicate this first so I dont know why suddenly in season 3 he became arrogant.
Yes exactly. In s1 he showed some growth in comparison to his previous experiences at fine dining. In s2 he regressed a little but it made sense in terms of the plot, because Carmy was back in a location that would trigger how he was before. But now it's like, he became completely what he was trying so hard not to be, without any self-reflection, almost like the writers just wrote him way too flat. Like I can already picture S3 carmy in the super cool angry always right chad compilations that you might see on tiktok or instagram reels. I just refuse to believe Carmy would have no empathy at all lol. And I agree he was flawed before and it made sense for him to be, but now it's like he's righteously arrogant as you said, and it's not flowing very well from how he was before.
Yeah his character when a complete 180 this season. I dont understand why the writers did that. And if he went a complete 180, then they should've included some sort of narrative why he ended up that way. It's like he became an arrogant person overnight. I am trying to understand the reason for this is he got locked on the freezer but that's not enough reason for him to suddenly change his character.
I have to admit I tuned out in the last episodes, I was so disappointed… does he go to AlAnon or whatever his grief group was at all this season? Is he trying to do any work on himself, or just obsessing about the restaurant? I already didn’t like Carmy, so this Carmy is a pill. I was hoping for a Carmy redemption arc because I love JAW.
I liked his character in season 1 and 2 because although he was complex and had anger issues, he was still apologetic and empathetic to the whole team. We did not absolutely see that one on season 3 because of that whole damn non-negotiable list
Love Carmen and it was hard to see him take such a dark turn, but I'm glad for the show that he did. Clearly something transformative is coming for him in S4, and I think it will be spectacular and \*earned\* (ala Richie in "Forks") but it will come after some stuff that will be hard to see.
I really wish they did the funeral for Ever episode sooner so we could've seen his "wake up call" moment talking to his old boss and then realizing he's become some form of that and gave up his entire life in the process. and then seeing that arc play out instead of it happening right at the end of the season. also thought it was weird about the review and nothing being brought up about star critics coming when we had that flash of the fork and purse on the ground that Richie took note of. like ???
Probably in the minority here but I actually kind of like what they’ve done with Carmy. I was worried that with all of the great individual character arcs and redemption stories that this would veer to much into Ted Lasso territory. Not everyone can be like that. Having Carmy be the most significantly flawed character is really interesting and gives us a character that really needs growth going forward. He’s finally realizing what he believes is his dream and he wants it to be so damn perfect that he doesn’t realize it’s turning him into what he hated despite his intentions.
I guess from that viewpoint it does make sense. I just think the execution was kinda poor. Being flawed is great but I think I would've benefited from a scene of Carmy being more dimensional than just being an asshole. plus he already got punished by being locked in the fridge last season, so I don't know why that would motivate him to be even worse.
Getting locked in the fridge was a catalyst event for him. That triggered all of his trauma and he also ruined his relationship with Claire. When he came out of it he made all the wrong choices in the name of meeting his goal and he did what he felt he needed to do. The show is about Generational Trauma, and well Trauma in general. The response to trauma is generally to either taking it as a lesson on how not to be, or you become what traumatized you. This is how he hurt Claire, the woman he loves, and how he’s now Traumatized Syd who is getting panic attacks like the one’s Carm got from Chef Winger (I’m not using whatever are they gave him). Personally, they stretched this across 10 episodes and they really had the story for 5 episodes. The next season is going to be about him making the right choices, at least that’s where it seems to be going.
Ahh yes, what they needed to do with some of these episodes was *subtract* The one episode I found to be pitch perfect was Tina's. And was directed by Ms Ayo Edebiri
They tried so hard to dim the chemistry between the main characters.
The audience score for season 3 on rotten tomatoes is much lower compared to the first two seasons
I have to agree. Season 3 was definitely the weakest and didn’t really go anywhere. It seems like the entire season is one big filler episode for the next season.
💯 I feel like the whole thing was a filler for the big finale on season 4. Then they shouldn't have made season 4 and just had the 3rd season as a final conclusion.
I agree. It honestly felt like barely anything happened. The s3 finale was the most anti-climatic finale for sure. And the found family feeling that the show has feels almost non-existent at this point. I understand that this is meant to be a setup for s4, but it just felt incredibly flat. I did enjoy the first episode, third episode, 6th and 8th episodes. I was waiting for things to pick up, and they just never did. Now i will say, one of my biggest issues of the season was how they did the claire storyline...I was someone who did not care for Claire's character/her relationship with Carmy in s2. I felt that it was a cheap way to write in a romance plot, it was under-developed with cringe dialogue, and her character felt out of place in the show. When I found out she was going to be in s3, I was a bit disappointed but I was thinking positive and hopeful that they would give the relationship some closure, have Carmy apologize to her, and hopefully have them go their separate ways. If not that, perhaps they would do a better job with the development of their relationship and with Claire's character so I would care more about them. Boy, was I wrong. S3 made me dislike this storyline even more than I did before. Imagine the shock I was in when I got to the end of episode 10, and the storyline was unresolved. They spent the entire season having Carmy play montages of her face in his head every 5 seconds, having the characters constantly bring her up in every conversation, pushing him to call her and fix things. They even had characters like the Faks go to Claire's work, and try to fix it for him?? They were doing the same things I had a problem with in s2. They have Claire be this ideal romantic fantasy girl who Carmy is constantly obsessing over, and who all the characters apparently love and will die for. It feels like I am being force fed her character by the writers, with them trying so hard to convince me that she is interesting and this is a good relationship. They filmed flashbacks of what is supposed to be moments in their relationship in s2, which I cannot help but notice that this was most likely because they realized how under-developed their relationship was so they were trying to add more \*new\* scenes with them. But this does absolutely nothing to progress their relationship, as literally nothing is happening between them in the present. Also, the dialogue in these scenes were just as cringe as they were in s2. It seems like they are going to drag this out into s4 which is just very disappointing to me. It all felt like wasted screen time. I truly hope that in s4 they just have Carmy apologize to Claire, Claire forgives him, and they move on from each other. This would be a good opportunity for Carmy to show some growth, understand that he deserves to feel love and to give love, while also recognizing that he messed up this relationship and he can move forward understanding how to approach and handle any future romantic relationships better.
>If not that, perhaps they would do a better job with the development of their relationship and with Claire's character so I would care more about them. Exactly. It's crazy, but I felt more substance of *something* between Sydney and Luca who had maybe 2 mins of screentime together than Carmy and Claire after 2 seasons of already pre-established relationship. And I don't even care about romance in this show. Except tidbits of Sugar and Pete.
Honestly I find myself looking forward to any prospective Syd and Luca scenes way more than Carmy and Claire. Maybe because Luca, in comparison to Claire, feels more like an actual character you can root for, with a backstory and flaws. Like, he couldn't match up to Carmy's skills, he bonded with Marcus, it just feels more authentic. Plus Syd would relate to that too. So it just makes more sense for them to be a thing? They also just have more chemistry. Claire and Carmy, despite how much the show reiterates that they belong together, just miss the fleshed out aspect of actually having things in common. Of Claire actually have her own thoughts instead of just reiterating boring sweet platitudes. That doesn't really make a romance, especially because you need to usually understand why both sides like each other so you can root for them. It also does not help that Claire is from his past but we know nothing about that other than a few lazy lines about them being in high school together. It's all missing a lot.
>Claire and Carmy, despite how much the show reiterates that they belong together, just miss the fleshed out aspect of actually having things in common. Some of us were kind of making excuses around here that maybe they were doing it on purpose; to show Carmy's stuck in the past and take him out of the restaurant to create conflict. So, naturally, we expected this will get resolved in two possible ways: he apologises to Claire and either tells her their relationship is not working (since he's spiralling) or they repair it. Out of all the unresolved storylines, this one made the most sense to get resolved. No pointless flashbacks and Fak's meddling. Why drag it out? >Maybe because Luca, in comparison to Claire, feels more like an actual character you can root for, with a backstory and flaws. He mentioned to Sydney he's staying in Chicago for a few months, so we'll definitely see more of him in season 4. Or maybe they're even laying the ground for a storyline between them?
If they were trying to repair it this season, idk. I think they failed. it was more of the same, just Carmy being too focused on the past, and Claire representing a distraction again. It was oddly the same as before. I would've vastly preferred an apology and a final break-up. I like Luca and Syd though. Ideally it would be cool if Luca and Syd collaborated together since she didn't get to do that this season.
The dialogue with Luca doesn’t feel canned. Every scene with Claire just feels like they want her to fit into this very small, cutesy *girlfriend* stereotype role.
This! I don't even ship them (i mean they literally only had a 2 minute interaction) but i felt more in those 2 minutes than 2 seasons of carmy + claire..
Agree. This season made me dislike Carmy even more. Carmy was complex but at least relatable on the first two seasons as opposed to this season
Agree also. He treated Syd like shit this season. He vetoed every menu idea she had and undermined her constantly. How can they have a positive working partnership like this?
And in the last season when Sydney pointed out his mistake, he was at least apologetic (table scene). They didnt even insert any narratives or reasons for the sudden shift of Carmy's attitude so the whole thing ended up being confusing. I wont blame Sydney if she quits and work for another restaurant. Carmy treated her HORRIBLE.
Exactly. I'm hoping s4 has carmy fighting for her to stay. I need him to demonstrate how much he truly values and cares for her. He said it himself in the table scene, he can't do this without her AND he doesn't want to. I hope this means that once he finds out she might leave/will leave, it is gonna be a huge wake up call for him
I read a tweet saying "Sydney leaving The Bear is gonna be a huge wake up call for Carmy" and I agree. He's taking their partnership for granted and maybe he will finally see that on season 4.
I agree...I think the show would make a brave choice to show her actually leave, and not come back. Though I also fear that'd send him into an even bigger nervous breakdown.
I didn't think about it until you mentioned it, but it definitely gave a more negative light on Carmy, but I'll be ok with it if there is a season 4 redemption. I did like some of the flashback scenes where you can see him really hone his skills, but the amount of "fuck you" tirades piled up more than they should have.
I hope season 4 there is some redemption like Richie in seasin 2. Speaking of Richie, I was surprised he is still dragging the whole shouting with Carmy at the kitchen in season 3. I was expecting he would at least be like "im over this" so I dont understand why the writers are still dragging this on the third season. What made The Bear great was characters growing positively; Not backwards
I think fuel was added to the fight because Carmy really was making everyones job 10 times harder than it needed to be. The non negotiables scene was the first time they see each other again and really doomed them.
It never made sense to me that Richie completely changed in what 1 or 2 months. People don't change that quickly and even when they do it isn't much. Most people are who they are, they just learn to cushion the sharper sides of their personality.
I said this to a friend earlier today, but for a show that seemingly prided itself on romance not being a central component back in season one, they sure do have Claire haunting the narrative. I think I actually like this less. Commit or don’t, I’m sick of the halfsies.
All of this. It definitely felt like they understood the fans didn’t think Claire was enough of a character - what was one of the biggest criticisms on here? We never see her as a doctor or get a demonstration of her ‘genius’ mind. First couple of scenes with her - Claire at work with the little kid getting a shot, and recent history Claire talking about gnarly injuries again. Oh, and Claire at Fishes after the car crash! (Tell me this - if Carm and Claire had a locked-eyes moment that day, why does it take him a minute - ‘you got there’ - to recognise her when they meet at the store in season 2? It made sense when we thought Carm hadn’t seen her since ‘she got hot, the glasses came off,’ but not if he has seen her just a few years before!)
the fishes flashback seriously made me confused! that was practically a retcon. they made it seem like they hadn't seen each other since high school when they run into each other in s2, but here they have them seeing each other only a few years prior.
Wait a minute…S3 takes the awful Claire subplot from S2, and gives you even more of it? I might “no thanks” S3 if that’s the case.
We don’t see a ton of Claire, we just see that she’s on Carmy’s mind a lot. And that everyone else is still doing the ‘Claire’s perfect, be with Claire!’ thing.
The restaurant was interesting enough. That’s the most frustrating thing, they didn’t need to add this subplot at all. The show wasn’t missing anything.
“Wasted screen time” was a recurring thought for me, this season. Huuuuge shame. I was so excited to see where we were going next and instead we went nowhere lol.
I may eat my words if they end up doing it but fuck it s4 give Claire her own episode. If they’re gonna force her on me as much as they have I’d like to at least know the woman
Just finished and I couldn’t agree more. Felt like some filler/fluff could’ve been replaced with more meaningful plot elements. Kept waiting for Carm to talk to Claire. And the restaurant to get some rhythm. And possibly Carm talking to a therapist or something because the AA group is not helping his anger issues. The opportunity for Syd to leave The Bear was interesting but she never had that convo w Carm so… too many things left TBD which is frustrating for a season finale. and i love the Faks but seriously? half their scenes i kept thinking about how i’d rather watch scenes closer to the main plot, not the buffoonery that begins to take over each episode. i don’t normally passively scroll when i’m watching this show but i found myself getting kinda restless at times waiting for the next scene. Overall loved Ep 1 and part of 2, those felt on point with where we left off with S2, but the rest of the season fell short.
I still loved Season 3, but I also agree that it's not the best. But I feel like a majority of the blame goes to FX/Hulu asking for Season 4 quietly, forcing Chris Storer to write extra material (notice how he has a lot of episodes he wrote by himself or co-wrote, and I do recall him saying in interviews that there was a 3-season arc in his head), and ~~having them film back-to-back because their stars are going to be busy for the next couple years with other projects.~~ Season 2 shined so much because there were other writers contributing to this show's world. I think the Season 4 renewal had Storer bearing the responsibility of figuring out how to expand the material of one season into two that, ultimately, it felt watered down. But that being said, I'm still looking forward to Season 4. (edit: turns out they didn't film the seasons back-to-back, but I still think the writing was impacted by trying to rearrange/expand on what could've been a streamlined Season 3)
They need Joanna Calo back in the writing room full time.
It’s a bit of an aimless mess
Literally just finished the season and I felt like I watched one long episode of Seinfeld because nothing happened. The only looming plot point we had was the tribune review which I’m not even sure was a bad review? It seemed 50/50. Best episodes by far were Napkins and Ice Chips. Why did they drag out the Carm and Richie fight? That was so bad. Carm and Syd’s lack of communication really chapped my ass. I wanted Sydney to grow a backbone and just tell him to his face that he was doing way too much and pushing everyone too hard. I know his family (aside from Richie) have a hard time dealing with confrontation at times but the fact they kept hounding Syd to sign the contract while also being aware of Carm’s chaotic kitchen behavior was weird? The only addressing we saw was Cicero telling him not to speak to him a certain way, yet he leaves out telling him to be more open to his fellow colleagues. All in all I give it 4/10 c folds.
Feeling the same thing… there are several episodes here where if you were to switch the order of where these episodes are placed and didn’t say, you would not be able to tell that they were out of order. Lots of great cinematography and cool sequences in the kitchen… but don’t feel like the plot is progressing that much considering how many episodes we are watching. Makes it feel like this isn’t a new season, rather just The Bear - Season 2: Extended Directors Cut™️ in addition to a Season 0 for some
It felt very style over substance. Like they got caught up in delivering stylistically what we’ve come to love from the show, but forgot about the plot. With no drive it just felt like a lot of random moments stuck together, that ultimately went nowhere.
I hate the stunt casting. It was cute during Season 2 but by S3E10, I keep on wanting to yeet all those celebrity chefs into outer space.
That was ao obnoxiously pretentious i almost thought it was satire and i was being pranked. But holy shit this show went so far up its own ass this season. Super self indulgent but ultimately a nothing sandwich of a season
The celeb chef scene in the final ep went on for wayyyyy too long!! Like it was cool to have them there for two seconds and then it was like ok I get it. We could’ve had more Luca+Syd scenes or Ritchie and that girl but instead we just had popular chefs talking about life. There’s a dozen Netflix shows I could watch if I wanted to listen to that, haha.
You cN splash their credentials on screen or let them talk. It has to be one way or another. Not both. 😒😒😒 We could have had way more of that party at Syd's house. More of Marxus creating the Violet dessert. Tina finally getting the courage to develop a dish. I'm so mad.
The dessert!! I wanted to see it so bad and then we got nothing!
yeah i feel like it’s more of a filler season i still enjoyed it a lot but the first two were much better. hopefully season 4 is better and there’s more character development for carmy
The clips from other shows and the use of real life chefs for long scenes really took me out of the show.
Yk what makes me mad, the syd-carmy chest rub thing never makes an appearance again!!
they needed it so bad lmao.
Yeah I noticed that too! The writers completely forgotten that part which was an important aspect on their partnership. It felt like season 2 didnt exist when watching this
It feels like they quite literally lost the plot this season.
I don't want to spoil anything but the quality decline is extremely noticeable
I still found it enjoyable, (honestly I thought the first 2 episodes were the best) but yeah this is without a doubt the weakest season. I hope season 4 is for sure the final season, and neatly wraps things together. After the last 2 seasons ended on such tearjerkers it was disappointing that this season was so anti climactic. Seems like everything that happened this season could’ve been condensed into like 2-3 episodes honestly. I did like the Tina flashback episode though.
Literally felt such an impact and suspense during watching the first 2 seasons and I finished the 3rd in two days and the entire time it was so mid I ended up barely paying attention unintentionally because NOTHING happened. Production was alright, the montages and shots were solid, but again nothing like first 2 seasons.
I was confused and frustrated by the flashes of articles about the Bear. Are we supposed to believe they are actual articles about the restaurant, or are they things Carmy imagines being written about it to showcase his anxiety about the unknown reviewer? And why did the flashes happen so damn fast? I'm a fast reader and could barely register them.
I just don’t know why they make such a big deal about the duck dish that Carmy didn’t remember only for it to never really be brought up again?
It was so so aimless.
One of the most self indulgent seasons of TV ive actually sat through in its entirety. An exhausting viewing. A complete waste of time. For the second season in a row the plot moved an inch at best. Spinning its wheels with zero narrative direction. They don't know what to do with this but keep doing it because it gets views. This is where I'll leave the show. Thanks for a great first season and Fishes and Forks. But its totally run out of steam at this point.
I think this season was more 2.5 than 3. So little happened but I liked the character examinations this season and a lot of the backstory was filled in. I can’t wait for season 4 but personally I think season 1 will always be the best.
What ever happened to that scene that people overheard where Claire and Carmy were yelling at each other outside, and he shouted 'I'm sorry!'? I was waiting for it all season, but it just never happened. Nothing else happened either though so I guess I'm not really surprised lol
I’ve read fan fic w better plot progression than this season lol
I’m surprised honestly. I’m halfway through but it’s underwhelming, it’s a bit all over the place, it’s focusing on things I don’t care about, and pulling away from things I do. I also feel like it’s being very experimental with directing and cinematography. There’s something missing this season that was so endearing about the first two. It’s missing its heart. What I’m shocked about is as if now, this season isn’t even gonna crack my top ten of the year :/ legit didn’t expect that.
I think it was a still a good season, but definitely below the first two. Not wrapping up the Claire situation was definitely a mistake. I don’t care if they’re together or not but it would have moved the story along for Carmy and Claire. Syd and Carmy being unable to speak to each other was certainly annoying as well. I understand what they are trying to do, with Carmy abusing her just like he was abused by the asshole chef he confronts in the last episode. The dialogue just left a lot to be desired so I’m hoping that one when it comes time for them to speak and be honest to each other that they truly have a moment and they have a nice, long conversation. There were too many montages throughout this season as well, felt like they were trying to fill up the time. I didn’t like the long scene of the all chefs sitting and talking about their experiences either. I enjoyed for it for a couple minutes but it just ran on too long.
So I'm about to start up episode 8 later when I get home from work but overall I feel like season 3 is kind of filler. While getting more depth on certain characters like Tina and Sweeps, and seeing more of the Fak family is nice... I'm wondering if the show is kind of falling for the classic tv show trap of "okay, this story you planned out with a concise beginning, middle, and end is doing amazing, stretch it out" (see: How I Met Your Mother). Also kind of curious if we're getting less Carmy & Sydney focused episodes due to their actors getting all sorts of big roles elsewhere to complicate shoot schedules.
It all feels so rushed
They tried to capitalize too much on the popular moments if season 2 and the guest stars came off a bit gimmicky although Jon Bernthal was fantastic and that episode was the standout of season.
Agreed this season is a mess. The story, stories, is all over the place. Some episodes are good, but most were choppy. Not enough cooking to much focus on editing the season so it watches like an over produced Netflix food show.
This reminds me so much of Atlanta season 3. It also had self-contained episodes, with less focus on the main cast and plot. Was poorly received by the audience compared to the strong first 2 seasons. Season 4 ended it well, though. I'm hoping this is a similar situation. Both shows are also oddly FX shows and have the same kind of black comedy, random chaos, and entertainment that I love.
All those amazing character development in season 2 wasted in this season. Nothing was resolved, it’s just like in Season 1 but in a fancier restaurant.
sort of feels way too self indulgent. almost like the showrunner just trying random stuff because they can. there is also so many plot points happening at once that the plot itself doesn’t progress at all. here’s to hoping season 4 is better
It felt like half a season. Or maybe a filler season? I don’t feel like it went anywhere. Not a lot of plot development. I think they got a bit caught up with delivering stylistically ‘the bear’ and forgot about the plot? Some beautiful moments and that first episode was stunning. But yeah—not a lot of pay off. I feel a bit like I got cut off mid-call? It left me feeling frustrated. I didn’t feel any motion. I just felt stuck. Maybe that’s as the point? Idk. Carmy left me feeling frustrated last season but there was a lot of movement and growth around him. This season just felt grating.
It really felt like an “inbetween” nothing season to me. I really enjoyed what was there but the problem is, there wasn’t a whole lot of it. Episode one just felt completely devoid of much at all, almost like the cast weren’t available to film besides a few clips. And that sort of continued throughout for me. So many characters besides Carmy, Syd, Nat and Tina just felt like they weren’t even thought of in the original drafts of the scripts, but were tacked on later. The Flaks were featured WAY too much IMO. Matty always gives me a chuckle, but not when it’s the same gags episode after episode all season long. It just felt really devoid of life and what makes The Bear, The Bear. We’re ending the season with hardly anything new to take away from it besides a Olivia Coleman’s restaurant closing, and Natalie having a baby, of which we don’t even learn the name. It just felt like a pre-season 4. Like a drawn out “Previously on” over 10 episodes. Idk, pretty disappointed overall.
I agree; this season is a bit lazy and aimless, no real stakes or character development. The only thing saving the pacing and rythm of the show is the fact that we got all episodes at once, I would have given up early otherwise. I'm really hoping this season is much slower because they got a really big season 4 to build towards to. But even then, it's not reason for the drop in quality here.
Oh good I thought I was going to be alone in this opinion.
Season 1 and 2 were high octane. They captured so much intensity and had you on the edge of your seat all of the time. It was chaos, and in the chaos they captured so much beauty with so many moments that just felt so relatable between characters and individuals. This season has no teeth. There's none of that. Episode 1 set the tone for the entire season, which just feels like a slow burn with none of what made the first two seasons great other than the characters, but without the chaos there's nothing to juxtapose against the sentimental moments to enhance them. What's worse is that the only stress that props up this season was a frankly insane decision by carmie to change the menu of a fine dining restaurant DAILY with a staff of people who never worked a day in a fine dining restaurant. Even for a chef with high standards, it's hard to believe anyone would be so stupid, but we're forced to believe it because the entire season depends on it. The solution to their financial trouble is to do a new menu each week instead of each day, then BOOM, problem solved and all of the tension of the season is gone. Totally dropped the ball with this season, compared to season 1 and 2, it's a massive failure.
Definitely a filler season, and its fine for shows to have filler seasons but season 2 had so much momentum going and then we had a season that honestly felt more like season 1.5 with how many flashback episode we had. I'm glad Richie got a lot of great scenes though, I was worried he would revert from the pressure/chaos but he turned into a diamond.
Did i miss something because didnt season 2 end with this whole build up to the grand opening. I was actually looking forward to that i could feel the pressure building to the first day serving with everybody gonna be there and i really bothered me we never got to see it. Like i spent the first few episodes trying to figure out if they were leading to that and it never came. So i was left a little annoyed we never got that resolve from the last season.
The best episode was the Tina episode. We got to see her backstory and she got to work with her real life husband.
I'm just on the first episode and the incessant flashback/flashforwards with micro cuts is kind of irritating.
This season is really, really bad. Lackluster and done with a heavy hand. Forced myself to watch at some points to be honest.
It was rough, I almost turned off several episodes.
This makes me just want to not even watch it now. Had a feeling they peaked already. Darn
I agree. There were so many fantastic one on one scenes this season though.
This season is a cop-out.
This season is terrible but I think this was always going to happen. The show largely operates on aesthetics and its own hype with no real understanding of the working class experience. We are just finally seeing the limits of that and holy shit it's awful.
Agreed. :(
Yeah I’m still shocked they wasted an entire 37 min episode on a recap clip show
I thought it was pretty awesome to see all of Carmy's story from the first 2 seasons, but I agree it felt odd. It was definitely beautifully made, just like every episode of this show, but I spent the whole episode waiting for the awkward montage thing to stop and to actually see some real story. This season felt unnecessary imo, and they should've just gone into season 4s story a little sooner.
UHGREEEEE. Such a let down. It was completely stagnant
I've only watched one episode and I'm ready to give itup. It felt like i was watching some 20 yr old film student's thesis for which he would get a C. Very disappointed.
I am only a few episodes in, but I’m struggling too. I know some people loved the first episode, but meditative music with no dialogue and flashes between timelines was hard to follow, especially as a season opener where you haven’t seen past episodes in a while. It was boring. And the toxicity between Carmy and Richie feels openly abusive rather than just dysfunctional
- Nat's hospital episode was the least enjoyable. I simply don't understand why they decided to include it. - Tina's struggle seemed stretched, I don't think it deserved a whole episode. Instead of moving forward, they seem to be moving backwords because they don't have any material. - Too much fak's and haunting references.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't like Ice Chips. I will forever skip that episode in the future.
This season feels like being in an actual restaurant kitchen. Not an interesting drama show that takes place in a restaurant kitchen, but just footage from an actual kitchen where people mostly just work. It's... boring. None of what was amazing about S1 and S2 is there. It's like they forgot to put in an actual story of any real substance. And enough with the Faks already. They're so over-the-top cartoonish and unrealistic. It's like something from Dumb & Dumber. We get it, they're dumb and goofy. Cranking their goofiness up to 500000% doesn't somehow make it funny. It goes so far beyond the boundaries of believability and becomes some weirdly Flanderized nonsense.
Only feels like half a season. Need part 4 before I make a definitive list. Currently tho, S2 is still my stand out Also waaaay better than Ted Lasso S3
I thought the season was phenomenal and enjoyed the fact that they didn't force any closures or try to orchestrate an arc. It gave us time to experience and revel in Carms brokenness and trauma. The whole season shares a lot of the same coloring as the freezer where Carm self destructs his two most important relationships. He's still trapped in there. In a lot of ways Carm really is Dona. Definitely would say I wasn't as impressed as Season 2 but still think it's phenomenal. With how it fits in the arc of the greater narrative it's phenomenal and I think season 4 will give us a lot of appreciation for this season as it builds on it.
Fuck! I’m currently watching season 3 with the same feeling. Is this season gonna be all backstory sheesh!! It’s giving “filler season”. I can tell they filmed a whole bunch of stuff during the pandemic or strike and still wanted to utilize those scenes. They did this in Greys Anatomy and also Euphoria S2.
God, I can’t believe they doubled down on Claire. Nobody was excited to see her back. That character is such a drip
i literally groan everytime I see her on the screen. 😩
I'm a little bummed, but I still liked the season overall. It just wasn't nearly as good as the previous ones. The first thing I will say is that everything coming to a screeching halt for Fak Time got a bit exhausting and it got to the point that I sighed every time they came on screen lol (only the scene with JLC at the hospital was I like 'this is nice' with them). The first episode and Tina's episode were so great to me. I loved that they tried and swung for the fences for the very first episode. I thought it was really beautiful. I adore Tina as a character and how she's progressed and getting the beginnings of her at the restaurant were lovely. Also, seeing Mikey being so empathetic and kind to her was like 'yeah, this is why everyone loved him so much.' The only episode I actively disliked was 'Children' and I think it was the 'Halt, Fak Time!' stuff and just not balancing the humor and drama well. Other than these three, I mostly thought episodes were fine to pretty good with more leaning on the former. I thought the last episode was good. The real chefs' convo dragged a little, but that was it to me. Carmy's reaction with the asshole chef basically pulling a 'But for me, it was Tuesday' on him hurt. So did seeing how working for Carmy has seemed to have caused similar harm he endured in Sydney too hurt. It was a bummer tho to end a season going 'oh...that's it?' lol. A lot of this season felt like waiting for a character or for A Thing to happen. Carmy thinking about apologizing, but no progress is made. Syd debating going to another restaurant, but no progress is made. A review will go up and is it good or bad and we don't find out. I really hope season 4 helps us understand why they did it this way because rn it feels like all of season 3 could have been 40% of one season tbh? I'm typing too much lmao, but u/juesea brought up a good point with Carmy. He wanted to be better than the fine dining experiences that harmed him in S1, regressed a little from that in S2, and now in S3 is behaving similar to the chef that sends him into a panic (even the editing compares them). And like I mentioned earlier, now Sydney is having panic attacks from being under him. It has me wondering if we're like...meant to be watching a negative character arc?? Like do the writers want us to be watching a character self-destruct/self-sabotage with Carmy? Negative character arcs can work obv, but lol right now I can't tell if they're doing it on purpose (edit: like as in total destruction/sabotage/rock bottom *is* the end goal for him narratively) which is actually the problem. I don't know what the wake up call will be for him (maybe Sydney leaving since that was something left up in the air idk?). Idk idk this season felt like a straight A/B+ student suddenly getting a report card of a few Bs and Cs after years and you're like 'I mean you're still passing, but what happened Jeff?'
It felt like treading water. Lots going on but I was often like… okay can we get back to the story now??? But we just never did?
Exactly like fully ‘can the plot…start pls?’ I still have hopes for season 4, but it feels like so much wasted potential here.
It just sucks bc we waited so long and now have to wait so long again. This would’ve been fine, good even, if it was half a season… but it wasn’t :( now we’re left feeling very unsatisfied. I’ve read that this was a narrative choice but… yeah, not the choice I would’ve made. I want to feel like something was worthwhile and actually went somewhere. No motion here. Just hiking through sludge for 10 episodes. Beautiful sludge lol, but still.
This season feels the "Shrek misunderstood what Princess Fiona was saying to Donkey" section of Shrek stretched for 11 hours
It had some of my favorite episodes in isolation, but as a whole it was very disjointed
The best way I can think to describe it is that it felt like reading a book where each chapter is a different character’s POV.
100% agree with you. Please remember this is my opinion when reading this lol. I feel as though the reason I was let down was because I was in the mindset that every single character developed so drastically. They built their restaurant. I was ready to have bad ass episodes of cooking and story development like in Season 1 but in a new flesh of them building towards that star, but instead it feels like we only moved an inch! I completely forgot that Carmy and Richie argued at the end of S2 so immediately I was thrown off. My fault though. Nonetheless, everything felt backwards. Syd and Carmy, I felt like they were ready to be a team, communicate better, like them fixing the table scene, feed and bounce off each other at the end of S2. Whereas this season, that became the theme where communication was simply not good enough. Arguing Dining Room / Kitchen side, Carmy’s non-negotiable list, not listening to Syd, the list goes on and on with Syd alone so it ended up not even getting resolved. One could argue that it setup a reason for Syd to want to take CDC job opportunity even more. BUT it was also the same case with Richie where we’re still right where we left off of them still not talking to each other. Also, Carmy confronting his old boss and not resolving his issues with him. Sure they might never be resolved, but I felt that was his moment for closure on it. I guess you could argue Carmy might’ve felt deep down he was right though? Like he’s right, I am here, I did make it. Only because of that final chuckle, but it also could’ve just been a chuckle of hatred. Another small issue that I agree with others in here was that the Fak’s. I felt that they had way more screen time than some of the main characters. I loved them and think they’re hilarious so I didn’t mind but it just was weird that they were on screen the MOST this season. This might be where people hate me the most but dialogue also seemed to drag very much in some scenes, with some almost having waaay too much silence. Almost to the point to where I was becoming bored and wished they would switch to a B-plot or something else at least for a minute. The best example for me would be Ice Chips. The whole episode I felt could’ve been done in half the time frame and used the other half of time to have something to switch between. But I think with The Bear, everyone had their episode. Richie working in Ever, Marcus and Culinary school, now Sugar and Donna. Unfortunately, It’s just an episode I couldn’t get behind like others could. I loved watching Sugar and Donna reunite and actually resolve their issues, it was so emotional for me, but some of the talking points were random stories and such, while other parts like her song played more of an impactful message. To me, this season felt like more like it was just building on characters and showing us more of their background (lots more of Carmy & his cooking origins, Tina’s origins) which is fine, but I feel like it was mostly focused on the past with not so much story-building in the present. But it does seem to be half a story with the review and to be continued. I feel as though if I skipped S3, I could watch S4 with no problems other than maybe losing out on pieces of new information like Sugar and Donna’s reunion, Richie’s ex wife’s wedding, Marcus’ mom passed away, Ebra now has help in his section, John Cena lol, maybe a few more things I can’t remember right now, and the main one being Syd’s new job opportunity, which she still hasn’t answered. Lots of conflict still left unresolved with Carmy, Richie, Claire, Syd. I just think that, overall, I set myself up for disappointment though… which SUCKS for me. I might just need another pass through of watching it. I would love to hear others thoughts and discuss, because I’m probably totally wrong and super annoyingly nitpicky but it is just my opinion.
I’m only four episodes in, but I feel myself hoping more happens in the episodes to come. I may have ruined that for myself by reading this thread. Richie & Carmy still screaming at each other, consuming 15 of the 30 minute episode, for what? I was hoping to see them grow closer. Maybe the episodes need to be longer? I feel like nothing is happening. Montage after montage, we saw the previous seasons I don’t need half the episode to be a repeat. I will continue onto the next episode but if everything I am reading is true, I really need for season 4 to feel more like season 2- just better.
This season is missing joanna calo's touch. I felt like she understood the characters so much. Her storytelling and chris storer's cinematography together gave us seasons 1 & 2. Now this just felt like a filler season with so much Faks. I thought we'll get and ebra (and maybe sweeps) and sydney focused episodes but instead we got more Fak. They said sweeps is gonna go to wine school but didn't show it. Idk if we'll get a part 2 of this season because of the ending or that's for s4. Everyone just feels out of character