I finished THE BEAR Season 3. Here are my thoughts

I have an injury so...I'm stuck sitting on my ass more than I would like. It's deeply frustrating. But it meant I could finish season 3 of THE BEAR pretty quickly. I dont watch much tv at all, but THE BEAR is one series that I began watching with someone about a year ago, and saw it all the way through, which is rare for me. I think it’s a strong show overall, and naturally I have thoughts on season 3. I will try and keep the spoilers to the minimum, much like I do in my movie reviews, just in case you haven’t seen the show, or haven’t caught up…

This new season is still attempting to push more boundaries so far as the artsy experimentation angle: the abstract sensory details of life combining with the present and past...it clearly wants to be edgy and provocative as a piece of television. The editing, and the craft that goes into this thing is off the charts. The movement and flow of each episode is orchestrated to near perfection. And yet...I struggled with this season overall narratively. It has its moments for sure. The standout episode for me was Napkins, which gave Tina her own special episode, and the results are surprisingly wonderful. Ayo Edebiri directed the episode, fun fact.

But it feels as if the experimental nature of the show is becoming puffery more than anything. I don't see the point of it when it doesn't continue to build with the momentum we were left with in season 2. All of it is beautifully embellished for sure but...the character motivations are becoming stagnant, and much of their interior worlds here feel repetitive from a tension perspective. The first episode opener called "Tomorrow" for me magnified the issues of the entire season, with its meditative attempt at framing Carmy’s angst, it merely felt like retreaded material. The Trent Reznor/Ross style scoring didn’t help. It felt pretentious, for lack of a better word. Thinking it was saying a lot more than it actually was. Carmy is still struggling with nearly all the exact same issues here as he did at the end of season 2 with little to no headway at all, and the relationships he has built up to this point continue to stall. Claire felt like a poorly constructed romantic device to throw a wrench in Carmen’s professional trajectory. That was my first glaring problem with the previous season: the beginning of finding external conflicts to force character development rather than creating more organic ones. She felt like a device, and not a character.

I will say, I appreciate that narratively they don't try and bite off more than they can chew (no pun intended). The conflicts for each character feel manageable and realistic. An example would be Natalie's pregnancy, or Sydney's professional future dilemmas, or Ritchie dealing with being a single father. These are slice of life scenarios given the operatic treatment, as if you can absorb it all as your own life. But we spend far too much time building characters in the form of flashbacks, where we've already been in previous seasons. The only time this worked well for me, was in Tina's personal episode. As we knew the least about her, and her personal motivations from a base level. You'll see what I mean when you see it, if you haven't already. Great closing flashback scene.

But my biggest problem admittedly is more a minor quip: it’s the terrible attempt at banter and creating an authentic vernacular between Mattie Mattheson and his whole Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-esque crew of misfits. I’ve struggled with it in the past on this show, but here it was glaringly forced and inauthentic. These guys try to create humor where there isn’t any, and they really beat that dead horse to a pulp long after I stopped paying attention. The attempt at creating division, chaos, anxiety between everyone is far too measured, cringe, and frankly, poorly written. Richie and Carmy as example, are exhausting in their exchanges, only providing us with hot air and noise at the end of the day rather than meaty conflicts. So much of the show is sophisticated, that all this nonsense to me really sticks out.

But certainly, if you loved the first two seasons there is a lot to admire in this one as well. But, we have perhaps crossed over into knowing how big the impact of the show is, and once that awareness sets in, something is often lost in the writing from then on (unless you are The Sopranos, which somehow never lost its ego in the clout). I understand that they did shoot both season 3 and 4 together. So I am hoping that we can stir the pot a little more in the back half of episodes to be released later on.

But yeah man…it almost felt as if Carmy’s purgatory state here throughout, serves to represent the writers own dilemmas once they were presented with major tv success, whether directly or indirectly. And all that pressure Carmy feels in his new career position has gotten him too flustered. I’m not sure that this serves us as an audience in the proper ways we deserve. Carmy basically never left that walk-in freezer. He’s been in there for almost the entire runtime of season 3. Maybe not literally, but certainly any potential progress his character had at the end of season 2, is still in that freezer, and I’d like for it to see the light of day once more.

Of course it’s hard to truly judge until the show is officially over, and we have that full perspective. I’m just giving my two cents as we are moving forward.

Also side note: if you ever need to be reminded of how strong Jamie Lee Curtis is as a performer, here is your proof. She has a wonderful intimate episode here, and it helps me feel better about that ridiculous Oscar win of hers a couple years back. lol