It’s not quite accurate to say that The Bear lost its way during its third and fourth seasons, but it sure didn’t feel the same as the tense, chaotic, sometimes hilarious show it was in its first two seasons. The final season of that show may remedy that situation, keeping things to the restaurant that Carmy Berzatto created from The Beef of Chicagoland. (NOTE: The following review contains spoilers for the first handful of Season 5 episodes.)
THE BEAR SEASON 5: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A closeup of a spoon spreading a green sauce on a plate, then some roasted Brussles sprouts are delicately placed on the sauce. In between, we see closeups of Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas), who is actually doing this method at home.
The Gist: When Lisa’s husband David (David Zayas) comes to the kitchen before going to work, he says, “Last day?” That’s because the money clock has run out on The Bear, and this may be the last service before the place closes. Tina is distraught, even though she has the skills to get hired anywhere and the family is more financially stable. But she loves what she’s doing and who she’s working with, which is what makes her so sad.
A massive storm is soaking Chicago with torrential downpours, and the storm drain outside The Bear is getting clogged with cigarette butts. Syd (Ayo Edebiri) is the first one in, and she starts making some Coca-cola-braised short ribs for the family dinner before service starts. There isn’t a whole heck of a lot of food left in the stand-in fridge, and the money clock that Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) set up is literally at zero.
Also, there’s the fact that Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) has decided to step away as the restaurant’s head chef, leaving control of the partnership to Syd and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). Richie is delayed after he gets t-boned by a car on the way to work (remember the final scene in the prequel episode Gary?) and finds out from Jessica (Sarah Ramos) that the Resy app is down, so no reservations are coming through. Nat (Abby Elliott) leaves her baby with her and Carmy’s mother Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis) and has to deal with unpaid bills and missing food deliveries. She tells Syd she has to cut portions down and stretch what they have.
In the meantime, Marcus (Lionel Boyce), coming off a Best Chefs citation from a renowned food magazine, treats Luca (Will Poulter) to a McGriddle and wonders if he can pull off his candle-heated dessert. Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) gets ready to pitch Carmy a business idea. The Computer (Brian Koppelman) tells Jimmy that he needs to sell the building, and Jimmy tells Richie he had to sell his watches to help ease his debt. Richie wants to “maximize” everything. And then a pipe in the basement bursts, leaving Neil Fak (Matty Matheson) and his brother Teddy (Ricky Staffieri) more flummoxed than usual.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? One of the few shows that can compare to The Bear is the British series Boiling Point.
Our Take: It’s not a stretch to say that Christopher Storer and his writers have set up the final season of The Bear to take place mostly during this stormy night at the restaurant. The group is facing all sorts of issues, none of them good. It actually sets up a bit of a similar chaotic situation to what we saw during Season 1, though the chaos consists of people pulling toghether instead of being at odds with each other.
Not everyone thinks that this is The Bear’s last day — certainly Richie and Syd don’t. Maybe they’re delusional, or maybe they just think that they’ll find a way or Jimmy will find the money to keep things going (The Computer’s daughter suggests selling the air rights above the building, for instance). On a night where they think that they may have reservations and food for one-and-a-half turns they find out that there are a lot more people coming, despite the storm. Luca has decided to end his staging gig and go back to Copenhagen for a paying job. Richie and Syd still think The Bear can get that elusive Michelin star.
At the same time, changes to the partnership loom, as we saw last season that Carmy is emotionally pulling away from the restaurant and maybe even his culinary career in general. Perhaps this possible final night, with all of the challenges that they face, will recharge him. Or perhaps seeing Syd take charge, knowing she learned what to do (and, more importantly, what not to do) under his tutelage, will make him change his mind.
We like that the season seems to be focused on this one night, instead of meandering like the previous two seasons did. It makes the story more impactful without giving the audience the heavyness that they got in Seasons 3 and 4.
Are we tired of the Faks being most of the comic relief on the show? Yep. Nothing against Matheson and Staffieri — Matheson’s role as an EP is crucial on this show — but leaning on the Faks arguing with each other and generally being idiots wore out its welcome two seasons ago. Let’s hope that we get some humor from Richie and some of the other members of the cast. We saw some indications that might be the case in the first few episodes.
Performance Worth Watching: We’ll give this to Ayo Edebiri, and not just because of her hall-of-fame-level face acting. Syd is definitely in charge during this final stretch, and she wants to be in charge her way, which includes trying as hard as she can not to curse.
Sex And Skin: Nothing in the first episode.
Parting Shot: The pipe blows, spraying brown water everywhere. We hear Neil and Teddy screaming at each other over the closing credits.
Sleeper Star: We want to see a show starring Liza Colón-Zayas and David Zayas, either as Tina and David or different characters. The real-life married couple’s on-screen chemistry is something we love to see.
Most Pilot-y Line: “I feel like we’ve had this conversation like a hundred times, but it’s always about toilets,” Uncle Jimmy tells Richie when Richie says to him, “We’re not giving up.”
Our Call: STREAM IT. By just concentrating one one day — perhaps the final one — in the life of the restaurant that bears (pun intended) the show’s name, The Bear‘s final season should be an improvement on the super-slow previous two seasons, even if we get a lot of the Faks in the bargain.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
