The FX series takes a step back

Courtesy of FX

SPOILER ALERT: The following article reviews the third season of The Bear. While major plot developments – including guest stars – have been held back to preserve the viewing experience, the network has requested spoiler warnings on all reviews.

The Bear’s second, much improved season had a certain momentum. Its 10 episodes were literally transitions: FX took the series from the closure of a family-run Italian beef joint in Chicago’s River North to the opening of a fine-dining restaurant in the same space in half an hour. The staff developed dishes, oversaw expansion and acquired skills with a single goal in mind, culminating in a hectic friends-and-family service that saw chef Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) freak out in a freezer.

Season 3—the first to air after the show swept the comedy categories at this year’s Emmys, cementing its rise from surprise hit to perennial favorite—lacks a similar focus. The Beef has become The Bear; the obvious follow-up question is: What now? Under creator Christopher Storer’s frenetic, dissonant direction, Season 1 captured the grueling stress of an everyday kitchen on the brink of chaos. With the cast reunited in the new restaurant, Season 3 does the same for the upper echelons of the restaurant industry, where employees wage a swan-like battle to provide diners with a seamless experience despite razor-thin profits and sky-high overhead.

Coupled with the creative freedom that comes with success, that blank slate presents “The Bear” with both opportunity and risk. Sometimes, the lack of a shared goal allows Storer and co-showrunner Joanna Calo to continue to add structure to the monotony of restaurant life. In a more encouraging counterbalance to last year’s “Seven Fishes,” this season’s standalone flashback offers insight into how sous chef Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) came to join the team, and Carmy’s sister Natalie (Abby Elliott) gets a long-overdue spotlight as she goes into labor with her first child. But not all of this season’s detours are as effective, and without a solid goal, the main narrative itself can get bogged down in repetition and stunt casting before the season ends with most storylines unresolved. “The Bear” still has its lofty moments in its characters’ pursuit of professional excellence and personal growth, and yet the show is more fragile than its rave reviews suggest.

At least the premiere highlights the weak points of the season and gives viewers a clear indication of what is to come. After Carmy’s nervous breakdown, in which he attacks his “cousin”, the future manager Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and inadvertently scares away his girlfriend Claire (Molly Gordon), the nervous chef completely loses it. For the 37 minutes of the episode, we remain mostly in Carmy’s wandering thoughts. He vacillates between his memories, from his time in New York City under a tyrannical boss (Joel McHale) to happier times, either with Claire or in less hostile work environments. The results can be lyrical and beautiful; who doesn’t enjoy a glimpse of Copenhagen in warm weather or the chance to see Olivia Colman’s chef Terry again? It also doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know, making room for cameos from a whole host of culinary legends at the expense of moving the story forward. The structure would work for an extended cold open to establish Carmy’s mood; stretched to an entire episode, it’s an overstatement. To quote Terry’s mantra: Every second counts.

Back in the present, Carmy single-mindedly pursues perfection without regard for anyone around him. When her brother insists on changing the menu every day, Natalie – who now runs the business side – bristles at the food waste generated by R&D, and Richie rightly points out that the service side needs to be kept on top of things. Worst of all, head chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) is secretly devastated to see her former employee making unilateral changes to the dishes they worked on together. No wonder she can’t bring herself to sign a partnership with a man who doesn’t treat her like a real partner.

“The Bear” wants to explore how cycles of abuse develop in pressure cookers like professional kitchens, turning Carmy into the same kind of controlling egomaniac that made him a nervous wreck in the first place. But the season begins with him so completely at the center. “The Bear,” however, fails to put Carmy in perspective with the distance it needs. It also undoes some of last season’s efforts to build the show into a true ensemble. There are moments when Syd keeps Carmy in check. They’re also fleeting, and many, many montages illustrating Carmy’s state of mind end up crowding out more engaging storylines like pastry chef Marcus’ (Lionel Boyce) attempt to channel his grief over the loss of his mother into his food. Claire finally gets a handful of solo scenes that focus on her work as a doctor, but this season she’s reduced to what she’s always been, even as a more active presence: an abstract figure that Carmy can think back on from afar and idealize. While “The Bear” tries to highlight Carmy’s flaws, like treating other people as props in his ongoing psychodrama, it ends up reproducing those flaws.

That blurred line between commenting on a momentum and maintaining it continues elsewhere, too. In a way, the season’s sometimes aimless feel is part of its purpose. Even, and perhaps especially, at successful operations, restaurant life is a grueling hamster wheel. There’s always another fire to put out, another benchmark to reach. (Richie tells his ex-wife and fellow educator that she can visit the restaurant when it’s “perfect,” an impossible goal; Carmy wants a Michelin star, but if The Bear had one, he’d just have to work to keep it.) The only way out is to quit, as one of Carmy’s mentors decides in a decision that shapes the entire season.

But maintenance and longevity are less compelling incentives than crossing the construction finish line. With no exit in sight, the Bear’s staff must grapple with the problems that the opening didn’t solve and may even exacerbate. Richie is still trying to figure out how to be a good father; Sydney is still finding her voice as an artist and leader; Carmy is still a grown man who can’t text a girl he likes. As in Season 1, the sense of stagnation is lifelike — and frustrating to watch. Without a cathartic climax, even supposed respites like the Fak brothers’ (Matty Matheson and Ricky Staffieri) deployment for comic relief quickly become tedious.

In Season 3, “The Bear” feels torn between two identities: as a voice for the restaurant world at large and as a specific story about a certain group of characters. As the industry’s most zeitgeisty platform, “The Bear” foregrounds the sentimental arguments for feeding others as a calling, but also the price paid by those who pursue that calling. Understandably, if less noble, the show also seems eager to capitalize on the connections its popularity enables. Last season’s chef cameos largely came from local Chicago spots, a tradition continued this year by Kasama’s Genie Kwon. Season 3 expands the talent pool to include some of the food world’s leading luminaries, several of whom are given extended monologues laying out their guiding philosophies.

At a certain point, such flourishes cross the line from enhancing “The Bear’s” authenticity to hindering its core mission. The finale, in particular, gives these visiting dignitaries so much screen time that most of the protagonists get short shrift, just when the show should be planting the seeds for the next season, or at least wrapping up the season we’ve just seen. When Tina has a candid conversation with Carmy’s brother Mikey (Jon Bernthal), whose suicide prompted Carmy’s return to the Midwest, a precisely rendered conversation between two driven, hurting people abruptly turns into a sweeping sermon on why people choose to work in restaurants. As “The Bear” progresses, the Berzatto family’s dysfunction — and its collateral damage to the siblings’ colleagues — has evolved to the point where relying on such generalizations is no longer necessary. For “The Bear,” demonstrating its credibility is a sign of bragging; understanding that it no longer needs it would be a real sign of confidence.

All 10 episodes of the third season of “The Bear” are now available to stream on Hulu.