TV

The Bear Season 3 Is Out, And It's the Biggest TV Catastrophe of Recent Years

The Bear Season 3 Is Out, And It's the Biggest TV Catastrophe of Recent Years
Image credit: Hulu

The Bear once again surprised its viewers – but this time with just how bad it is.

The plot of the new season of The Bear starts exactly where the previous one ended. Carmy introduces a strict schedule in the newly opened restaurant, which causes Richie's indignation. Syd realizes that she is tired of being overshadowed by Carmy, and an offer for a new, more prestigious job comes just at time.

Sugar deals with the birth of a child, and Marcus cannot let go of his late mother. The usual duties are diluted by the sad news that Terry's restaurant is closing.

Season 3 Is on a Treadmill for Full Ten Episodes

The Bear by Christopher Storer, which has won dozens of film awards – from Emmy to Golden Globe – is back on our screens, but this time it seems to be in no hurry to please the viewer with revelations. The series begins with a long recap episode, and the usual state of chaos turns into depressive stagnation.

The slow pace of storytelling and the flashback epidemic are the two killers of the season. One episode is entirely devoted to Tina's backstory, from which we learn the following groundbreaking news: she has a husband, she went on job interviews, and Mikey literally hired her off the street after a heartfelt conversation.

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This storyline still looks more interesting than some completely plotless episodes, but no matter how you look at it, such a secondary character's backstory would easily fit into a five-minute prologue to an episode, and as a stand-alone half-hour it looks painfully boring.

Fans Aren’t Impressed with The Bear Season 3

And something happened that was almost unimaginable when the previous two seasons were released – it is just too difficult to find positive comments from viewers.

“This season made me ask if I ever liked this show or if I changed or something. I kinda hated this season and it just seemed like the creators were up their own a*s and didn’t feel like they had to have a plot,” Reddit user Broadnerd wrote.

Showrunner Probably Just Didn't Have Time to Come Up with Consistent Storylines

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What went wrong? The reason is obvious: it is no secret that Christopher Storer wrote and directed the third and fourth seasons simultaneously, without breaking the usual schedule – episodes are released at the end of June for the third year in a row.

Coming up with ideas fresh enough for ten episodes in the six months is a daunting task. Coming up with such ideas for two dozen episodes is an almost impossible task. By comparison, it took six months or more to write one season of Succession, and a dozen writers worked on the script.

Season 3 is One of the Biggest TV Disappointments of Recent Years

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What makes the third season of The Bear a disaster that will go down in TV history is the fact that it is unlikely that there will be enough strong material for even five episodes out of the ten available.

In these episodes, only moderately dramatic storylines are visible from time to time. Will Sydney sign the contract? Will all the restaurant reviews be raving, or will there be a skeptical opinion?

Perhaps several episodes could have been devoted to such intrigue, if Storer had not made pseudo-climaxes out of such obviously secondary events as Nat's birth or the closing of Olivia Colman 's character's restaurant. The latter is suddenly devoted to an entire final episode, but was this the ending that fans of one of the best shows of recent years were expecting?

Did you like The Bear Season 3?