“The Bear” is a popular Hulu series and a multi- award winner that follows Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) who works at a highly respected restaurant. When Carmy receives a call from his uncle Jimmy, he is informed that his older brother Michael (Jon Bernthal) died, and he is forced to move back to Chicago and take over his brother’s sandwich shop.
Carmy ultimately returns back to his hometown and immediately feels emotional and stressed. “The Original Beef” restaurant was run down, unorganized and ultimately inefficient. Michael’s best friend Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) had done day to day tasks but wasn’t the right fit to run the restaurant. The kitchen’s chaotic organization makes Carmy frustrated and anxious while trying to sort out the mess his brother left him. His main goal was to run the restaurant like he was taught at his old job as a chef, but was unsuccessful when doing it all himself. Carmy desperately needed help to make the task more bearable so he hired Sydney, a freshly graduated culinary student who became his sous chef. During the chaos, Carmy has also been ignoring his younger sister Natalie (Abby Elliot) who has failed multiple times trying to get through to him after their brother’s death. She is angry with him for dedicating all of his time to the “dump” of a restaurant but later ends up helping him in the process. Conditions get worse before they get better in “The Bear,” but between both family and internal conflicts, the stress levels continue to rise.
The character development of Ritchie was done well and felt real and meaningful. In season one, he is portrayed as an unmotivated and protective person. Ritchie had trouble dealing with his best friend’s death, so when Carmy wanted to change the way it was run, he had trouble adjusting and letting people in. We learn he is willing to grow and be vulnerable when dealing with his past.
In season three of “The Bear,” it lacked a plot and overall purpose. The season’s main focus was flashbacks and full episodes dedicated to side stories. It would have been better if they split episodes up and spent more time on other important characters’ backgrounds like Sydney. If they did this in the last season that aired, then the overall flow of the story would have gone much more smoothly.
This series deserves a 4/5 star rating due to its character development and high stakes plot. A new season reaches Hulu this year for a fourth and possible final season.
