It is very hard to understand that with a television series this well received in its first 2 seasons, considering the money involved, the many Emmy Awards, and an ongoing need to protect a great franchise, that season 3 of "The Bear" could have missed the mark in so many areas.
What was so great about the first two seasons of "The Bear" is that it showed for the first time, how hard it is to work in a restaurant and maintain it as a profitable business. The constant arguments, the pressure of getting an impossible amount of work done, night after night, the heat, people crashing into each other, the mess and the extreme financial problems that plague all restaurants was fascinating to watch.
Unfortunately, this highly anticipated third season forgot just about everything that made this series so great. There are some intense arguments in the 2nd episode that are almost as good as some of the episodes of the first two seasons - but that is all there were remaining episodes of season 3. The use of the F word is also way overdone in this 3rd season in too many scenes. There is one episode that consists of a long talk between Natalie, played by Abby Elliott and her mother Donna played by Jamie Lee Curtis, while she is lying in a hospital bed in labor. It's almost as if they either ran out of good ideas or thought they could skate by with below-average scripts because of the built-in audience and name recognition.
The other problem is that the most compelling character in this series Sydney Adamu, played by Ayo Edebiri does not have nearly enough screen time in these 10 episodes. This is a huge mistake because her character is just about the most interesting in the entire series. Several of the unresolved storylines from the second season are not resolved or even addressed in this 3rd season. Once again, what are they thinking here? Sometimes extreme success breeds overconfidence, and in this case, it appears that the producers believed that they could throw something against a wall, and it would still work because of the great first two seasons. Unfortunately, this just might have killed any possibility of the 4th season.
The entire cast is back for season 3, including Jeremy Allen White, Abby Elliott, Oliver Platt,
Liza Colón-Zayas, Ayo Edebiri, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who is still the angriest character I have ever seen in a television series.
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings are a ridiculously high 94%, with an audience rating of a correct 66%. Why the paid critics are rating this 3rd season-high makes very little sense. I agree with the audience rating of 66%.
My recommendation is to watch the first 2 great seasons of this series and skip this last one.
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