After three seasons of sweat, shouts and Michelin dreams, The Bear returns with a fourth round that tries to build on the chaos, but most of all feels like a dish with the same ingredients as before -- familiar, but now with a slightly flat flavor.
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Disclaimer: Apropos Magazine received access or a review copy. As always, we share our own impressions — unfiltered.
Six stars
Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) still stares heavily into nothingness like a well-trained Golden Retriever with PTSD. It is, be preserved, part of his character — a man who feels far too much and shows far too little. But after four seasons, one grows weary of his perpetual existential emptiness, which -- for want of any better -- is now starting to feel like an artistic gimmick.
And it's actually symptomatic of Season 4's biggest problem: the characters are struggling. I recognize their conflicts and understand their pain, but we're starting to get a little bored. There's a lack of progression -- the feeling that the characters are actually moving. With the exception of Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) who is allowed to evolve from right-leaning madman into a man with a goal in life. His development feels genuine -- a man both grappling with his past and trying to find a new identity in an environment constantly collapsing under his own ambitions.
The dialogue, which has been one of the series' greatest strengths in the past -- intense, heart-breaking and real -- sadly begins to lose direction. Several scenes are drawn at length like a jazz improvisation, where in the end you have no idea what the number started as. It's artistic, but also frustrating. Especially when these long passages do not lead to anything significant in the overall plot.
And then there's the finale... or rather: the absence of one. Instead of delivering a culmination, we get another cliffhanger. It feels calculated. As if the series has fallen so in love with its own mystery that it forgets to give audiences the payoff we've gradually deserved. “Wait and see,” the series says -- but after four seasons, patience becomes a luxury. It reminds of Losto in its late years -- everyone stands staring into a jungle of symbolism and trauma, but few have any idea what's going on, and the series hopes the sentiment carries it home.
Where did the humor go? Season 1's charm lay in the balance between the chaotic and the comical. The skewed dialogue, the absurd situations, the human in the midst of the madness. In season 4, the humour appears only glimpsed—most often reaching Mathy Matheson and co. (the gloriously titled “Fax”) gets space. They're still delightfully absurd and unpredictable, but you really miss the ease the series could once find amid the misery of its characters.
But let's not cut the whole hog off the board. The Bear is still better than 70% of what's served at the streaming buffet. The series still has a pulse, an aesthetic and an authenticity that you don't find in many other places. Its ability to blend warmth, stress and sensitivity is still alluring -- and some of the visual tableaux and soundside are still top-notch, though the indie playlist is gradually well used now.
But where e.g. Succession managed to finish at its peak, one sits here with the feeling that The Bear is starting to boil on on a fund that has already reduced once too much. I miss answers, on story lines, as season 4 itself starts but never closes.
We're still in the kitchen -- but the question is, are we still hungry? I think they owe us a season 5 which may close the ends, but the question is whether the series has been cooking for too long now..
Conclusion:
The Bear season 4 tries to build on the intense nerve of the series, but mostly ends up repeating itself. It still has qualities and charm, but Carmy's inner darkness, unresolved character arcs and a half-finished finale drag down. We'll stick around — but hope for Season 5 to show up, and dare to serve up something new and final.
