The conclusion of Succession and the humdrum offerings currently available from streaming services have left The Bear at the forefront. Christopher Storer's series is only in its third season, bearing all the expectations of fans of an art form whose golden age is well known to have passed. However, when it went online in the United States on June 26, the new season shattered the consensus surrounding The Bear, as some viewers saw in these 10 new episodes the signs of an early decline.
It can also be seen as a period of growing pains for the series, perfectly in sync with what's happening on screen. The first two seasons were driven by a perfectly classic narrative arc. Once again, The Bear told the story of the American dream: a talented young chef returns to his hometown to take over the family restaurant. He turns a ragtag team into an elite brigade, and a greasy spoon into a first-class restaurant.
What is to be done now that Carmen Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) has achieved his goal? Finally give him the chance to confront his inner demons, the very ones that have made him one of the most irritating figures in recent TV history? Or let him slide down the perfectionist slope that allows him to keep feelings, sensations and others at a safe distance?
If we're hoping for a resolution to this dilemma, we'll have to wait and see (perhaps for the fourth season, which has already been filmed). The first episodes tread lightly in the confined space sketched out above. After a prologue that mixes flashbacks, glimpses of the coming season and culinary montages – the kind that inspired the expression "food porn" – we'll have to settle for long sequences of sterile confrontations between "Carmy" and his childhood friend Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), which seem like an attempt to challenge The Wire's record for utterances of "fuck you" in a single episode.
Carmy's goal is to win a Michelin star (to which Richie retorts "I mean, I'm a Pirelli guy" – one of the few reminders of The Bear's comedic nature), and this quest leads him to circulate a list of "non-negotiables." It is around this whim that the story is ultimately built, with twists and turns all leading to the same conclusion: the need to compromise, to come to terms with reality.
The sixth episode, "Napkins," thus becomes the high point of the season. Last year, it was the staging of the cataclysmic family dinner at the Berzatto home that expressed the chaotic essence of the series. "Napkins" moves out of the present to return to Tina's (Liza Colon-Zayas) beginnings in the restaurant business. We discover the pugnacious cook suddenly expelled from the company that had employed her for ages. She criss-crosses Chicago, from one job prospect to another, experiencing humiliation and rejection until she ends up on the greasy benches of The Bear, then run by Carmy's brother Mikey (Jon Bernthal).
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