Review, The Bear, Disney+ returns to the original recipe
***
AFTER the blood, sweat, tears, burns and shouting - lots of shouting - the review is in. What review you ask? How quickly they forget.
Season three of The Bear, the Disney+ tale of a Chicago restaurant desperate for a Michelin star, was taken up with waiting for a make-or-break review. Sounds dull, was dull.
The new 10-part series, which dropped today, opens with said review. As expected, it's a mixed bag, at once praising the restaurant's ambition while slating it for chaos and inconsistency. Sounds about right, both for restaurant and series.
The Bear's creator, Christopher Storer, had a choice here: to double down on the misery and introspection, or strike out for pastures new. That he opens with a clip from Groundhog Day is a detectable-from-space clue to where he is heading. As is culinary wonderboy Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) breaking into a smile, and something approaching a chuckle. The Bear gets happy - I kid you not.
That's the good news. The bad is the restaurant is bleeding money and will be forced to close in months if the team can't land that Michelin star. Finally, a cause that everyone can rally around. Front of house manager Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), still the show's best character and its secret sauce, can forget his ex is getting married and his daughter has a new daddy. Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) can seize the day and sign the partnership agreement. Carm can start helping people again instead of screaming at them.
There is so much motivation going on, I half expected the theme tune from Rocky to strike up and the staff to run out en masse to climb the nearest steps. Wrong city, but everybody loves a comeback tale, right? Whether the hardcore fans of The Bear will feel the same I'm not sure. Can a show built on the unhappiness of its characters change so much and have the same appeal?
Storer gives viewers no time to ponder. All that good stuff of old comes to the table - breakneck editing, pumping music, a sense of the team against the world, everybody yelling 'Doors' as the restaurant opens, and of course calling each other chef. There's a new character, the maitre d from Olivia Colman's old joint, who looks promising. There's even an attempt at some comedy, though so far that's still a work in progress.
While it is fun getting back to The Bear basics, the show will stand or fall on its main characters, led by Carmy. In the last series, however, he was the weakest of the bunch, and you do wonder how much he has left to say. Others can take up the slack, starting with Jamie Lee Curtis as Carm's mommie dearest, Richie and Carm's sister Sugar (Abby Elliott). They will have to.
Whatever its more passionate defenders thought, The Bear did not change television in the way, say, The Sopranos did. It was always soapier than it seemed, and it's no bad thing to go back there.
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