‘The Bear’ reheats ‘The Pitt’s nachos in a baffling Season 5: Review

The stakes going into The Bear Season 5 are enormous.

Within the show, Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and Natalie (Abby Elliott) are reeling from Carmy’s (Jeremy Allen White) shocking Season 4 decision to quit the industry. Outside the world of the show, The Bear is hoping to end on a high note, especially after two frustratingly self-indulgent seasons that ran in circles. So, how does The Bear go big for its final season? What spectacular trick is it hiding up its chef’s jacket sleeves?

Simple. It reheats The Pitt‘s nachos — then artfully re-plates them and drizzles them with Michelin-worthy garnishes — by setting the season over the course of one day.

The Bear Season 5 feels an awful lot like The Pitt.

That day is the one directly following Season 4’s conclusion, when the clock officially ran out for the Bear. Now, Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) plans to sell the building, while Sydney, Richie, and Natalie try to get through one last service with their staff. Hopefully, this will be the one that earns them a Michelin star — that is, if a gargantuan storm doesn’t interfere with their plans.

The first seven episodes of the season that were sent to critics (there are eight in total) unfold almost in real time, beginning with the staff’s journeys to the Bear, then moving through prep and service. In a post-Pitt world, The Bear‘s choice to set its final season over one day is a confusing one, even if it ties into the show’s oft-repeated mantra that “every second counts.” Obviously, The Pitt isn’t the only TV show set in real time. There’s 24, the godfather of the genre, as well as recent additions like Hijack. Yet The Bear‘s thematic focus on stressful work environments, mental health, and work-life balance makes the comparison to The Pitt near-impossible to ignore. Given that The Bear felt like a breath of fresh air in its first season, it’s a shame that the core conceit of its last outing is so inseparable from another acclaimed series.

The Bear Season 5 reminds us the show is at its best in the kitchen.

Ayo Edebiri in “The Bear.”
Credit: FX

However, the single-day structure does offer The Bear a chance to go back to the basics of what made it tick so well in the first place. For starters, you won’t find any standalone character- or event-focused episodes this season. While some of these kinds of episodes, like Season 2’s “Forks” and “Fishes,” remain series highs, later examples, like Season 4’s “Bears,” became the clearest proof of The Bear‘s overindulgence (especially its distracting reliance on stunt casting).

Instead, Season 5 hones in on this last service with a concentration that mirrors its characters’ near-obsession with getting the night right. That tighter focus whips up a stressful pressure cooker that recalls Season 1’s most harrowing, scream-filled moments, and you can always count on The Bear to alleviate some of that stress with a heaping dash of competency porn from its team. But the real winner here is The Bear‘s food scenes. In Season 3 and especially Season 4, The Bear spent more time outside the kitchen, and therefore away from cooking. By spending most of Season 5 in the restaurant proper, The Bear zeroes back in on food, delivering mouth-watering sequences rooted in character and story. Each dish has deep ties to the person who made it, sometimes recalling moments from all the way back in Season 1. The ever-evolving menu and the loving way the food is shot are perhaps the best sendoffs The Bear could ask for.

Unfortunately, The Bear takes its final season as a chance to throw everything at the wall, and its sound and fury often overpower the simpler joys of the season. The storm is the largest culprit here, a too on-the-nose plot device that externalizes the restaurant’s inner turmoil to an exhausting degree. Every episode begins with the rumble of thunder to remind us of the chaos raging within the Bear. Trust us, we know!

Elsewhere, a side plot where Uncle Jimmy scrambles around Chicago to sell the restaurant is an unwelcome departure from the kitchen, and the Fak brothers continue their reign of unfunny terror. (We’ll never have to see them again after this season, but that’s still not reward enough for having to suffer through their antics for five seasons straight.)

Most frustrating of all is the melodrama between staffers. When they’re not yelling at one another, they sound like therapists spelling out The Bear‘s themes in the simplest of terms, and the season’s condensed timeline means that most personal growth comes on far too suddenly.

Carmy’s return in The Bear Season 5 undermines the show’s most interesting choice.

Jeremy Allen White in “The Bear.”
Credit: FX

Speaking of growth, let’s talk about Carmy. By the end of Season 4, he made the bold but healthy choice to step away from the Bear for a bit. In Season 5, though, he’s right back in the kitchen, albeit ceding control to Sydney like he said he would.

I understand that you can’t do a full season of The Bear — especially not the last season — without Carmy. But to have him return the literal day after his game-changing decision totally undermines Season 4’s ending, which is the most interesting move the show had made in two seasons. Here was a chance to see Carmy without the kitchen, and the Bear’s kitchen without Carmy. How would that environment look? How would each character adapt to his choice? The Bear doesn’t give anyone the chance to find out, reverting to an uneasy equilibrium far too quickly. (The show stresses he’ll be leaving the restaurant after this service, but that’s an empty promise in a final season.)

The Bear‘s semi-backtrack on Carmy’s decision loops back around to Season 5’s single-day structure. Carmy actually leaving is something that would take a greater time span to explore in depth, whereas the “last service” angle is a flashier conceit guaranteed to pull at the heartstrings as the show says goodbye. The two ideas fundamentally chafe against one another. In the end, the latter wins out, turning The Bear‘s final course into a lackluster serving of confusing choices and wasted potential.

The Bear Season 5 premieres in its entirety June 25 at 9 p.m. ET on Hulu. The first two episodes air at 9 p.m. ET on FX, with a new episode airing every Thursday at 9 p.m. ET.