‘The Bear’ review: In excellent season 3, Carmy goes hard and the employees show their strengths

According to FX and all the awards, from the Emmys to the Golden Globes to the Directors Guild of America to the Image Awards and beyond, “The Bear” is a comedy.

Objection. Sure, there’s Yoshimi Echizen’s sharp humor included in this hot series that in just two seasons has reached peak iconic status, but you could say the same about “The Sopranos” or “Succession,” and no one labeled those shows as comedies . . This is first and foremost a toe-bruising, soul-wrenching, heart-pounding drama.

(Full disclosure: My sister, Laura Roeper, is a prop master for the FX-produced series.)

With prolific, laser-focused, and supremely talented series creator Christopher Storer behind the camera for seven of the 10 episodes streaming on Hulu and writing or co-writing seven chapters, the cast turns in their best collective work to date and a series of secondary characters. given its chance to shine, Season 3 of “The Bear” cements its status as one of the best dramas — OK, comedies-dramas — of our time.

Set against the backdrop of a Chicago that feels entirely real, this is a show about an extended family (whether related by blood or not) of broken people who gather six times a week to work, to cook, to to create, to serve, to fight, to rage, to laugh, to cry, to hug, to fight, to struggle, to grieve, to cope, to strive for perfection, to know that perfection is an illusion, to embrace the moment, to live. It’s Misfit Toys who have found their island, but there’s always another storm coming.

After the flashy Season 2 finale that was shot like the heist scene in “Heat” and ended with Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy Berzatto locked in a refrigerator, inadvertently destroying his romance with Claire (Molly Gordon) and deliberately causing the deep deterioration of her friendship with Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Season 3 picks up right after, with Carmy contemplating a rainy Chicago dawn and then heading to the diner, because where else would anyone go?

We’re quickly immersed in flashback sequences that fill in details on certain backstories – something that will happen on numerous occasions throughout this season, and I’ll leave it up to you to experience the details of these various jumps across the timeline. In the present, we’re reminded that pastry chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce) has a terminally ill mother and that Carmy’s sister Natalie “Sugar” Berzatto (Abby Elliott) is about to have a baby. It’s a circle of the stuff of life, handled with skill and brutal honesty.

With the great duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (“The Social Network,” “Challengers”) laying down an elegiac score that gives the premiere episode the vibe of a continuous montage, the tone is set for a season that needs time to breathe. Yes, there is a lot going on. There is no shortage of intense confrontations and fast-paced chaos.

Still, a third season often presents an opportunity for a successful series to expand its world, to devote more time to supporting players, and that’s what’s happening here. In an episode directed by Ayo Edebiri, we learn so much about Tina, with the lovely Liza Colón-Zayas doing award-worthy work. Abby Elliott also knocks it out of the park with a sugar-centric episode, while Lionel Boyce delivers an extended monologue that’s perfectly inconspicuous in another story.

On the lighter side, we spend more time with the hilarious Fak brothers Neil (played by chef and show producer Matty Matheson) and Theodore (Ricky Staffieri), who are a lively combo set of “well meaning” and “bumbling” at an epic level.

Carmy is intent on achieving a Michelin star, and to that end he’s compiling a list of “non-negotiables” that will push his partner Sydney and his staff to the edge, and maybe over, the cliff. It’s a tribute to Jeremy Allen White’s layered work that even when Carmy is in danger of becoming the Chicago counterpart of his abusive New York City mentor (Joel McHale), we’re still rooting for this guy to stick his head out out of… head and do the right thing. (We won’t go into spoilers about the returning guest stars or new additions, other than to say that it never feels like a stunt when a familiar face shows up.)

Music has always been an integral element of this series, and it continues here, with perfectly timed drops that range from Carole King’s “Up on the Roof” to Weezer’s “Getchoo” to the main title theme from the 1955 film noir “The Night”. of the Hunter.” Episode 3 has a sequence reminiscent of a certain montage from “All That Jazz,” while an episode later references the late great Chicago director William Friedkin. Small but cool touches abound, for example, the moment a character stops to look at a simple tissue dispenser, and it means a lot to that character and to us.

Like the third quarter of an instant classic of a football game, “The Bears” Season 3 has plenty of memorable moments — but it also serves as a series of appetizers for Season 4, which will be released sometime in 2025, and we We will need so much time to digest everything in this 10-course season and prepare for what’s to come, please and thank you.