The final season of The Bear has been hailed as nothing less than extraordinary, pulling off television's most almighty comeback. The hit chef show, which initially made its name as a vehicle of pure forward momentum, had stalled badly in seasons three and four, but season five delivers the most purely enjoyable episodes since the first.
A Return to Form
Season five is set over the course of a single day where everything imaginable goes wrong. Staff have left, the weather is bad, the plumbing is on the fritz, and the money has run out. There isn't enough food and too many people. But this time, viewers get to see the competent version of the restaurant, run by Ayo Edebiri's Sydney following Carmy's resignation. Her cool handling of multiple crises echoes the therapy motto that stress is universal, but acting on it is a choice.
The season scratches the same itch as The Pitt, allowing viewers to feel the pleasure of seeing talented people solving problems together. It is also fun, with almost every character allowed to be entertaining, from Ebra's determination not to be dazzled by Carmy's blue eyes to a Greek chorus of diners obliviously Yes-Cheffing to the disdain of the actual chefs.
The Finale: Everyone Gets What They Want
The finale is stripped of the Hans Zimmer-produced electronic pulse that accompanied much of the series, replaced instead with frictionless scenes where everybody basically gets what they want. The restaurant is recognised by Michelin, solves its money problems by becoming a franchise, Cousin Richie finally leaves the country, and Carmy leaves the restaurant industry as promised.
According to the review, this ending opens up a more nuanced conversation about what to do when you start to hate the only thing you're good at. The last shot of Carmy, finally at peace maybe for the first time ever, suggests that moving on is a risk worth taking.
An Extraordinary Rollercoaster
The Bear has been an incredible rollercoaster, with highs as high as you can get and lows that were bafflingly awful. The fact that it ended as strongly as it did is nothing less than extraordinary. The series initially made its name as a story of a burned-out high-end chef drafted in to fix up and save his dead brother's sandwich restaurant, but with the benefit of hindsight, that probably should have been the entire show. Seasons three and four both stalled badly in a morass of montages and flashback episodes that felt like placeholders.
Season five, however, had one final chance to get back on track, and it pulled it off. The Bear is on Disney+.
