The Bear Season Five Post Mortem

This review contains spoilers for the final, fifth season of Hulu’s The Bear.

Over the years, The Bear has struggled with cohesion. Its highs have been truly spectacular, providing episodes of television that will hold up for decades as examples of just what you can do with a single character or a single, unbroken shot. But more often than not over the last two seasons, the series has gotten in its own way – focusing too much on minutia, having characters run in place rather than pushing the story forward, and leaning too hard into secondary and tertiary characters for emotional beats and slapstick comedy that broke the overall tone of the series. So, I approached this final set of eight episodes with a great deal of trepidation. Which version of The Bear were we going to get with its swan song? The one that understands that characters propel a story forward – and then actually lets them do so? Or the one that gets so muddled up in very special episodes, the Fak brothers, and hijinks that the season lacks a coherent narrative arc and flounders? Amazingly, I’m happy to report, this final season of The Bear more or less got things back on track, delivering a final service that allowed the story and its characters a chance to breathe.

The smartest change in this final season of The Bear was its structure. Rather than telling a longer arc in fits and starts – peppered with special spotlight episodes that pull the focus from the main arc while offering key character beats (that are often the highlight of the season overall) – season five of The Bear gave us seven episodes of a single no good, terrible, very bad but ultimately satisfying, day in the restaurant, a la The Pitt. This tighter focused storytelling was a huge plus, letting us see our characters in real-time as they worked through how to get service out when the restaurant was literally falling down around them. It let each character shine throughout the entire season, rather than giving out special episodes, asking the characters to work together instead of on their own little islands. And, best of all, it took much of the focus off of Carmy* and spread it out. Hell, the writers even managed to find the perfect amount of the Fak brothers to use, turning them into lovely sparks of joy rather than overwhelming presences that suck the air out of everything.

*Jeremy Allen White is exceptional in The Bear. I love his performance. But as a character, Carmy can be A LOT. When he’s at his worst for stretches of time, the show suffers for it just as the characters do. Having a season where Carmy is not the main focus – and is often just existing in the background – allowed the show to have the space to pull away from that darkness and let in a lot of lighter elements. Losing the storm cloud of Carmy as the central point and pivoting more to Syd was a masterstroke and really helped to balance the storytelling in a way that let the season feel hopeful, even in the face of all the mounting dread and doom. For most of the series, the writing couldn’t let Carmy grow out of the anger that was his hallmark – because if he did, then much of the show’s central tension would evaporate. But by making the show less about him in this final stretch, it allowed that tension to simmer in the background as Carmy worked through his choice to step away from the restaurant mostly on his own.

Now, as with every season of The Bear, some suspension of disbelief was warranted with the overall arc of the story. If a pipe burst like that, there’s absolutely no way a restaurant could feasibly open up for a myriad of reasons (health and safety at the top of that list). But torrential downpours like that? Absolutely a thing here in Chicagoland. And the utter reverence the kitchen staff showed for Tom Skilling, beloved retired WGN weatherman, when he arrived? 100% true – in fact, I cannot believe anyone in that kitchen who grew up in Chicagoland wouldn’t have known who he was, he’s that much of an institution in this city (and so, so loved by us all that even in retirement, he occasionally pops back up on WGN to talk us through truly awful weather moments – we love you, Tom!). It was refreshing to watch the goings on in the restaurant and not worry about whether what was happening made any sense. Sure, letting the Faks run amok trying to “fix” things was not the best choice – but, you know what? It was fun. It helped lighten some of the heavier moments. And it made me actually like the characters for the first time in the series – a true accomplishment.

As for the drama of whether or not The Bear would survive another day? Well, I found that to be less and less of an interesting plot point as the season went on – which I suspect was the goal of the writing. Because the ultimate message of The Bear was less about what a single restaurant could be or become, but more about how your work family can become a real family. The theme of found family is a common one in storytelling, and something that has been a part of The Bear since the jump (lest we forget, Richie is not actually related to Berzatto family and neither are the Faks, yet they refer to each other as “cousin” as a catchall for the closeness of their relationship). But using this final season to stress repeatedly just how much these characters all love and care for one another – from the close bond forged between Luca and Marcus to the relationship between Tina and Syd that culminates in Syd naming Tina her Chief de Cuisine in the new restaurant – was a welcome surprise. Sure, there was some in fighting, but ending the series with everyone on the same page, agreeing that they want to stay in each other’s lives in any way possible? Exceptional.

If there was one misstep within the season for me, it was in the epic search for Cicero, Computer, and the new addition of Cheese (Eighth Grade’s Elsie Fisher, who fit right in) to find a way to make money off the lot The Bear sits on since the restaurant appears to be failing. While I appreciate that this is a necessary plot point to get us to the ending where Ebra gets his dream of a franchised Bear beef enterprise*, it sucked up a lot of the storytelling oxygen to get us to the ending we all knew was coming. Was it fun to see Oliver Platt swearing up a storm? Sure. But we could have easily cut most of those scenes and ended up right where we needed to be. Rather, I would have preferred more time spent in the restaurant, exploring the importance of this final service. Case in point – the Star Man element with Mr. Dearborn (who had Tom Skilling as his plus one). Considering what I know about how the Michelin secret diners work, there’s no way he would have spoken that much about the food. There’s no way he would have a beloved local celebrity along with him for his meal. And some of the timeline seemed fudged since, while Michelin does send out diners more than once a cycle to restaurants, it certainly seemed like the restaurant had already missed out on its chance at a star (or, in the case here, two – a shocking jump) in season four. Which concluded the day before almost the entirety of season five lasts.

*The biggest laugh I had when watching the season? Ebra saying that perhaps, if they’re lucky, one day they’ll open an outpost in Schaumburg. A GREAT joke for Chicago folks. One of the saddest moments? Ebra’s “As you wish” when on the phone with Albert in the finale. Albert, you may recall, was played by the late, great Rob Reiner, who was tragically murdered last year. “As you wish”? Well, that one is from Reiner’s The Princess Bride and is how Wesley says “I love you” to Princess Buttercup. A beautiful tribute.

But again, small quibbles in the grand scheme of the season as a whole, which was as strong as the show has been in years. And even with an overstuffed finale – it could have easily ended with just episode seven, even if that meant Chicago legend Bonnie Hunt didn’t get her guest spot as the architecture firm executive interviewing Carmy – I’m willing to let the issues I had with the season slide. Because, at the end of the day, what we wanted was a chance to see this family work together and succeed one last time. And that’s exactly what we got. The Bear wasn’t perfect. But it, in the end, it found its way back from the wasteland and gave us a season of television it can be proud of.

The final season of The Bear is currently streaming on Hulu.