The Bear (Season Three) * * 1/2

 

Starring:  Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Oliver Platt, Olivia Colman, Matty Matheson, Jon Bernthal, Abby Elliott, L-Boy, Liza Colon-Zayas, Molly Gordon, Jamie Lee Curtis

The Bear sizzles when it depicts the grind of running a top-flight restaurant.  "Every second counts" is the mantra and a few lost moments can be the difference between a happy customer and a bad review.  The pressure to produce great food is intense, and the pressure to earn a profit even more so.  Chef Carmen Berzatto (White) orders the most expensive butter around to make his dishes stand out, but Uncle Jimmy (Platt) sees his investment and any chance of recouping his money flying out the window.  Is something wrong with Land-O-Lakes?  

Then, there is the other side of The Bear, in which characters engage in looooong conversations which certainly cause this viewer's attention to wane.  The episode in which Natalie (Elliott) is in labor is one extended conversation between her and her estranged mother (Curtis).  The acting is superb, but the incessant talking is not.  A balance between the two would bring The Bear back to the quality of the excellent first season.  The last two seasons, while they've had their moments, have not been able to match season one.  

The Bear is now open for business.  The first episode consists mostly of elliptical flashbacks and Carmen beating himself up for being locked accidentally in the walk-in refrigerator during opening night.  Usually, you have to wait until mid-season to see the filler episode, but The Bear gets it out of the way early.  Carmen has two expressions:  Mopey and more mopey.  He carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, triggered by past trauma and verbal abuse by the head chef (a terrific Joel McHale) of the New York restaurant where he worked.  When Carmen has a chance in the season finale to confront this demon, it doesn't disappoint.   

We also witness the continuing evolution of Richie (Moss-Bachrach), who in season two learned under Chef Andrea (Colman) how to become a maitre-d and under his steely, shifting gaze, sees all in the restaurant and of course finds himself wanting to strangle Carmen more than once.   In the middle is Sydney, whom Carmen wants to make a partner but receives a tempting offer to be head chef at a friend's upstart restaurant.  She is tormented by the decision and the internalized pressure.  

Despite its strengths, The Bear's third season is a mixed bag.  The strong aspects are very strong, but then we have whole sequences of talk-a-thon conversations which lull us into boredom.   When we think they're over, they drag on.  I like these people and their camaraderie is infectious, but look out when they start expounding on things.