‘People go to restaurants to feel less lonely…’
While season three of The Bear was unfairly derided, it was also the weakest of the three seasons so far and suggested a show that was kinda spinning its wheels a little. Well, season four dispels that fallacy in the very first episode and then the quality never lets up across ten sensational episodes…
If season three felt a little meandering, showrunner Christopher Storer faces that criticism head on in the first episode here by providing us with a literal ticking clock. Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) and Computer (Brian Koppelman) arrive at the restaurant in the wake of a middling review from the Chicago Tribune to inform everyone that The Bear will be closed in two months if things don’t turn around. This prompts Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) to realise that he’s been the problem all along. Elsewhere, Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) hires a business consultant named Albert Schnur (Rob Reiner) to mentor him on how to expand the Beef window, and the Berzatto family prepare for Tiff’s (Gillian Jacobs) wedding.
Hot on the heels of Olivia Colman in season three, here we are treated to Josh Hartnett, John Cena and Brie Larson (who is wonderfully bratty as Nat’s nemesis, Francine). It’s no wonder that the show continues to attract A-list stars when the writing is this fucking good. Storer dials back the comedy somewhat (although it’s still funny), and allows us to spend more time with Ayo Edebiri who continues to be the MVP of the show along with Nat (Abby Elliott) and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). Indeed, my one criticism of season four is that Richie, the show’s best character, isn’t given enough to do.
‘Fishes’, the Christmas episode from season two, is given a sister episode here in the form of ‘Bears’, a bumper episode in which the entire Berzatto clan descend on Tiff’s wedding. Without going into spoilers, what I loved about this episode is that it goes in a direction that I genuinely didn’t expect. Elsewhere, Jamie Lee Curtis appears in two scenes and almost steals the whole thing away from the rest of the cast, and the show generally matches the emotional heights of season two in several moments throughout this stellar season.
Along with Industry, The Bear continues to be the best thing on television right now. Bring on season five.
