The Bear (Season 4)
FX/Hulu, June 26, 2025
Jun 26, 2025
Pictures by FX Networks
Net Unique
Season 4 of the beloved and award successful culinary dramedy The Bear begins by revealing the cliffhanger Chicago Tribune evaluation of superb eating cooks’ Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) and Syd Adamu’s (Ayo Edebiri) upscale tackle down house beef sandwiches. All of it started as a sandwich store Carmy’s brother Mikey Berzatto (Jon Bernthal) ran for years earlier than committing suicide, leaving the youthful Berzatto to kind by his ensuing PTSD over a scorching range. Placing a superb eating spin on his brother’s legacy hasn’t resolved Carmy’s trauma. “Dissonance” was the important thing adjective obvious from the Tribune evaluation, which went on to name their restaurant, additionally referred to as The Bear, sometimes thrilling but additionally complicated and chaotic. The meta-commentary lingers like an aftertaste, due to course critics and followers ravenously debated how season three of The Bear was equally too haughty and hit-or-miss (although I savored its palate increasing tangents in my evaluation of final season).
Just like the traditional consolation meals sandwiches that the restaurant continued to serve up together with flashier fare, the sequence is bound to win naysayers again over in Season 4. For one, the brand new premiere boasts extra plot growth in its half hour runtime than a lot of the earlier season as an entire. After ceasing to talk all through season three due to a vicious argument, Carmy and his endearing however boorish maître d’ cousin Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) lastly reconnect within the premiere. Sadly, they each attempt to settle for duty for the vital Tribune evaluation, solely to resort to shouting as their self-flagellation turns into yet one more pissing contest. The outcome: a hilarious however bittersweet bit in a sequence too-often criticized for missing the humor wanted to win so many Finest Comedy Emmys.
Richie brings much more laughs, and likewise some hair elevating pleasure, by inviting some mates (who’re additionally fan favourite visitor stars) to implement techniques that simply would possibly save the restaurant. These measures are wanted as a result of the premiere’s stakes are ratched up by key investor Uncle Cicero, the reliably intestine busting Oliver Platt. When he and his trusty quantity crunching sidekick Laptop (veteran screenwriter Brian Koppelman) saunter into the kitchen and set up a countdown clock on the wall, The Bear’s narrative is given some a lot wanted thrust. That’s as a result of Carmy & Co. have solely till that clock strikes 0.00 in two months to show the restaurant round, a plot system becoming cinephile Richie’s efforts as a Michael Mann movie-esque synth soundtrack comically, but excitingly earnestly, kicks in. Platt’s sarcastically inquisitive quip, “Anyone learn something good recently?” in reference to the Tribune evaluation can also be acidly humorous, but additionally turns into coronary heart wrenching as a result of he’s clearly torn between pulling the plug on the sequence’ namesake restaurant or giving its employees one final probability, as a result of he loves and believes in them.
The remaining first half of this ten episode season (I solely binged the 5 thus far) are equally sturdy because the premiere, falling in need of solely the sequence’ absolute apex, which is after all Season Two’s well-known “Forks” episode. That is due to a couple components. First: for a present that has impressed numerous memes in regards to the stress its frantic kitchen scenes induces audiences, Season 4 of The Bear is surprisingly subdued and feelgood. In fleeting and heartfelt vignettes spliced collectively, pairs of characters time and again share earnest glances and unspool loving monologues. It will be tooth decaying-ly saccharine in lesser fingers, however contemplating the melancholy and chaos that abounded in earlier seasons, it feels earned. That is very true for Carmy, who apologizes to everybody from his sister to Syd for making too many convoluted adjustments to The Bear’s menu, and leaving his private life all of the extra messy because of this.
Carmy’s scenes with Syd are particularly gripping, as he stifles again the urge to contradict or interrupt her, and readily accepts her strategies for the primary time. Edebiri infuses these moments with complexity as her furrowed forehead and pursed lips convey wariness to imagine the chef she has lengthy appeared as much as is lastly treating her like an equal. And naturally, a key subplot carried over from final season includes Syd mulling over a promising provide from a brand new restaurant.
Higher nonetheless: Syd unleashes all these pent up emotions to her cousin’s daughter in a series-best episode contender. The one Season 4 episode not directed or co-directed by creator Christopher Storer, the brand new season’s fourth episode titled “Worms” is helmed by rising filmmaker Janicza Bravo (Lemon, Zola, Atlanta’s “Juneteenth” episode). All of the extra thrilling for Bear followers: it’s written by Edebiri and Lionel Boyce (who additionally performs The Bear’s mild large pastry chef Marcus). All through this bottle episode, Syd procrastinates in making a call about which restaurant to work at whereas getting her hair achieved by her cousin, who comically steps out for some supplies, leaving Syd to babysit her daughter. Syd cooks a easy however elevated tackle hamburger helper for the fifth grader, lends a pleasant ear when the preteen vents about not being invited to a sleepover, and makes an attempt to supply some recommendation and comfort, solely to inadvertently reveal how she feels about The Bear and Carmy’s therapy of her within the clumsy sleepover metaphor she makes an attempt to craft for her cousin’s daughter. “Worms” is a gradual burning, deeply transferring episode, partly due to what it reveals about Syd, but additionally due to the lived-in performances from Edebiri and Danielle Deadwyler (Until, Station Eleven) as her cousin, together with newcomer Arion King as her eye rolling however large hearted daughter.
As Syd considers whether or not Carmy’s makes an attempt at self betterment make it value staying at The Bear, the dysfunctional chef contends with comparable indecisiveness about his greatest grievance. Although Carmy and Richie share some glares underpinned with melancholy, Storer holds off on the reconciliation that followers are clamoring for between some of the dynamic duos of the status TV period. A pivotal scene early on in Season 4 is bound to encourage chatter amongst followers on this regard. That’s as a result of Richie seems out from the well-lit kitchen into the eating space the place Carmy is brooding at dimly lit closing time. The distinction in lighting and Storer’s framing emphasizes the emotional gulf between these characters, regardless of the elder cousin getting into a neighboring room to gingerly strategy the youthful savant who verbally cleaved him so deeply in season two. There’s no simple decision on this or subsequent scenes in Season 4’s first half. However this scene continues to be consequential as a result of the cousins face off throughout a eating desk like Paccino and De Niro in Warmth, Moss-Bachrach’s stony resolve contrasting starkly with gaping, all however moist eyes from Jeremy Allen White. It’s positive to tug viewers’s heartstrings, and return The Bear to the Emmy forefront after an uneven prior season.
And whereas Carmy wrestles with such relationships in actual time, he’s after all nonetheless haunted by Mikey’s suicide. The stare down between Moss-Bachrach and White is subsequently rivaled by an equally transferring earlier Season 4 scene between Carmy and his then but to be deceased brother, a reliably wonderful new flashback courtesy of Bernthal. As Mikey puffs his chest out and challenges Carmy in regards to the youthful brother’s pitch to open a restaurant, the pasta sauce they’re readying sizzles, and Storer captures the various morsels’ textures with deft closeups. Because the dialog grows heated Mikey gruffly reminds Carmy to stir the sauce so it gained’t stick, and the healthful meals threatens to boil over– yet one more excellent pairing of subtext with spot-on performances on one in every of TV’s best possible reveals.
Due to all that and extra– together with thrilling new visitor stars, ever reliable needle drops, and subplots that reveal multitudes about restaurant tradition and characters whereas avoiding the showiness of Season Three, Season 4 of The Bear is a return to kind. (www.fxnetworks.com/reveals/the-bear)
Writer score: 9/10
