The Bear

Finale and Season 2 review

I'd listen to the words they'd say. But in their voice, I heard dismay.

The plastic characters forced to portray. The day the storyline...went...away.

Episode 9 opened up with a crazy tense scene with the haunting overture of the legendary sounds from Nine Inch Nails' "The Fragile" album, 'The Day The World Went Away', and that was the end of that story, seeing as the finale, this episode, rendered it all pointless.

What annoyed me was how he never actually called the 'fridge guy', Tony. Complained about cell reception, yet gets perfect reception INSIDE the fridge. Any takers on that one??

They do come with emergency handles inside the walk in. Has saved me a few times in the past from irresponsible people. This is a massive oversight, but I get it.

He was too busy to take care of a mandated safety feature because he was in a relationship, and instead of calling when he was going to, he decided to stare at his phone and NOT answer the call from his girlfriend (ignorant writing) and NOT call Tony the 'fridge guy' like he was about to; when he allegedly had no cell reception (poor, pointless, contradictory writing).

I looked beyond that, but to think that not a single one of them would be responsible enough to do this.....is out of the question. Because they never would have passed inspection. However they could have had a handshake agreement with the inspector. Still its pretty unethical for someone with supposedly such high standards.

The ending was quite lame. Turned it into some teenage drama nonsense. This show goes up and down, from intensity to millenial melodrama, and its very uncomfortable to watch now.

I have to say season 2 was a big let down. The individual tales and stories of growth were cool. However, the first half of the season was utter garbage.

What is terrible is how Ms. Ayo looks and sounds like a 14 year old in the first half of the season, then miraculously looks like she aged 10 years in the final episodes.

SOMEBODY needs to be accountable for this nonsense. Either write her out of the script and find new casting representation.

OR fire your hair, makeup and costume department. Because its just awful. Unforgivably awful.

A lot of the arguing is pointless. If people are that unable to get along, then they are toxic and need to walk away. I used to be that way, now I cut people out of my life.

So while I can absolutely relate to many of the characters, and there certainly is a level of realism, a lot of it seems forced to drive the story.

However the delivery from Jeremy & Ebon seems genuine. The boys do a great job of honing their characters and very deserving of their recognition.

The supporting cast/guest stars are incredible. I was truly hoping to see more of Gillian Jacobs. They could have done so much more with that storyline. (Maybe in season 3)

I feel that the strength of this show is that it is a 30min(?) series. If they were 1 hour episodes they could do so much more. But in all likelihood they would lose the "comedy" tag.

I see this necessarily as a dark comedy, that's the only way it would earn the tag. It falls incredibly short of being regular comedy, in that there just isn't enough to attribute that genre. The show just isn't that funny.

I don't feel like the awards they win are justified because this show is most definitely a drama-first series. (A great example of an 'award winning' dark comedy is "Barry". Incredibly done)

But awards and awards shows are a joke anyway. There to push narrative and agenda. Like this season has done. Exactly like this season has done.

I'm guessing most people missed all the subliminal BS included in the first half of the season. (Some of it was very, very obvious and pathetic) Those that didn't know exactly what i mean. Those that did are immediately reaching for the thumbs down button. Its typical really.

First half of the season gets a 5.5/10 From mid season onwards an easy 8.5/10

I'd give the second half a 9 but the ending of this episode was so phony. Not to mention you have the potential for a seriously dramatic scene wtih Carm, but you cut to the parking lot for the continuation of "a story we've already heard!!"

Somebody throw a fork at the director already. Where's Uncle Lee to cut THIS story off!

Far too many flaws. I knew from the fact that I had to review an episode earlier in the season; to voice my displeasure that this series would snowball into a 'Downward Spiral'.

Maybe they should have used music from that album, since Reznor and Ross are heavily featured in the final 2 episodes. I recommend "Piggy", that would have played as a triple entendre; with a callback and a dramatic albeit unfair depiction of our lead character, whilst using a montage of pork meat/butcher scene.

But that would be me doing their job for them.

The problem is the show lacks creativity. While most scenes are shot beautifully and the long continuous opening scenes are truly amazing and a massive testament to the ability of the cast (Episode 6 was incredible, and with *that* much talent, it still surpassed my expectations which is wild) it is the music that drives a lot of scenes.

While it feels great in the moment, it almost immediately feels out of place thereafter. The irony is that they have these long, beautiful shots. An then they have these impulsive quick-shots and montage scenes that make you emotionally weary.

An then you're immensely frustrated with the unnecessarily long shots just focsuing in on one character. When "every second counts", they clearly do not adopt that with these scenes. They are nothing if not annoying.

All in all Season 2 gets a C grade from me. Everything that made season 1 great was quickly lost on season 2.

This episode Entertainment Value 8.5/10 Overall Rating 8/10

Season 2 Entertainment value 8/10 Overall Rating 7/10

Episode 6 drove up the entertainment score. They could have made that into a standalone movie; while trying to figure out where they go from here, fixing all the issues before season 3, and maybe a teaser/prelude for the upcoming season.

Regardless, they will definitely take home some awards for that one. Best episode of the series, they will never eclipse the work done there. I might watch it again, just because.

(One last thing, the appearance of Joel Mchale in the final episode was literally pointless. It ignorantly drives unanswered questions which I refuse to ask in the moment. But here's one just for the fun of it: what the hell was he doing there in the first place? There was ZERO logic behind that. And "the-story-will-be-revealed-later" style of writing is lazy and pedantic. I think this was yet another massive blunder from casting. Must have been filling out a contractual agreement or something)

Blown away by this conclusion to a superb second series of a wonderful programme. The transformation of characters, evolving from that incandescent "seven fishes" episode was just sublime. The two series of "The Bear" have been absolutely captivating, especially as I recall younger days working in a military officers kitchen to exacting and brutal standards. Nobody except those who have done this line of work necessarily appreciate the ungodly hell of delivering exacting, perfect food time after time after time to customers (or senior military officers!) without compromise or failure.

We all work for a reason and "The Bear" illuminates brilliantly the huge physical and emotional price it takes to deliver excellence.

Episode opens with people unfocused and distracted.

It's supposed to be rehearsal for opening night but we know it's the last episode.

The chef and sous chef leveling a table in the dining room instead of prepping was suspicious but covered as a heart-warming scene that proved to be affirmation that what was said was not true. Aspirational but empty.

As soon as Sydney the sous started expediting (calling out orders) in her monotonous drone and not responding to calls for "all day" (a total of orders for a particular dish) from the staff, I knew the train was definitely off the tracks.

It was a similar real experience that made me understand Ozzy's song "Crazy Train" and how you can know what's coming but unable to change it and only do as much damage control as possible while not being able to get off the doomed train. This can happen with just one person out of sync but we quickly learn that it's not just one here.

Carmen isn't completely to blame for all his shirking of tasks fundamental to operation; the others knew he wasn't following through yet treated them each as isolated minor issues without considering their cumulative effect. They were waiting for their "I told you so" moments as with Natalie and having enough forks.

The only one who had received training to deal with that situation was reveling in his newfound talents on the floor (dining room with customers) until no amount of denial could prevent him finally stepping up.

Speaking of that, Sydney didn't get any stage ( _stawj_ , temporary internship) to help her find her voice in the kitchen. Why?

She and Carmen remained cursed by their tragic self-belief, as if determined to accomplish their worst fears.

(Damn! I can't tell you how frustrated I was as soon as she started calling orders and realized that no magic was going to happen for her and no one was ready to step up till much later. Even the heart-rubbing code sign exchanged between Carmen and Sydney was meaningless since nobody learned anything.)

Then - the idiot locked in the walk-in (and yes it can happen!) came up with zero ideas to get himself out. A crowbar, tire iron, or heavy duty pot handle could have pried the door open but he was obviously where he needed to be in order to doom himself further with Claire and everyone else who tried to love him.

Self-pity was disgustingly thick and about the only ingredient Carmen the chef could come up with as he looked around at the most bitter vegetables in the walk-in (that's all I could come up with for what the camera was doing with the radicchio, etc).

After loving this season, celebrating it as genius, thinking I'd paid my trauma dues with the "Fishes" episode, I was so angry that this was the final episode; though it was "practice night" there is no coming back from much of it.

Even the obvious analogy with the meth smoking employee having a milder addiction than others in prominent roles got only a smirk from me. As Marcus pointed out, he did do his job.

Mom showing up with her crap issues was just another weakly symbolic event that really meant nothing and didn't contribute to any of the problems. There wasn't an adult present anywhere (maybe Clair for leaving?) and the reduction of key people to their pettiest childish selves was too frustrating for me.

Yeah, the diners thought it was great. Been there with an imploding staff and somehow pulled that off. But the main players not being able to shut their mouths is fatally unforgivable/forgettable.

I haven't forgiven them.

Or the writers and makers of the show.

Today I hate them all.

It was probably a great episode somehow so I gave it a 7 though my heart has no rating low enough.

This was a roller coaster of emotions and I loved every second of this episode. From being sad to hating characters to loving others. This was a well done piece of artwork! Congrats to the team that put this together. I haven't cried and been mad and happy all at the same time. In a really long time.

I can only express that I need everybody I come in contact with to watch this series and it needs to be broadcasted more as it covers such a variety of different stories and real life problems that people face each and everyday. If you are by chanced blessed to come across this review and series congrats you are about to beyond impressed.

After pushing the bar high throughout the season with some great episodes this last one completely fails, destroying on its way the feeling about the whole show. Bad writing, strange directing and editing, naive plot lines or twists, terrible soapy moments on more occasions, and then also forcing closure on all things in one episode is just amateurish to say the least...The main actors have little to work with in dreadfully long takes in which not much happens. Really bad and sad, to the point that you feel cheated on waiting for the finale. They could have ended the season in the previous episode and remain the cool show that they were before. Having such high ratings here for this episode is ridiculous.