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)

Don't get me wrong, I f#%^*ng love this show, and while this season 2 finale was very good, I have to knock a couple points off because... it's just getting a little too dramatic. Too many crazy coincidences, too many melodramatic breakdowns, every character is pushed to their extreme. Pump the brakes chef! Do less. You have an amazing story with amazing actors. Chill. It's plenty dramatic as is.

Write out all the Big Dramatic Moments on paper , which I won't do because spoilers, and it would sound like a standard issue episode of General Hospital.

The Bear is at its best when the moments are small yet oozing with intensity. More of that, chef.

It started off a bit slow showing us a different side of the story I didn't mind but it builds up and it builds up fast. We learn more about Marcus and then the origin of "the bear". Season 2 is definitely the strongest and best peaks of this show. Fishes made me realize how great this show is we take such a turn after that powerful, intense, and emotional episode it's crazy. Richie has also became one of my favorite characters because of this season he showed some real change and actual care. The rest of the season did a good job in building up for the main act the finale. I loved this so much cant wait to see what season 3 has to offer so far im loving this show and cant wait to see what happens as we go on.

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.

A brilliant and impactful finale that really culminates everything that has been shown throughout this season.

Season 2 brought a lot more emotion by tackling the heart of the crew. It focused on their ups and their downs and how they dealt with it in their own way. This was really a season of self reflection. Characters taking a step back and focusing on themselves trying to do what's best but ultimately dealing with their own messy lives outside the restaurant.

Some characters seem to get over their own hurdles while others are in neglect of accepting a truth they can't bare to acknowledge. That was basically what this season was trying to do, and it really did an amazing job at making these characters feel like human beings.