The Bear 4, the review of the TV series with Jeremy Allen White

Last season of The Bearthe brilliant but torme chicago chef, Carrmy (Jeremy Allen White), he was grappling with the stress of the opening of his new high cuisine restaurant, with an unsolved family trauma and with his difficulties in abandoning himself to a sentimental relationship, blocked by his fears related to intimacy and vulnerability. Syd (Ayo Edibiri), his creative partner, confidant and friend, he was evaluating whether to leave the bear to start his own. The family friend Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) tried to find his place as Maître d’Hôtel, while dealing with the pain of a past shared with Carrmy.

In the new season (in streaming on Disney+), Carrmy is still in crisis for the opening of the restaurant. Continues to deal with his family ghosts and torments himself for Claire (Molly Gordon), the woman who perhaps let go. Syd is still undecided about the future and Richie, again in anxiety, it combines disasters but also manages to do good.

The only real news is that a critic of Chicago Tribune He wrote a contrasting review of the restaurant, praising some aspects but criticizing their pretentious tone and lack of attention. Curiously, they are the same criticisms that some also move to the series The Bear.

The fourth season was shot in parallel with the third, so it cannot be a direct reaction to the comments of the public. Still, a certain level of awareness is destined. The creator of the series, Christopher Storer, seems to know what criticisms will be moved to him – and he is not afraid to face them. But it is not even willing to change course.

In fact, the new season proposes all the most frustrating elements in the series, the same ones that afflict it from the beginning. Continue to use melancholy rock songs And dated to underline emotions, often amplifying otherwise insignificant conversations. THE personages they behave in a way irregularat times incomprehensible. The Bear It makes us understand that these characters are always one step away from a emotional collapse – Yet we should find them fascinating, eccentric, humans.

In The Beareveryone always seems on the edge of tears: shiny eyes, close camera, string music to suggest that we must experience compassion. But Storer rarely clarifies the origin of all this emotion until the end of the season, and when it does, it turns out that the wounds are always the same as the first. The growth of the characters is scarce, except for rare moments when someone finally makes a decision: Go ahead, forgive, love. Maybe that’s how life really works, but on television this rhythm becomes stagnant.

Interpretations are affected by this repetitiveness. White is good at doing Carrmy: pale, disheveled, tormented. But what once appeared like engaging realism Now it seems just one mechanical repetition of the character. Edibiri speaks to burst, blastra, and only when Syd really stops the audience can he capture the profound meaning of his scenes. Moss-Bachrach is entrusted with the most caricatured character, but with great sensitivity he still manages to convey moments of authenticity. Too bad that then the scripts force him to continuous turns, making the character inconsistent – and all the actor’s effort is perceived in keeping him clinging.

One of the great boasts of The Bear It is his vast cast, which ranges from new faces (such as chef Matty Matheson, really existing) to be awarded as Jamie Lee Curtis or Brie Larsonnew entry of this season. The main indication of Storer to the actors seems to be: behave naturally. The naturalism It is the religion of this series. But the more the series tries to embody it, the more it seems to betray its principles. The idea of ​​human intimacy and familiarity is reduced to trivial details, like all the women of the series that speak to Matheson as if it were a puppy. A cloying expedient, which would like to be tender and instead is fake.

This forced representation of proximity It is reflected in many of the bewildered dialogues of the series, perhaps even more evidently in the episode of marriage – 69 minutes – thought as the heir of the acclaimed Fish of the second season. It is a more calm episode, at least, compared to that tour de force of family screams, but is lost in marginal textures that the pilot of another series seem: a sugary family drama. (A bit like it also happened with fish, on closer inspection).

Meanwhile, other characters remain in the shade. Liza Colón-Zayas has won an Emmy for her Tina, but this season she is entrusted only one sub-tray to cooking the pasta. Every now and again The Bear He remembers her and frames her while Parmigiano grater on the cavatelli. Better goes to Hebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson), who at least has a recognizable narrative arc.

I didn’t say much about the plot of the season, because in fact there is not much to say. The wheels turn empty until usual explosion/climax/reconciliationwhich perhaps would have been more logical to insert in the previous season. It is very good to want to subvert the rules of seriality, but iconoclastic Of The Bear it would deserve one Less self -referential frame, less boring. In this case, I’m afraid I agree with Stands.