Warning: This post contains mild spoilers for Season 5 of “The Bear.”
Look out, “The Pitt”: You’re not the only acclaimed TV show telling its story one day at a time anymore.
“The Bear” returned for its fifth and final season Thursday, with all eight episodes dropping at once on Hulu, and they came with a twist: All eight episodes take place on the same day, during one very rainy night of service at The Bear. (It’s not quite told in real time, like the 15 hours per season on “The Pitt,” but it’s close enough.) It’s certainly a bold choice for an Emmy-winning show to switch up its format so drastically for its farewell run — but I’m not sure it’s an entirely successful one. Though the real-time format does add a certain urgency to the final episodes, it narrows the storytelling focus in a way that’s ultimately frustrating, leaving quite a few storylines unresolved and lending support to the argument that “The Bear” had simply run out of stories to tell.
One more day with these characters doesn’t feel like enough
Season 5 centers on a particularly eventful day, to be fair, with Sydney and the restaurant staff preparing for what they believe might be their final night in business, since the money has officially run out. (Uncle Jimmy, who has helped fund The Bear, announces his intentions to sell the whole building to recoup his losses.) Plus, following the events of the Season 4 finale, Carmy has stepped down as head chef and handed over the reins to Sydney, though he steps in to lend a hand in the kitchen for one final shift. Oh, and a torrential downpour threatens to flood the restaurant, the reviewer who could give them the Michelin star they’ve wanted so badly has reserved a table that night, and Marcus’ estranged father is coming in to sample his son’s creations as well.
That’s plenty of plot to unfurl in one episode, and it’s understandable that series creator Christopher Storer wanted to give these developments room to breathe across an entire season, taking us all the way from the first morning preparations through the service itself. But when it started to dawn on me that Season 5 would take place in a single night, I couldn’t help but feel a hint of disappointment. “The Bear” is at its best when simply observing human behavior with unfiltered authenticity, and there’s only so much character development that can take place in a single day. We’ve followed these people for four seasons now; one more day with them just doesn’t seem like enough. (But it does feel like evidence in favor of a nagging hunch some have had for a while: that Storer and company came in with a plan for three seasons, and then had to find a way to stretch it out to five once they found success.)
Season 5 is missing a lot of what made The Bear great
Most of Season 5’s episodes are less than a half-hour long, shorter than an average “Bear” episode, and at eight episodes, it’s the shortest season since Season 1, too. (The last three seasons had 10 episodes each.) To fill out the season, we get side plots like the Faks battling a leaky roof and Jimmy running around town to learn about the building’s “air rights” that feel like the kind of wheel-spinning that doomed Season 3. Meanwhile, the real-time format doesn’t allow any room for the side characters that made “The Bear” great. Jamie Lee Curtis is reduced to a small cameo as Carmy’s mom Donna, and there’s no sign at all of Carmy’s on-again, off-again love interest Claire, or Richie’s daughter Eva, or Sydney’s dad Emmanuel, or any of the A-list guest stars that we enjoyed spending time with in the first four seasons.
There are plenty of pleasures to be found in Season 5, to be sure, especially when the restaurant staff rallies together to pull off a masterful service despite all the obstacles. But that story could’ve been told in one supersized episode, which would then give us time to check in emotionally with the characters we’ve grown to care about so much and wrap up with some form of narrative closure. (So many of the best moments on “The Bear” took place outside the restaurant, from Season 2’s holiday flashback to Season 4’s wedding reception.) Instead, Season 5’s individual episodes end up blending together into one big serving that’s over too soon… just when we most wanted to savor every last bite.
What did you think of the decision to set Season 5 in a single day? Give the season a grade in our poll, and hit the comments to share your thoughts.