By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
After the whirlwind of chaos that was The Bear‘s Season 2 finale, Hulu‘s Emmy-winning dramedy returns on a subdued note, as Carmy reflects on the path that led him here.
Tuesday’s Season 3 premiere is light on dialogue and heavy on atmosphere (with a lush ambient score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross), following Carmy as he heads back into the kitchen after his restaurant’s opening night, his mind flooding with memories of his culinary training. He gets up at dawn and enters his restaurant’s dining room alone, meticulously cleaning up and putting things back in order. Along the way, he remembers plucking herbs with tweezers in the kitchen of Olivia Colman’s Chef Terry, getting hands-on instruction from legendary chef Daniel Boulud — and getting chewed out by Joel McHale’s abusive head chef, who tells him his dish has too many ingredients and leaves him a piece of bright green tape with “SUBTRACT” written on it.
Back in present day, Sydney brings Carmy a cup of coffee, and he starts jotting down a list of “non-negotiables” for his restaurant. We flash back to him working in Chef Terry’s kitchen, harvesting vegetables in the French Laundry’s famous garden and saying goodbye to his sister Nat before moving to New York. “Maybe I’m never gonna see you again,” she worries, but he assures her: “You’ll see me again.” As he cooks, he has visions of the awful Christmas family fight from last season — and of happier times with Claire, before he went and ruined things with her in the Season 2 finale.
Carmy apologizes to Sydney for leaving her alone on opening night, but she tells him, “We made it,” adding: “Don’t let it happen again.” When she advises him to go home, he asks, “You think she wants to hear from me right now?” But “that’s not what I was talking about,” Sydney says. Carmy does leave a heartfelt voicemail, saying he didn’t mean it and professing his love — but we see he actually left that message for Richie. While Marcus sits in the hospital, seemingly keeping watch over his mom, Carmy writes down more non-negotiables: “Less is more.” “Vibrant collaboration.” He prepares a new set of dishes as he remembers working in Chef Terry’s kitchen and sketching out recipe ideas in his notebook. In a flashback, he tells Nat: “I’m good at this.” She replies: “I know you are, honey.”
Sydney leaves a message for Marcus, offering her sympathies and telling him to take all the time he needs. (So his mother must’ve passed away the night before.) We see Claire washing off her makeup and going to bed before heading back to work at the hospital. She checks her phone, too — but no message from Carmy. He remembers texting a photo of a fancy dish to his brother Mikey, and also turning down a wad of cash from Nat before flying to New York. Joel McHale’s chef is bullying him again about one of his dishes when his phone buzzes with a bunch of messages. When he calls Nat back, she’s sobbing: “It’s Mikey.”
As Carmy writes down more non-negotiables like “Pursuit of excellence,” he remembers Mikey’s funeral, with Richie, Nat and Tina walking out of the church in tears. Carmy watches them from a car across the street — and then drives off without going in. He remembers Chef Terry sending him off to Copenahgen to broaden his culinary palate, and Nat telling him to “Let it rip, Bear” before slipping that wad of cash into his pocket. In a flashback, he plates an exquisite dish of hamachi with a blood orange sauce and sends it out — and Sydney is the diner. She’s impressed, taking a photo of it and smiling. And back in present day, Carmy surveys the new dishes he’s created and looks up at the clock. It’s a new day.
How’d you like that first taste of The Bear Season 3? Give the premiere a grade in our poll, and then hit the comments to share your thoughts.
My favorite part of this show is it’s quiet. You can’t be in your phone or you might miss something little that is actually big. Glad it’s back
Does anyone know the timeline of his work, between the French Laundry, angry Joel McHale, Copenhagen, and Olivia Colman’s restaurant? The only frustrating thing (even though I know it wasn’t the point of those montages) is I’m not clear what his actual path was between those various restaurants and places…unless it was established at some point in one of the earlier seasons and i missed it.
Ok – so here’s what i’ve worked out
French Laundry was first (olivia colemans character asks him where he’d been before)
Then Ever
Then Coppenhagen (sent by Ever)
Then McHales restaurant.
My only issue is did i miss him getting that really gnarly burn? (I will assume it was at mchales restaurant cause that guy is the worst)
Thanks! Definitely worked out that Copenhagen was after French laundry and Colman’s restaurant given that she asked about Copenhagen and he said no, so those make sense!
Yeah I was unsure about the burn too! There’s that one scene in season 1(?) where he goes to grab a pot at the beef when he was getting a lot of resistance from everyone and burns his hand. Wonder if it was that?
I’ll preface with I absolutely love The Bear. One of my favorite shows right now. I think it was a bold choice to spend the whole first episode as a long montage instead of going straight into the standard show. I’m 50/50 on that choice, and hope it makes sense in the grand scheme of Season 3 as I have not seen the rest of the season. I try hard not to binge shows, and try to space episodes as I prefer to really appreciate individual episodes in a manner that sometimes gets lost when you jump right into next episodes. This is why I wish streaming services would eliminate the full season drops and let those who want to binge wait until the last weekly episode is released.
This episode in itself didn’t do it for me. It just felt too jumbled and while it get that it was sort of his flow of thought and processing everything that happened some pieces just took me out of it. And while it probably won’t be a hot take I wanted to turn off the sounds and just watch. The score was driving me up the wall as it just repeated and repeated. I didn’t hate it, but it was far from my fav episode. The rest of the season got much better.
That score made me think of music you listen to to help you fall asleep.
That episode was a work of art, loved it.
I hate binging shows, but after the first episode, I decided that The Bear was an exception. It’s a great show, but not a lot happens in some episodes (especially the smaller ones) that I feel like I need more. I kind of felt this way for the entire season, there’s a lot of unresolved things. As Syd would say, I need season 4 “like, yesterday.”
Can’t wait to laugh non-stop at this comedy. I wonder what silly hijinks Carmy and Co. will get into this season.
To me, it’s getting more and more obvious this show isn’t a comedy. Yes, there’s a couple of characters who are funny and do funny stuff together, but they’re not even the leads and it’s a tiny fraction of the episodes they’re in.
too many facks
The Fak Brothers have a whole different show going on. 😆 🤣 😂
The most pretentious show on tv/streaming. If it disappears any further up its own rectum only proctologists are going to be able to watch season 4.
Episodes 1 and 6 only told us what we already knew about the characters while working very hard not to advance any part of the plot. Episode 8 was tied to side characters and again worked hard not to advance the plot. I have not seen 9 or 10. This season has been disappointing so far.