She'd like to see you both

Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 TV shows of 2025

#18 :  The Bear

After the extended table-setting of Season 3, people started to wonder if The Bear had gone off the boil (insert other tortured food metaphors here). Thankfully in Season 4, the unwavering quality of writing, performance and filmmaker was bolstered by slightly more propulsive storytelling, and some more upbeat moments this time around; Carmy, at long last, is no longer trapped in the fridge (literally or metaphorically). There are some masterful episodes here – the Ayo Edebiri-penned ‘Worms’, in which her Sydney leaves the kitchen to look after a friend’s daughter, is a beautiful little slice of life; and ‘Bears’, the near-feature-length wedding episode, threatens to be another piece of near-unbearably tense familial arguing, until it blossoms into a great big warm hug. Hopefully this return to form continues into Season 5, with Carmy seemingly <spoiler alert>.

After The Bear took the top spot in '22 and '23, season 3 was conspicuously missing from all lists in '24 - but it was never clear from the critical reviews I read whether it just wasn't as good or whether it wasn't any good. So obviously, we have to check that out before we get to season 4.

Well, the first half of the season is most peculiar because not an awful lot happens - and that which does happen is pretty depressing. However, episode 6 gives us a nice study on how Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) got here and we get to see more Mikey (Jon Bernthal), so that's all good - it's directed by Ayo Edebiri, who is one talented lady! Episode 8 gives us Jamie Lee Curtis back, having an absolute blast as usual and episode 10 brings back Olivia Coleman (who is nicely understated in this) and Will Poulter (who is a most curious character). 

Episode 9 for me sums up the season because it's gorgeous to look at and has some absolutely heartbreaking yet hopeful moments, but boy is all over the place - and the season also ends on a confusing and depressing cliff hanger, which is annoying. All in all, there are some good episodes here but as a whole it's somewhat lacking in both optimism and development, so I can understand why people were so down on it - particularly after season 2. The music, however, it still banging - such great choices.

I do still care about the characters though, so since Empire tells us this season is "slightly more propulsive", I have high hopes for it (and I also want to know what happens after the end of the season 3 finale).

And it certainly gets more propulsive from episode 1 because they only go and introduce a clock that counts down to an event that we don't want to happen, but there's a strong chance that it will. They also introduce some new characters to drive things along (thanks to Richie not being an asshole) and at least a glimmer of optimism - it's like they actually listened to what I was saying (although they did completely ignore one of the elements of the season 3 finale though). 

Episode 3 made me cry - and also features some plot development we've been waiting a loooong time for. And episode 4 (the aforementioned "Worms") also tries to give us some major plot resolution - and maybe it does, and maybe it doesn't but it's all done very well (but episode 5 makes it clear that things aren't resolved at all). Episode 6 gives Ayo Edibiri a chance to show off her acting skills in a really well done observation on parenting - "if I was him, I'd be worried about me too - but it's not fair, I want him just to be worried about himself" (and there's some proper unglamorous crying going on). 

Episode 7 (the also aforementioned "Bears") is also a very fine episode, but I'm not sure I believe that table was really big enough for all the people underneath it (there are a LOT of them) - I'm also not convinced it really needed to be 70 minutes long.. And episode 8 FINALLY resolves the element hanging over from the season 3 finale (although it came as no surprise after episode 7) - but then episode 9 throws a curve-ball in there (which Empire kindly spoiled above but, don't worry, I've saved you). And that all leads to a season closer which is a two-, and then three-, and then (briefly, but beautifully) four- hander. Which wasn't at all what I was expecting and is quite the way to end the season - it had some overly dramatic moments but it also had some proper lovely scenes in it (which almost made me cry, but it was no episode 3). It also had a very cool ending which was both an ending and a beginning (maybe), with a cool St Vincent track playing over it.

All the actors do the usual good job so it's hard to call out anyone in particular but Ayo Edibiri (Sydney) definitely deserves a shout-out for some absolutely excellent moments sprinkled throughout a very high-quality season for her in particular. Other names I'm going to mention are Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Richie) who suffers a reasonable amount of turmoil but has dialled it back from the chaos of earlier seasons. On the calmer side we have Lionel Boyce (Marcus Brooks) and Abby Elliott (Natalie) who still have some turmoil, but deal with it (mostly) serenely - I should also mention that Lionel wrote "Worms" along with Ayo. 

But the king of serene is Will Poulter (Luca) - it's great to see him take a more prominent role in this season and he just sails through it dispensing wisdom. And the queen of not-serene is most definitely Jamie Lee Curtis, who it's always a pleasure to see - she's slightly less frenetic here than she was in season 2, but she did set a very high bar there. Interestingly, Jeremy Allen White (Carmy) has remarkably little to do in this season (except for episode 10) but I think it works well (although maybe he has a little too much inner turmoil going on).

What this season has (which season 3 didn't) is a sense of purpose in the writing - yes, it gets a bit navel gazey at times which I can see will still have annoyed some, but I got the impression they knew what they wanted to do. There are some nice callbacks throughout the season that aren't immediately obvious - eg Bob Odenkirk pops up for five minutes in episode 7 for no obvious reason, but it all makes some kinda sense in episode 10. There was also a pleasing lack of episodes which resulted in a "wtf was that about?" feeling when they ended. Looking at Wikipedia, the critics were pretty mixed as to whether they got it right, but it worked a lot better for me.

And it is, of course, beautifully shot with some absolutely gorgeous set pieces and some nice quirky side avenues (which they've dialled back from the episode long curiosities of season 3). And the music is obviously still great as well - they've got some great tracks in there. All in all, I think season 3 wasn't as bad as the rumours suggested, but it also certainly wasn't as good as what came before. For me, season 4 went some way to addressing my concerns - it's obviously way stronger plot-wise with everything else being up to its usual strengths. So if you were either dissuaded from season 3 or gave up on it, maybe pick it all back up again before season 5 comes along very soon.

#19 - Not quite for me