The New ‘The Bear’ Season Will Annoy Everyone

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This week:

Everyone’s favorite show to argue about is back.
Turns out Brad Pitt is a good movie star.
The best movies ever.
A TV show line I’ll never forget.
He plays the clarinet?!?!?

OK, Chef?

It was seconds into watching the first episode.

“Oh no. Everyone’s going to hate this.”

The new season of The Bear, which is now out for all to binge, following last year’s somewhat confounding, yet fierce, backlash against the show.

To my mind, it was the same exact series that became a pandemic hit and awards’ darling; to viewers, it might as well have sent producers door to door to step on your big toe and then spit in your face.

That confounding backlash seemed to have sprouted from the impression that this show, about the chaos involved in opening a restaurant, became too chaotic. Give us cacophony once, and it’s music. Give us it three seasons in a row, and it’s a din that we simply cannot stand for.

Season 4 of The Bear, now available to stream, might be a lesson in “be careful what you wish for.”

From what I gathered, people had become exhausted and exasperated that this show had Ted Lasso’d itself, meaning it amplified its original conceit—a broken person tries to heal himself in the chaos of restaurant work—and cute-ified it. The endless cursing at each other was supposed to be endearing, because it’s apparently a love language for these characters. And the incessant montages of food ingredients and people walking down Chicago streets and sighing: That’s how you knew it was prestige.

My own take is that people realized that this show that hit some sort of nerve during those dark COVID times—sad man makes food and broods—maybe wasn’t the thing they wanted to watch forever. But the outsized backlash seemed ridiculous when The Bear was basically giving them the same exact show they claimed to like the season before.

Which is why I’m so struck by this season.

It’s so different from the maelstrom chef nonsense of the previous seasons. And yet so particularly hits on everything that people mocked those episodes for.

My one sentence review is that it’s a spectacularly acted season about the struggle to give one’s self permission to pursue their own happiness, and repair the relationships that are necessary to make that happen. My one word review is: sappy!

Jeremy Allen White as Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto Ayo Edebiri as Sydney Adamu FX

Let’s go back to those first seconds of that first episode. I’ve just picked up the eye balls that rolled out of the sockets of everyone who is tired of the obviousness of this show: Literally, the first five minutes of this season is two characters discussing the poignance and life-changing meaning of restaurants.

If you listen closely, you can hear the writer’s inner monologue telling himself “oh, this is so good.”

“People go to restaurants to feel less lonely,” it starts.

(Fair, as I type this at my neighborhood Pizzeria Uno I frequent just to sense connection.)

“It’s f—ing hard. And that’s what makes it special, right? It’s f—ing hard and it’s gnarly and it’s brutal and it’s specific and not everybody can do it. But I can do it, Mike,” Jeremy Allen White says in a flashback to his now-dead brother, Mikey (Jon Bernthal), in case you were confused about how emotionally manipulative this scene should be.

“Look, we can do this, right?” he continues. “We can take care of people. We can make it calm. We can make it delicious. People will want to come to celebrate….We could make people happy, Mike.”

I find it so lazy to criticize a TV show or movie by saying “this is like AI wrote it.” Also, I am the laziest person anyone knows, as friends and family have often pointed out.

I mean…if that’s not an AI version of a The Bear script I don’t what is.

Well, maybe this:

this is what every scene in The Bear is like pic.twitter.com/IWKZdHkvPy

— Harry (@hdwmovies) June 26, 2025

But here’s the thing about a show that you’ve signed up for. A series that you’re just like “of all the 400 ones out there, I’ve signed up for this one, so I’m just gonna see it through.” You kind of eat that s–t up.

While watching the entire season I was hootin’ and hollerin’ about every scene I clocked that the haters were going to drag for filth on social media. There were at least two per episode. The mission of the season was to heal relationships by articulating the healing process. That is so cringe-y, even before you add the context of The Bear and its characters into the mix. We’re a cynical people. Growth? Gross.

By the time Ayo Edebiri gave her seventh monologue about being insecure to claim her worth or Jeremy Allen White’s one-word-and-a-head-nod signaling that he’s trying to be a good guy now, I wanted to scream. I also cried. Because, as obvious as all this was, it was good.

Argue about whether this show is a comedy or a drama, and whether or not it should be tackling these issues. But, damn, if this show is therapizing all of us, it is doing a good job at it. And when you have an ensemble like the cast of The Bear, it’s meaningful to watch them act those journeys out.

Is Season 4 a corny-as-hell family reunion after school special? Yes, definitely. Did I screech multiple times an episode at how on-the-nose the dialogue was? My neighbors are still complaining. Did I enjoy watching it anyway? That’s the big endorsement. You’ll hate this season of The Bear. But also, like me, you’ll kind of love it.

Turns Out Brad Pitt Is a Movie Star

I need to give you context to understand how meaningful it is that I loved F1.

During the “heat dome” in New York, I had a doctor’s appointment, something that already sets you up for the worst day. Then I commuted into the office, which, if you don’t live in New York, you need to understand that a subway station when it’s above 80 degrees—let alone 100 degrees, which it was—is akin to going into a kiln to bake with your fifth grade art project.

Then, as I quickly learned, the office was mandated by the city to curtail its electric output by turning off the air conditioning.

Nevertheless, I persisted. I had my Brad Pitt race car movie to see, and I excitedly made my way, trail of butt sweat behind me, to the movie theater to watch F1. When I checked in, I was told the air conditioning in the IMAX theater I was going to was “on the fritz.”

Brad Pitt in 'F1' — Brad Pitt in ‘F1’ Apple

“Fritz,” apparently is a synonym for “it doesn’t work, but here is a paddle to fan yourself with for the nearly three-hour runtime.”

And yet. And yet! I loved the movie.

I’m a sucker for these classic blockbusters. Give me a movie star who shouldn’t be as handsome still is he is at his age, a script about him being the humble guy triumphing over the young idiots, and some cool action shots. I’m sold.

Brad Pitt in 'Thelma & Louise' — Brad Pitt in ‘Thelma & Louise’ Sony Pictures

I’ve noticed lately that people ask me two tiers of questions: What should I see, and should I see it in theater?

This is one that deserves a big screen, a bucket of popcorn with fake butter leaking onto your lap, and, if nothing else (and I hope this for you since I didn’t get it) strong air conditioning.

Obviously, These Are the Best

I don’t believe in lists and rankings. Also, I live and breathe by lists and rankings, and will spend every waking moment thinking about them, being cranky about them, and doing my own lists in angry response.

So that is how I introduce that The New York Times just released its updated rankings of the best movies of the 21st century. (If you, like me, had to Wikipedia what century that is, it is this one. The year 2000 and beyond.)

It was really clever to give the option to curate your own Top 10 list, like all the industry bigwigs they recruited to populate their own. I kept seeing people post theirs this week, and I felt like I was seeing them naked. Or, sometimes, how they wish they’d look naked. (There were far too many foreign independent films on some of these lists…)

That said, I decided to do my own. And, I guess, share it with you:

Was different when I made it and forgot to save it yesterday. Would probably be different tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/BcxMgEqTzH

— Kevin Fallon (@kpfallon) June 25, 2025

It’s hard to decide between what are your favorite movies and what are movies that you’ve watched that you recognize are great filmmaking…even if you never will watch them again.

This isn’t exactly an average of that. But it’s my take. It’s also changed so many times over this week as I thought about it. I hate the whole “here are the runners up” thing—you made a ranking you should stand by it! Also, here are my runners-up:

Catch Me If You Can, Gone Girl, The Florida Project, Lady Bird, Mean Girls, Notes on a Scandal, Precious, Shrek, Toy Story 3, and The Wolf of Wall Street.

At Least There’s This

Right now is a terrible time for TV. As I canonically said in this very newsletter.

However, The Gilded Age is fully embracing its ridiculousness, and I can’t not support that.

In its premiere episode, it has a small supporting character learn that her probably gay husband is actually sleeping with another woman and wants to divorce her.

This is the exact line of dialogue she delivered after learning that information:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Evan Ross Katz (@evanrosskatz)

If a TV show that dares to use the word “geegaws” in serious dialogue isn’t excellent television, I don’t know what is.

He’s Perfect

The big news from the Jurassic World: Rebirth press tour this week is that Jonathan Bailey, already perfect in every way, played the clarinet with the score’s orchestra for the film. (I also played the clarinet in school, and yet there’s no global thirst campaign about me. Rude.)