After a universally acclaimed second season, The Bear returns for another serving. What can we expect as the Beef completes its transformation into a Michelin-star-aspiring fine-dining establishment? What will be the dynamic between Carmy and Syd as they firm up their business partnership—and will Claire play a factor? And what’s the best dish prepared in the series to date? Our staff has thoughts on all of that, and more, ahead of The Bear Season 3.
1. What are you most hyped for heading into Season 3 of The Bear?
Claire McNear: I miss my beautiful, dysfunctional family, and I cannot wait to see them hate-love each other again.
Miles Surrey: The usual mix of food p*rn and the most anxiety-inducing sequences on television. Why mess with a good recipe?
Austin Gayle: The kitchen! Building the restaurant was stressful, sure. But nothing beats watching everyone sweat all of the challenges that come with chasing perfection in the kitchen.
Justin Charity: I’m here to witness Claire Bear exact her revenge on The Discourse.
Kai Grady: Simple: more time with my favorite dysfunctional found family as they navigate running a brand-new restaurant and the controlled chaos that will certainly follow.
2. Last season was the season of Richie and Marcus. Which supporting character deserves to shine in the spotlight next?
Surrey: I’m curious to see what the show does with Natalie this season, and not just because she’s got a bun in the oven.
Gayle: Tina! Liza Colón-Zayas has been brilliant from start to finish, and knowing that Ayo Edebiri is directing an episode focused on Tina only bolsters my excitement for this season.
Grady: Yes, Tina! One of the most heartwarming moments of last season was when Sydney asked Tina to be her “Jeff or whatever” (a.k.a. her sous-chef). In just two seasons, Tina’s gone from a stubborn, standoffish creature of habit to an eager team player who wants to be a key component of Syd and Carmy’s vision. Tina’s journey as a character is more than deserving of a stand-alone episode to propel her character arc even further.
Charity: Tina is one of the few characters who isn’t related to Carm but nonetheless contains a lot of the relevant history that brought all of these characters to this point. She also changed quite a bit in the first couple of seasons. We need to know what makes her tick.
McNear: I want to know everything there is to know about Uncle Jimmy, a.k.a. Cicero, and his terrible son—who, come to think of it, might learn some life lessons working weekends at Cousin Carmy’s restaurant …
3. What are your hopes for the new Bear restaurant that’s about to open? What kind of restaurant do you want it to be?
Charity: I find myself wondering about the front of house more than anything else. You have Richie, Fak, and now also apparently Gary. I’m hoping the restaurant somehow strikes a balance between Richie’s newfound haute professionalism and letting these guys be themselves with patrons.
McNear: I don’t think there’s any world in which we don’t get California-inflected New American, which seems to be the lingua franca of “intimate dining experiences” with set menus these days. Having said that, I’d love for the show to keep leaning into its Chicago setting and have fun with some of the city’s classic dishes and cuisines. Just saying: A Syd pierogi would put a Syd omelet to shame.
Grady: I hope they get that elusive Michelin star by the end of the season. As for what kind of restaurant I want it to be, one that centers around Marcus and his pastries.
Gayle: I want chaos. Not just the menu, either. Don’t make every second count; make every second hell. Nothing will top the stress of the Beef in Season 1, but I’m hoping the Bear comes close.
Surrey: I’m not gonna put too much stock into a specific cuisine—I’ll be happy so long as the characters aren’t so consumed by the pressure that they’re unable to enjoy the journey.
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4. Theoretically, Carm and Syd are partners; in fact, the Season 3 trailer shows them signing some sort of joint partnership contract. But what’s their power dynamic, really? Whose restaurant is this—and whose show?
Gayle: Carmy was my gut reaction, but Sydney is the right answer. Carmy is too busy wasting his time with Claire and getting locked inside the freezer to throw himself at the restaurant in the same way Sydney has for two full seasons now. She may not be seen as the captain of the ship, but Sydney is the steadying force inside the kitchen.
Charity: Carm’s constant bogarting of Syd is a big part of why the show works as well as it does. Carm is a man with control issues, and Syd is a woman struggling to fully assert herself in a kitchen otherwise dominated by a man with control issues. That’s the tension. But that means that this does feel, on the meta level, like The Bear is obviously Carm’s show, especially in light of “Fishes” and Carm’s whole family being the raison d’être for the restaurant.
McNear: Carmy’s restaurant; Syd’s show. I’m glad they’re finally formalizing something, given how ugly the power dynamics got during Season 2—especially when Carmy decided to go AWOL with [gazes dreamily into golden-hour sunbeams] Claire. A high-end kitchen is a hierarchical place, and there’s little doubt that Carmy has been the one in charge so far—indeed, it’s his Michelin-starred bona fides that are making the enterprise possible in the first place. But Syd’s the one who put in the work in Season 2, and if the restaurant somehow ever manages to turn a profit, she deserves a big old slice of the chocolate-covered banana.
Grady: While the easy answer is Carm, the restaurant doesn’t get this far without Syd—he admits as much in Season 2’s penultimate episode. She’s the yin to his yang, the Batman to his Joker, the Jaylen Brown to his Jayson Tatum (gross, but topical). The restaurant (and the show) won’t succeed without the two of them working in tandem. That said, hopefully we can all agree that—in light of recent comments made by stars Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri—THEY ARE NOT AN ITEM AND THE “SYDCARMY” DISCOURSE CAN DIE A QUICK AND PAINFUL DEATH. (Apologies to my fantastic colleague Danny Heifetz.)
Surrey: A show doesn’t have to belong to one character; the same goes for running a restaurant. I echo Kai in my hope that the partnership between Carmy and Syd doesn’t turn romantic.
5. Let’s settle this once and for all. Claire: good or bad? And why?
McNear: CLAIRES AGAINST CLAIRE! With all due respect to the magnificent Molly Gordon, the character drags down every scene she appears in and forces a deliciously fast-paced show to grind to a halt whenever she turns up. She and Carmy broke up! I thought we were done! But no!
Charity: She’s cool. She was introduced in Season 2 and hasn’t gotten as much development as the characters introduced in the series premiere. There’s obviously a lot more the show could stand to do with her. The common complaints about her being a cliché or a manic pixie dream girl or whatever … come on, now. Carm is a tortured artist fueled by gallons of man pain. We could wantonly trivialize these characters all day. Claire is cool.
A lot of the frustration with her is a sign of how immersive the show—specifically, the kitchen—is. Claire’s an interloper. She doesn’t belong in the restaurant context, so you naturally question whether she belongs on the show. The show is pretty explicit in making that the whole point of how she’s positioned in Season 2; it’s the whole point of Carm’s fateful crack-up in the fridge.
Gayle: The problem is Claire is neither. She’s a doctor who knows Carmy and Fak from their childhood. That’s it. She’s barely even a distraction; none of her scenes are truly memorable. Seeing Carmy try to be vulnerable with someone outside of the kitchen is a smart pursuit by the showrunners, but forcing an underwritten, millennial cringe character into the mix to make that happen is a recipe for disaster.
Surrey: Maybe it’s a bit premature to pass judgment on a character whom it feels like we’ve barely spent time with, but the fact that we know so little about Claire in the first place is a problem.
Grady: As much as I wanted to root for Carm’s love life, Claire doesn’t work, to no fault of Molly Gordon, an excellent talent whose performance fits like a glove alongside the rest of the Bear contingent. Rather, it’s the writing that fails Claire as a character. It’s the rare misstep in an otherwise pristine track record of supporting acts who feel thought out, layered, and alive, whereas she feels much more like an unfinished idea.
6. Pick an unexpected guest star who would slot seamlessly into The Bear’s universe.
Surrey: Can you imagine if they coaxed Daniel Day-Lewis out of retirement to play a temperamental food critic? We know this man loves an omelet.
Gayle: J.K. Simmons giving Terence Fletcher energy in the kitchen would be sensational. I don’t know how exactly he fits into the plot, but if Simmons was screaming at the top of his lungs somewhere in that kitchen, it would heighten the stress and anxiety to all-time levels.
Grady: Aaron Paul. I will not be elaborating on this further.
McNear: There is no entertainment property on earth that would not be improved by the arrival of Margo Martindale. Jaded Michelin critic? Vengeful restaurateur? Mayor of Chicago? God herself? I’m open.
Charity: Somehow Rod Blagojevich returns. Who says no?
7. What’s the best dish or meal featured in the series to date?
Grady: Well, I have the palate of a 6-year-old, so I’m probably not the best person to answer this.
(The answer is clearly the doughnut that Carm smacks out of Marcus’s hands in Season 1. Damn shame it went to waste.)
McNear: I want Sydney’s risotto. I need Sydney’s risotto.
Charity: Syd’s omelet for Sugar, with its four tablespoons of salted butter.
Gayle: Sydney’s French omelet. Butter, whipped eggs, Boursin cheese, chives, crushed potato chips, and a whole lot of love?! I’m obsessed.
Surrey: I have actually eaten the Bear omelet. It was delicious—and also so rich that I nearly sh*t myself while playing tennis. (My advice: Don’t overdo it with the Boursin cheese.)
8. Who’s been the MVP of the series so far?
Surrey: Letterboxd MVP Ayo Edebiri.
Gayle: Richie! He’s a scene magnet who stole everyone’s hearts right away; “Forks” only cemented his MVP status among Bear diehards.
Charity: Fak kept this place from going belly-up before it even got to soft launch.
Grady: It’s Marcus, no question. He’s the most lovable and the least offensive, he makes his little pastries, and he even got to go on the occasional Copenhagen trip. What more do you need out of an MVP? He did shoot his shot with Syd at the absolute worst time imaginable, but, hey, you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.
McNear: Everyone’s favorite possibly mobbed-up pseudo-uncle with deep pockets and a heart of gold: Cicero. Sooner or later, you have to think he’ll start busting kneecaps, but we all benefit from the fact that he’s bankrolling Carmy and Co. until then.
9. If there’s one thing that worries you about Season 3 of The Bear, what is it?
Gayle: Claire. Every second we spend with her is another hour my coworkers will have to spend hearing me complain about her character. No one wants that.
Charity: The tricky division between the amount of time we spend in the kitchen, in the sh*t, versus the time we spend elsewhere. Striking the perfect balance is tough. Too much time in the kitchen, and the show gets to be a little too stressful for me after a point, especially as a binge watch. Too much time away from the kitchen, though, and it’s like: What are we doing here?
McNear: I loved Season 2, but there seemed to be a guiding principle to prove that each and every character—however gruff or messy their exterior—is deep down a sweetie pie who just wants to do well by themselves and everyone around them. This is lovely, and last season did an effective job of balancing the saccharine with the stress-bomb chaos of a bunch of loudmouth jagoffs working in close quarters. But I do worry that the show could take the wrong lessons from the glowing reception of, say, Richie’s journey to Swifty earnestness and tilt more Ted Lasso than “Fishes.” I don’t need to see every character work on themselves in every episode. Please throw some forks!
Grady: I’m worried that Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri are lying in their recent comments so as not to spoil a potential romance between their two characters. If that’s the case, you can count on me doing my best Carmy impression.
Surrey: That FX’s commitment to a binge release for every season of The Bear means we won’t get a chance to savor all the little moments that flesh out this world. Would one season of watercooler chat hurt, FX?
