Daaaaaaa 'Bear'! (Part 2)

A special bonus What’s Alan Watching? news letter coming up just as soon as I pronounce “chives” with two syllables…

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Welcome to your The Bear Season Four spoiler discussion zone! All three of my Bear stories are now live on Rolling Stone, and my descriptions of each will feature spoilers, so stop reading now if you haven’t finished:

• First up: a spoiler-lite review looking at the ways the story in the season parallels the story behind the season, as Carmy spends a lot of time apologizing for past mistakes and trying to do better, while it sure feels as if Bear creator Christopher Storer learned a lot from the response to Season Three and tried to get back to what The Bear does best.
• Speaking of The Bear at its best, I wrote an essay about my two favorite episodes of the season — and two of my favorite Bear installments, period — and how the show is just as good at keeping things small (a Syd spotlight that’s mostly her hanging out with her cousin’s daughter) or going very big (a wedding episode featuring 20 significant characters — including the returns of Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, John Mulaney, and Jamie Lee Curtis, plus the introduction of Very Special Guest Fak Brie Larson — as well as the largest table in the history of the universe).
• Finally, I dug into the finale, which is called “Goodbye,” and is about a goodbye — specifically, Carmy telling Syd that he intends to leave the restaurant business entirely, and will place her in charge of The Bear — even though it’s not clear whether this is meant to be The Bear saying goodbye, setting us up for a fifth and final season, or something else.

There’s a lot to talk about, in both those essays and in the episodes themselves. I exhausted most of my thoughts, so let’s head straight to the comments. What did everybody else think?

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