Although this review is as a spoiler as possible and the new season is already storming, consider it a spoiler warning for season 4 of “The Bear”.

“The Bear” was an excellent television apparently jump. Christopher Store’s stress series on the difficulties of a Chicago sandwich store that has become a gastronomic establishment (and many others) almost immediately with its intense cinema, its electric editing and its excellent casting. Season 1 was good, season 2 was even better. But I suppose that sooner or later, each big show stumbles. After the summits of the first two season, season 3 of “The Bear” felt, lost, blurred. It was perhaps intentional – a way to reflect the way the characters felt lost. Intentional or not, it did not quite work – something was missing.

I finally gave season 3 a positive reviewBut it was the first time that I found myself difficulties with the show. While I appreciated some of the most daring formal choices (many people seemed annoyed by the premiere of season 3 which took place as a long editing marked on a nine -inch nail trackBut I really thought it was rather brilliant), season 3 of “The Bear” looked like a show that may have left its media threw and its acclaim to go to its head. It was as if Storer and his team felt the desire to become bigger and stranger in an attempt to keep things fresh but lost in view of the situation in the process. Again, it could be intentional, because losing sight of the situation as a whole is a problem that seems to be the main character Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, played with the perfect quantity of anxiety by Jeremy Allen White.

However, season 3 of “The Bear” has never found its sole, and the series continued to make strange choices that did not add up. While there were strong episodes (“Napkins”, led by the star of the Ayo Edebiri series was a real star), there were confusing decisions that left a bad taste in the mouth. On the one hand, the majority of the final of the season was devoted to focus on a horde or Guest star chiefs who play themselves Rather than the main characters of the show that interests us. And then there is the fact that season 3 ended with a useless cliffhanger.

Fortunately, “The Bear” cooked again with season 4. Sometimes this new season is almost like apologies for season 3 – a fact underlined by several scenes of characters saying that they are sorry for the ugly things they have done in the past. Season 4 is a reminder of the reason why so many people have fallen for this show in the first place: it’s funny, it’s dramatic, it’s raw and it’s very observable. It is also surprisingly sweet – the characters who populate this series really care about each other. They are not just colleagues, they are family. And we are invested to see them settle things when they fight with all the life of the chaos that throws them.

Season 3 has set up an imminent review of the Chicago Tribune which could do or break the bear. Carmy had an overview of this criticism in the last seconds of the season, and he did not seem particularly happy. Indeed, season 4 confirms that the exam was not extremely positive – “they did not like vibrations,” said Carmy to Sydney from Ayo Edebiri, to which Sydney replies: “They did not like the chaos. “Sydney retorts that Carmy seems addicted to the idea of ​​chaos – why does he insist to constantly change the bear menu, throw away his whole team for a night loop after night? Carmy insists that he does not like chaos – but what do Does he like? He liked to cook, but now his whole vision of the world seems to be upset.

Bad review in hand, the bear is now at the crossroads. The restaurant has only enough money to stay afloat for a short time, and the clock literally turns. Can Carmy and his team come together to eliminate a miracle and save the bear? Or will he go bankrupt like so many other restaurants? But saving the bear is not the only objective of season 4. This new season also finds the characters wondering all when they go – a moment when Carmy watches a clip for Bill Murray’s film Time -Boop “Groundhog Day” at home at home that everyone could be taken in an endless cycle. The character of Murray escaped his apparently endless loop by learning to be a better person, and that is exactly what Carmy and his friends must do too. They must grow up and must be amends.

Again, the casting pulls on all cylinders, and although some have more to do than others, the whole is really the secret ingredient which makes “the bear” such a successful meal. The whites remain intrinsically observable – it has a hypnotic and intense quality and as an actor, it is very good for transmitting deep emotions while saying very little. A scene at the end of the season where he meets the mother, played by the star of the guest Jamie Lee Curtis, is emotionally devastating, and White and Curtis do both incredible work in the moment. It is necessarily a scene that everyone will talk about.

Ebon Moss-Bachrach remains the MVP of the series as Richie, a character who has grown so much since we met him for the first time-although I will say that the character feels somewhat sidelined for huge songs of the season, perhaps because Moss-Bachrach was busy shooting the next Marvel “Fantastic Four” film. And Sydney of Ayo Edebiri has to face her own problems – she has an offer to jump the ship and start again in a new joint, but can it really leave the bear behind? The comedy is strong from Edebiri, but it has given some heavy dramatic moments this season and nails them.

Although there are great emotional rhythms and even bigger revelations, season 4 of “The Bear” often has a return approach to basins. He renounces the experimentation of season 3 to tell a more stripped story – an easy -to -take story. No), but that’s how it is. It’s good to try new things from time to time, but you can’t beat the comforting food you know and love, and “The Bear” understands it. I doubt that the show can last much longer to judge by the direction of history, but I am happy that the series returned to its strength.

/ Film assessment: 8 out of 10

Season 4 of “The Bear” is now in trouble on Hulu.