With its grainy camera work and naturalistic “mumblecore” dialogue, The Bear (Disney+, from Friday) has the texture of a lo-fi indie movie that has somehow ended up as one of the most beloved shows on Disney+. But peel off the wrapper, and this Chicago-set restaurant drama has always had a heart of pure cheese – courtesy of its themes of “found family” and its message that, when you’re feeling down, friends are the one thing you can count on. It is, in other words, Buffy the Vampire Slayer with steaks instead of stakes. It has also become increasingly anaemic across its four previous seasons, the show’s initial zip giving way to flabbiness – so that when it was revealed at the end of series four that master chef Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) was quitting the restaurant business and leaving the Bear restaurant to his crew, even the biggest fans may have puffed out their cheeks with relief. It really is time for last orders. Disney feels likewise, and this final season is a slow wind-down that is all about the experience rather than the story – of which there is precious little. It’s the morning after Carmy quit, and The Bear is in a sorry state. Physically, the restaurant is falling down. Financially, it’s orbiting a black hole. But there is still time for one last night – and one last shot at a Michelin star, with chef supreme Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri) leading the charge. The series has made a star out of White, who has gone on to bigger and stranger things – including a watery turn as Bruce Springsteen in the undercooked biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere and a coveted part as Jabba the Hutt’s CGI offspring in The Mandalorian and Grogu. But his career was forged in the hot fires of The Bear’s kitchen, and fans will be glad Carmy stuck around to help Sydney, restaurant manager “Cousin” Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), pastry chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce) and the gang rustle up one final meal. This is a season of television that is for the fans and nobody else. Anyone who felt The Bear was already teetering on indulgent will find their worst fears justified as the series gives us endless scenes of Carmy and Sydney freaking out in the kitchen as their business’s backer “Uncle” Jimmy (Oliver Platt) desperately tries to save both the business and the property. How does it end? On a suitably upbeat note, one would hope. But as Disney has not shared the final episode with reviewers, our guess is as good as anyone else’s. What can be said with certainty is that, in its final series, The Bear is playing the hits – and if you’re the target audience, this is a long goodbye with genuine sizzle.