DUBAI: Season five of the acclaimed kitchen-based dramedy “The Bear” arrives with great expectations attached, since it’s also the show’s final outing. Can creator Christopher Storer pull off the often-bungled trick of producing a satisfying ending to a beloved show?
It picks up the morning after season four’s chaotic finale, in which award-winning chef/genius/social nightmare Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) announced he was quitting chefing for the good of his mental health. Of course, since he was kitchen leader and main draw for the titular restaurant, and a big reason staff and financial backers had signed up, people were, to put it mildly, a bit put out that he’d decided to walk away. Add to that the fact that The Bear was out of money and out of goodwill from suppliers, and things looked pretty bleak for now-head chef Syd (Ayo Edebiri) and the team as they try to keep the restaurant running.
That bleakness is hammered home from the start of season five as a biblical storm rips through Chicago, piling no end of logistical nightmares — gridlock, burst pipes, a faulty reservation app — on top of the existing stress. The first seven episodes of this eight-episode run are set across this single day. Six of them begin with ominous claps of thunder. So, yes, there’s plenty of the show’s stock-in-trade: stress at almost unbearable levels being navigated (barely) by some ultra-skilled people.
