The Bear Season 4 review: a better dish than Season 3, but still lacking flavor

Bear necessities. “The Bear” is back for Season 4 (now streaming on Hulu), after an aimless third season. TV’s worst comedy – as the Golden Globes and Emmys keep awarding it in that category despite it being a drama – follows Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), as he takes over his late brother’s (Jon Bernthal) Chicago restaurant and wrangles the kitchen staff into giving it a fine-dining makeover, including Syd (Ayo Edebiri), his volatile cousin Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Tina (Liza Colon-Zayas) pastry chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce), and handyman Neil Fak (Matty Matheson). In Season 4, they’re trying to get the restaurant (also called The Bear) back on track after a bad review – which feels unintentionally meta, as Season 3 of the show got numerous negative reviews.They’re also on a ticking clock, as The Bear will have to close in a matter of months if they can’t make enough money. Season 4 is adequate – not incredible, but a marked improvement over Season 3. The story is tighter (which means its still meandering and aimless, at times).

There’s slightly more plot.Characters outside of the main trio (Carmy, Sydney, and Richie) get to shine. Carmy has a modicum of emotional growth.

But, it’s largely fueled by people around him stating obvious points that don’t need to be spelled out to us (like, “you’re miserable” and “you’re hiding from things”). By the end of the season, it seems like he’ll shake up the show’s status quo. He supports his staff more, and he moves his rocky relationship with his sister Natalie (Abby Elliott) to a more stable level. Unfortunately, his emotional progress means that he also revisits his boring relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Claire (Molly Gordon).

Big snooze there. Sydney’s home life gets the spotlight more.Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) also gets a glimmer of development.

(He’s one of the chefs, in case you forgot, since the show forgot, too).It only took fou...