The Bear is back with a new season. But will you be watching?

This story contains spoilers for The Bear’s third season.

Welcome back, cousin. We’re about to get another serving of The Bear. The trailer for season four of the Emmy award-winning comedy/drama has just dropped featuring all the gang – there’s Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) obsessing about the beauty of culinary excellence, Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) trying to drag him back to reality, and Natalie, aka Sugar (Abby Elliott), adjusting to life with her new baby.

But, while all major cast members have returned – including Jamie Lee Curtis, as Carmy’s mum Donna – we’ll have to wait and see if viewers do the same. After two seasons of effusive praise for this star-making FX hit, last year’s third instalment left many fans cold, saddled with criticisms of being “aimless” and “undercooked”, and ultimately landing with an audience score of just 51 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes (compared to previous seasons’ scores in the nineties). Can season four reignite our passion?

Where did we leave off?

Season three ended on a cliffhanger, as Carmy gets a Google alert for The Chicago Tribune’s review of his restaurant. A collection of words flash on the screen – confusing, excellent, brilliant, sloppy, complex, simple, stale, talent – before the beleaguered chef utters one more: “Motherf---er”.

Meanwhile, Syd has just excused herself from partying with all her hospo mates to hyperventilate in a stairwell. Carmy’s increasingly erratic behaviour has been dragging her down, and she’s now been thrown a lifeline in the form of a position as chef de cuisine at Chef Adam’s (Adam Shapiro) new restaurant. What’s stopping her? All the happy smiley faces, her chosen family, wooping to ’90s bangers in the next room.

For all the criticism season three faced for being too slow or self-indulgent – that final episode also featured a parade of real-life chefs waxing lyrical about the “controlled chaos” of the kitchen around a dinner table – the season did have standout episodes.

Napkins, which was also Edebiri’s directorial debut, offered a rich and unvarnished throwback to how middle-aged mum Tina (Liza Colon-Zayas) came to work at The Bear after struggling to find a job following lay-offs. And Ice Chips, an emotional two-hander between Sugar (Elliott) and her dysfunctional mother Donna (Curtis) during labour, was another highlight that was described by some critics as “quietly radical” – particularly by those who have experienced birth and motherhood.

What’s happening this season?

The show’s description says, “This season, the pursuit of excellence isn’t just about getting better – it’s about deciding what’s worth holding on to.” And, judging by the trailer, that will mean different things to different people.

Sydney, who is working alongside the rest of the crew, seems to have turned down Chef Adam’s offer but is still coaching Carmy through his “chaos and turmoil”. “Sometimes your work family is closer to you than your family, family,” Donna tells her.

Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri in The Bear’s second season.Credit: Chuck Hodes/FX

And Carmy, faced with a literal ticking clock representing how many days the restaurant can stay financially viable, is still deciding whether it’s worth holding on to his unrelenting standards and emotional baggage.

As for that review from last season’s cliffhanger? It doesn’t seem all that devastating. “The offerings were substantially different on each visit,” the characters read in the trailer. “Consistency seems to be the weak link here.” It’s a line that could have well been written about the show itself.

For what it’s worth, FX CEO John Landgraf has backed the creative decisions Chris Storer (creator, writer, director and executive producer) made in season three and has promised it was all part of a larger vision that will come to fruition in this instalment.

“[Season three] was absolutely exactly the season of television that Storer wanted to make,” he told The Town’s Matt Belloni last year. “It is a very deeply personal show. That’s part of why it’s great … He’s been stuck a lot at times in his life, and he wanted to make a season about stuckness.

“I’ve been doing this a long time. I was well aware that stuckness is not necessarily the most riveting [thing to watch]. But I also think there are so many things in that [season] that are just absolute masterpieces. And I will say, knowing what I do know about the upcoming season, for those that have stayed with it, they’re going to be really well rewarded. Because after stuckness comes unstuckness.”

Something else to look forward to: Edebiri is back on the tools, co-writing an episode with Lionel Boyce (who plays Marcus) this season.

Is this the final season?

Seasons three and four were filmed back-to-back, leading to speculation that this could be the final season. But there’s been no announcement either way yet.

The Bear season four streams on Disney+ from June 26.

What did you think of season three of The Bear? Will you be back for season four? Tell us in the comments below.

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