The Bear season 3 has earned very different audience and critics scores on Rotten Tomatoes. The Emmy Award-winning series returned to Hulu on June 26, continuing to explore Carmy’s (Jeremy Allen White) relationship with the restaurant industry. It also recapped the near-tumultuous opening night of The Bear, as dysfunction among employees increased and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) began considering her future. Along with White and Edebiri, the cast of The Bear includes Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas, Matty Matheson, Abby Elliott, Molly Gordon, and Oliver Platt.

Early installments of The Bear garnered praise, but season 3 led to polarizing reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Currently, the critics and audience scores are at 94% and 60%, respectively. This represents the largest gap for any season of The Bear, as former entries remained relatively close; The Bear season 1 earned 100% and 92%, while season 2 got 99% and 93%.

Why The Bear Season 3’s Rotten Tomatoes Scores Are Split

What Was Different About This Season?

The Bear season 3 introduced slower pacing, beginning with “Tomorrow,” an episode that highlighted various moments from Carmy’s life, and stories almost entirely centered around individual characters, including Tina (Colón-Zayas) and Natalie (Elliott). Those episodes focusing on The Bear’s personnel, beyond Carmy and Sydney, allowed the show to develop necessary background information and address Natalie and Donna’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) strained relationship. Some audiences criticized the amount of time The Bear season 3 spent away from the restaurant, especially after just opening, but others seemed to enjoy the less chaotic approach.

Another point of contention was the Claire (Gordon) storyline, reincorporated after Carmy unintentionally damaged their romance in season 2. White’s character struggled to apologize and the determination of Neil (Matheson) and Theodore (Ricky Staffieri) to make things right was a constant thread in The Bear season 3. Though Claire remains somewhat close to Carmy’s family, and could potentially choose to talk to him again, audiences don’t appear fully onboard with that relationship yet.

Other complaints suggest that there isn’t enough substance driving the recent installment, and that overall, not much happened compared to previous entries. Still, critics seem to appreciate its formula and with The Bear season 4 likely on the way, it will be interesting to see how the series continues to engage both groups.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes