Entertainment

‘The Bear’ Episodes, Ranked

Published

4 months ago

July 9, 2024

Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edibiri and Jeremy Allen White in 'The Bear' season three.

The Bear is breakneck tv — usually extra of a thriller than a comedy, regardless of what sure awards exhibits would have you ever consider. The FX sequence from creator Christopher Storer and co-showrunner Joanna Calo stars Jeremy Allen White as professionally and emotionally embattled chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, a restaurant celebrity attempting to show his household’s sandwich store right into a world-class eating vacation spot. He’s surrounded by an equally elite forged, from Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as co-leads Syd and Richie, to the unparalleled array of visitor stars like Jamie Lee Curtis and Jon Bernthal. A feast for the eyes in each sense, the totality of The Bear depends on each episode because the recipe for the final vibe of the present.

So, how one can rank all these important components, then? A good query. The cheap reply, in all probability, is “don’t.” And but, simply as The Bear offers within the folly of unnecessary competitors and oneupmanship, so too should we now try to rank each single episode of the sequence.

Let’s begin with the premise that even the lowest-ranked episode is healthier than the highest-ranked episode of most different fashionable exhibits, as a way of apologizing in case your favourite Bear outings are decrease on this listing than you’d like. These rankings mirror the opinion of 1 explicit author (it’s me, I’m the author), having rewatched all three seasons of their entirety for the categorical function of this daunting train. Don’t like ’em? Go to a unique restaurant, then! However in the event you’re prepared, roll up your sleeves, bellow “Sure, Chef” and let’s get to work.

28. “Subsequent” (Season 3, Episode 2)

Picture Credit score: FX

“Tomorrow” was a tricky act to comply with, as we’ll get into a lot afterward this listing. Nonetheless, the explosive confrontation between Carm (Jeremy Allen White) and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) that covers the again portion of season three’s second episode is an exhausting return to the right narrative following the introspective premiere. Their chaotic back-and-forth the morning after their friendship fell aside isn’t probably the most disagreeable factor that occurs on The Bear, but it surely’s maybe probably the most needlessly disagreeable factor that occurs on The Bear.
27. “Pop” (Season 2, Episode 5)

Picture Credit score: Chuck Hodes/FX

“Pop” is a good instance of why rating The Bear is so tough. A superb episode that highlights two of the restaurant’s senior-most veterans: “Grandma” and “Grandpa” Tina and Ebra, performed by Liza Colón-Zayas, and Edwin Lee Gibson, respectively). However the episode is outshined by others that accomplish the identical factor with extra fanfare. Whereas it’s ranked so low right here, I’d say it’s an ideal illustration of why The Bear is among the many finest exhibits round proper now; the lowest-rated actually is healthier than the highest-rated of most different energetic sequence.
26. “Bolognese” (Season 2, Episode 8)

Picture Credit score: Chuck Hodes/FX.

Primarily present to arrange the ultimate stretch of season two, “Bolognese” pays off a season-long arc during which the workforce has to cross a hearth security take a look at, or else miss their window to open The Bear. Matty Matheson’s Neil Fak turns into the unlikely hero of the hour, among the many earliest examples of a personality who usually serves as comedic reduction turning into a vital a part of the Bear’s crew.
25. “Sheridan” (Season 1, Episode 5)

Picture Credit score: Matt Dinerstein/FX

The shit hits the fan, nearly actually, in “Sheridan,” when the restaurant’s bathroom explodes. It’s an all-hands-on-deck affair attempting to repair the problem, whereas Carmy and sister Sugar (Abby Elliott) are within the thick of fixing their very own points. A strong episode, misplaced amid some higher, related episodes, not not like “Pop.” On the music facet, Wilco’s “Not possible Germany” offers a number of the episode’s soundtrack, one of many many instances the Chicago-based band seems within the sequence.
24. “Pasta” (Season 2, Episode 2)

Picture Credit score: Chuck Hodes/FX

Enter: Claire Bear, one of many present’s most divisive characters. Molly Gordon’s charming Claire enters the fray right here, assembly Carmy on the finish of the episode, and starting their will-they-won’t-they arc that’s left some followers of The Bear colder than Carmy trapped in a fridge. However observe the throughline right here: Carmy and Claire meet on the fridge aisle of a grocery retailer, just for them to interrupt up beside one other fridge later within the season. Factors for symmetry!
23. “Arms” (Season 1, Episode 2)

Picture Credit score: Matt Dinerstein/FX

Joel McHale debuts as an at-the-time unnamed fine-dining chef who serves as Carmy’s boogeyman. Whereas it takes nearly two full seasons for the character to return (see extra cameos in season three), McHale’s efficiency is haunting sufficient that when he does return sooner or later, the importance of his presence is straight away felt.
22. “Brigade” (Season 1, Episode 3)

Picture Credit score: Matt Dinerstein/FX

Carmy entrusts Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) together with her first expanded accountability, guiding the workforce via the Brigade system frequent in lots of eating places, however not on this dysfunctional kitchen. It results in Carm and Syd’s first main battle, swiftly adopted by their first make-up, adopted simply as swiftly by the memorable (and correct) line: “Fuck brunch.”
21. “Legacy” (Season 3, Episode 7)

Picture Credit score: FX

What’s going to everybody depart behind once they’re gone? How will they be remembered? What did they contribute? These questions are on the minds of many of the characters in “Legacy” — generally spoken aloud, different instances obvious via motion. One of the best model of this query comes when Gillian Jacobs returns as Richie’s ex-wife, their friendship nonetheless evident as they co-parent their daughter. Richie’s legacy is a large a part of the sequence’ narrative, and it enjoys a significant place within the highlight right here.
20. “Apologies” (Season 3, Episode 9)

Picture Credit score: FX

Is Claire haunting Carmen? The Faks actually assume so, main Neil and Teddy (Ricky Staffieri) on a quest to place the 2 of them again collectively. It doesn’t work and, apparently, Teddy ought to go to a health care provider — simply not Dr. Claire whereas she’s working on the hospital. The Faks are to not everybody’s liking; to them I say, you’re simply haunted by their greatness.
19. “Without end” (Season 3, Episode 10)

Picture Credit score: FX

The season three finale contains a few of The Bear‘s most overt expressions of affection for the restaurant business, with real-life world-famous cooks like Thomas Keller showing to rejoice fictional world-famous cooks like Olivia Colman’s Andrea Terry. It’s a stunning episode with a number of essential ahead momentum, from Carmy confronting McHale’s Chef David Fields to Sydney’s breakdown at her after-party. However it ends on a literal “To Be Continued,” which stays unresolved as of this writing — and I don’t respect how The Bear simply trapped us all in a proverbial fridge till season 4 comes out.
18. “Omelette” (Season 2, Episode 9)

Picture Credit score: Chuck Hodes/FX

Sydney makes Sugar an omelette with a number of scrumptious components, together with bitter cream potato chips. It’s a set-up episode for the breakneck season two finale, positive. However, wow if that potato-chipped omelette doesn’t sound scrumptious. Bonus factors for an incredible scene between Carmy and Oliver Platt’s Cicero, during which the restaurant’s reluctant investor coaches the chef on what’s required to make it on this enterprise … a dialog that instantly leads us into Carmy’s upcoming breakdown.
17. “The Bear” (Season 2, Episode 10)

Picture Credit score: Chuck Hodes/FX

Cue: Carmy’s breakdown! It’s family and friends just for the primary evening of The Bear. However the stress remains to be excessive, as weeks and weeks of laborious work come to a boiling level. The Bear expertly weaves its sonic palette all via the episode, with Wilco’s music “Spiders” (first seen in “Overview”) coming again to hang-out the kitchen as issues spiral uncontrolled — just for “Animal” by Peal Jam to kick in as soon as Richie takes the wheel and saves the day. Carmen’s fridge freakout is a handy approach to set him in opposition to Richie and Claire, each plotlines nonetheless unresolved via the tip of season three.
16. “Ceres” (Season 1, Episode 6)

Picture Credit score: Chuck Hodes/FX

Jon Bernthal makes his debut right here as Mikey, Carm and Sugar’s brother, whose dying by suicide haunts the whole lot of the sequence. A ghost up till now, Bernthal immediately infuses Mikey with a lot life, making the viewers really feel the character’s absence nearly as a lot because the family members he left behind.
15. “System” (Season 1, Episode 1)

Picture Credit score: Courtesy of FX

The one which began all of it! Whereas the present improves because it goes alongside, all of the important components for The Bear are proper there from the start. It’s extremely satisfying to rewatch the sequence from the bounce, figuring out all the expansion forward.
14. “Beef” (Season 2, Episode 1)

Picture Credit score: Chuck Hodes/FX

The one which began it — once more! The Bear resets the deck utterly with its season two opener, a way more hopeful entry than the very first episode of the sequence. What looks as if an inconceivable dream on the very begin now feels all too potential, if extremely tough to drag off. There’s a lot ache forward for a lot of of those characters within the ensuing episodes. However watching Carmy and the gang enter season two with a lot hope is a satisfying approach to set the story up.
13. “Doorways” (Season 3, Episode 3)

Picture Credit score: FX

The one which began it once more — once more! Okay, no, it’s not the season three premiere. It’s not even the second episode of the season. However in some ways “Doorways” feels just like the episode that will get the present again on monitor, after an experimental starting and a rocky follow-up. Lastly, The Bear is open and we get to see precisely what that appears like. In an earlier episode, Uncle Cicero tells Carmy that when the restaurant opens, the remainder of his life will contain withstanding a complete lot of punishment. “Doorways” goes proper into the punishing nature of working on this business — at this excessive of a degree, each single day — if not endlessly, then no less than for the remainder of season three.
12. “Violet” (Season 3, Episode 4)

Picture Credit score: FX

As soon as season three’s again on its toes, it cooks up its share of lovely choices. Whereas some don’t take care of the meandering nature of The Bear‘s latest season providing, I wrestle to argue in opposition to an episode like “Violet,” during which Marcus and the others discover their very own particular person quests for inspiration and innovation.
11. “Kids” (Season 3, Episode 5)

Picture Credit score: FX

When it comes to uncooked comedic energy, “Kids” accommodates a number of the present’s funniest moments, pound for pound: John Cena’s sudden arrival as yet one more Fak, “haunting” one of many cousins, to not point out the unbelievable in-joke (and genuinely nice efficiency) of casting well-known food-loving Billions creator Brian Koppelman as “The Laptop.” It’s a joyous episode of The Bear, which isn’t at all times a straightforward approach to describe this sequence.
10. “Braciole” (Season 1, Episode 8)

Picture Credit score: Matt Dinerstein/FX

The season one finale is the top-ranked finale on this listing, in no small half as a result of it’s the happiest. On the opposite facet of dropping his cool in “Overview,” to place it mildly, Carmen lastly begins reckoning with all of the ache he feels round his brother’s dying, and his personal path via the restaurant world. And eventually, there’s mild on the finish of the trail, within the type of Mike’s money stash discovered within the smaller tomato cans. (“They style higher.”) The workforce consuming pasta collectively across the desk, with Mikey trying on nearly like a Drive Ghost, is probably probably the most heart-warming second in The Bear.
9. “Sundae” (Season 2, Episode 3)

Picture Credit score: Chuck Hodes/FX

As we vault deeper into the High 10, we head right into a string of episodes I prefer to name the “Sure Chef Collection.” These episodes not solely showcase the sequence’ love for meals with mouth-watering experience, additionally they dive deep into the present’s beating coronary heart: the forged. Our first episode up on this sequence is “Sundae,” which follows Syd’s makes an attempt to “unfuck” her palette, via a sequence of restaurant adventures that includes well-known Chicago cooks. It’s an episode that makes a powerful case for showrunners Christopher Storer and Joanna Calo, and the remainder of the Bear workforce because the heirs obvious to the meals journey TV void left behind by Anthony Bourdain.
8. “Honeydew” (Season 2, Episode 4)

Picture Credit score: Chuck Hodes/FX

The Bear Bourdains even additional halfway via season two, because the Sure Chef Collection strikes on to concentrate on Marcus’ coaching in Copenhagen. It’s a love letter to one of the necessary meals cities on this planet, not to mention within the present’s lore, and it manages to introduce a personality whose significance has solely grown in subsequent episodes: Will Poulter’s Luca, a superb chef who clearly believes Carmy is one of the best on this planet, and desires to information Marcus in form.
7. “Napkins” (Season 3, Episode 6)

Picture Credit score: FX

Directed by Ayo Edebiri, “Napkins” is among the present’s finest flashback episodes, focusing completely on Tina and the way she grew to become a part of The Beef restaurant’s prolonged household. Anchored by Edebiri’s sharp imaginative and prescient and Liza Colón-Zayas’ heartbreaking efficiency, “Napkins” invitations not solely Tina into the world of The Bear, it additionally invitations the viewers to take a look at a long-gone time the place Bernthal’s Mikey was nonetheless steady, comparatively no less than, and heat sufficient to welcome a whole stranger into the guts of his enterprise.
6. “Ice Chips” (Season 3, Episode 8)

Picture Credit score: FX

Not a chef, however nonetheless a part of the “Sure Chef” sequence, “Ice Chips” is the sequence’ finest showcase for Abby Elliott as Carm’s sister Natalie. It’s a strong exploration of the circle of life, with Nat and her mom therapeutic outdated wounds as a brand new Berzatto child is about to enter the world. As of this writing, there’s nonetheless loads of time for the present to damage the pleased ending between Elliott’s Sugar and Jamie Lee Curtis’ Donna. However for now, the lasting impression is Mama Bear sitting between a pair of Faks — among the many most comforting locations one can ever be.
5. “Fishes” (Season 2, Episode 6)

Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Everett Assortment

We interrupt the “Sure Chef” sequence to start the High 5, which is so far as this author can take it with “Fishes.” It’s the primary look of Donna, alongside a slew of different well-known faces from Bob Odenkirk to John Mulaney and several other extra, in maybe the one most harrowing (and positively longest) hour of the sequence. Personally, “Fishes” is nearly unwatchable due to how a lot ache it carries, and the way actual all of it feels. However there’s no denying its place as an distinctive entry in The Bear mythology, deserving of its seat within the prime 5 episodes. As a lot as I respect it, I hope by no means to observe it once more.
4. “Forks” (Season 2, Episode 7)

Picture Credit score: Chuck Hodes/FX

The “Sure Chef” sequence concludes with the king of the citadel: Richie’s run in “Forks,” the happiest and most fulfilled we ever see Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s character in your entire sequence. There are such a lot of nice moments studded all through the episode, from Richie securing the Pequod’s deep dish to his dialog with Olivia Colman’s Chef Terry. However the excessive level of the episode, and certainly one of many highest moments in your entire sequence, is Richie driving via the sleepy metropolis streets, blasting Taylor Swift from the stereo, an astounding aural expression of his personal exploding coronary heart.
3. “Canine” (Season 1, Episode 4)

Picture Credit score: FX

If this was purely about my private favourite episodes of The Bear, then “Canine” would land on the very prime. For me, “Canine” does every little thing I ever need from The Bear: stress (however not an excessive amount of) between Carm and Richie, fights so ludicrous as to contain an inflatable scorching canine, sensible comedic work from Oliver Platt’s Uncle Cicero, Carmy messing up by by accident placing a complete youngsters’s social gathering to sleep with Ecto Cooler, solely to be rewarded with a pat on the again from a Cicero who has grown weary of those overly energized children. It additionally builds on the lore of Carm, Richie and the late Mikey’s relationships with Cicero and one another. It’s bought drama, it’s bought excessive comedy and it’s bought scrumptious meals. What extra are you able to need from an episode of The Bear?
2. “Overview” (Season 1, Episode 7)

Picture Credit score: Courtesy of FX

Okay, perhaps what you need from The Bear is an intense quantity of stress and nervousness. If that’s you, then look no additional than “Overview” — the shortest episode of the sequence, nearly completely offered in a single take — as The Beef will get pounded with on-line orders spawned by a viral overview. It explores how success is available in many types, as does failure, and generally, the 2 issues look very a lot alike: transcendent and monstrous multi function. Just like the titular overview itself, “Overview” was the viral episode that put The Bear on the map again when it debuted, and has a powerful declare to finest episode of the sequence.
1. “Tomorrow” (Season 3, Episode 1)

Picture Credit score: FX

In some ways, the one best episode of The Bear can be its least accessible. It’s like “strolling via a dream,” as Jeremy Allen White himself describes it. On the opposite facet of Carmy’s caged night inside a fridge, he returns to his restaurant and will get again to work, slowly and methodically. Structurally, the season three opener likewise works slowly and methodically, because it pulls the curtain again on Carmy’s life as a chef and all of the knife work that led to this second. It’s an ethereal expertise, pulling from Carm’s time in Copenhagen at Noma, his work alongside Cooks Terry and Luca, the ache inflicted upon him by Joel McHale’s horrid Chef David… each minimize, each course, all colliding directly, forming the core components of the dish generally known as Carmen Berzatto. You may’t simply sit somebody down with “Tomorrow” and anticipate them to get The Bear, the best way I’d argue you can with “Canine” and even “Overview.” These two episodes are the TV equal of an Italian beef sandwich; “Tomorrow” is ok eating at its televised finest.