No Other Show Does This Better Than ‘The Bear’

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Bear Season 3.

The acclaimed FX series The Bear has returned for a brand-new season, and once again, this latest batch of episodes has audiences incredulous over one thing: how is this show considered a comedy? The only thing more impressive than The Bear‘s collection of Emmys and Golden Globes is its ability to dominate comedy categories despite being consistently punishing, angst-riddled, and bleak across multiple seasons. Regardless of its credibility as a show competing against Ted Lasso and Abbott Elementary, Christopher Storer‘s culinary dramedy is a tour de force of suffocating dread and unrelenting intensity. It’s a show people can’t get enough of, no matter how dire the emotional stability of its characters becomes. Look no further than The Bear‘s prolific use of close-up shots, a visual device no series airing today has mastered.

Each Episode in ‘The Bear’ Has a Cinematic Flair

Season 3 of The Bear picks up from the end of Season 2 with the grand opening of the titular restaurant run by Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri). Graduating from a sandwich shop to the world of fine dining, the pressure has never been higher for The Bear’s staff. Opening a new restaurant is vital to Carmy, as the demons of past trauma pay a toll on his personal life and well-being. For Sydney, commanding kitchen operations confirms her abilities as a chef and manager after two seasons of being doubted. By no means have they found their version of a utopia, as independence and creative freedom aren’t cheap. Facing high food costs, stiff competition from other Chicago establishments, and clashing personalities among the staff, Carmy is brought to the brink of self-destruction in Season 3.

The present media landscape has blurred the lines between mediums, for better or worse. Premium cinematic talent has shifted to television and big-budget films play exclusively on streamers. Today, the difference between film and television, from a visual and textual perspective, is indistinguishable. The Bear challenges modern expectations, as it is proudly cinematic in a traditional streaming model. Additionally, the series controversially drops all of its episodes in a season at once, undermining the serialized and episodic flow of TV programming. Various episodes throughout the series include opening titles and credit cards evocative of feature films. Season 3 is introduced as “The Bear Part III.” Episodes are not restricted to one runtime — sometimes it’ll be 27 minutes, other times it’ll be much longer. The dedication to framing each episode as a singular artistic expression is encouraging on its own.

‘The Bear’s Close-Up Shots Capture the Intensity of Life

The Bear‘s distinct visual language and formalism make up for any stagnation in its narrative. Even if the story fails to progress plot-wise, viewers are assured that Storer and his team will cook up an ingenious shot. The average episode serves its audience montages, flashbacks intercut with characters grappling with their angst, and a plethora of close-up shots. A simple technique, close-ups are one of the most effective filmmaking devices to convey a specific mood and highlight an object of emphasis.

With the distraction from special effects and the scenery, the camera tends to deceive us. When the lens is placed directly in front of a human face, the truth is revealed through subtle facial expressions. The camera inherently creates a barrier between the viewer and the subject, but with close-ups, the artifice of filmmaking becomes a raw portrait of human life. Acclaimed filmmakers like Jonathan Demme and Barry Jenkins have mastered the close-up as one of their signature traits. The Bear brought the close-up to television and forever pushed the limits of the visual storytelling of the medium.

Active viewers of The Bear are accustomed to just about every blemish, birthmark, and other facial detail of its characters, as the entire cast is asked to be ready for their close-up. The divisive Season 3 premiere, ironically titled “Tomorrow,” finds the story mostly stuck in the past, recapping Carmy’s hardships leading up to the opening of The Bear. By gazing at Carmy’s face as he stands in his chic new kitchen during prep, we understand that his troubled past will linger with him, no matter how far he advances in his culinary career or personal life. In these flashbacks, close-ups are integral to expressing the constant cycle of pressure and anguish inside his mind. The Bear certainly didn’t invent the close-up shot, nor will it be the final demonstration of the device, but the show’s theme and overarching tonality perfectly complement the emotional impact of the shot.

Even if the show suffers from narrative redundancies and unfulfilled character arcs,The Bear can always rely on its riveting cooking sequences to jolt life into an episode. When the staff is on the clock during a busy night at the restaurant, you can’t take your eyes off the screen. The show’s comedic roots are reinvigorated in the kitchen, as clashes between Carmy and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and faux pas by Fak (Matty Matheson) provide instantaneous black humor. Aided by the frequent use of close-up shots inside the kitchen, The Bear captures the suffocating pressure of cooking and hospitality. Sydney, in the thankless position of quarterbacking the kitchen staff, feels like she’s up the creek without a paddle. As the leader, she has no one to fall back on. By staring right into her eyes, you can track Sydney’s contrasting emotions of apprehension and assertion. It’s fitting for close-ups, shots that fixate on the specificities of the human body, to be prevalent in the kitchen scenes, as a minor misstep can potentially cause a series of major setbacks.

The prolific Bear close-up shot applies to other locations, with many of the most potent examples of the shot in Season 3 occurring outside the kitchen. Two of the season’s most dramatic sequences follow Sugar (Abby Elliott) going into labor, in “Ice Chips,” and Sydney’s panic attack in the finale, “Forever.” These respective close-ups, which create a similar sensation to the claustrophobic shots inside the kitchen, fixate on the inescapable quality of emotions. For Sugar, giving birth is a two-pronged phenomenon, as bringing new life into this world is simultaneously beautiful and overwhelmingly terrifying. This moment also gives an ancillary character in the narrative a stand-alone dramatic showcase. Everything in her life has seemingly been building to this moment, which can be expressed through one shot.

Depicting honest portrayals of panic attacks is in vogue across all pop culture, but never has an emotional crisis been quite as unflinching as Sydney’s in The Bear‘s Season 3 finale. Once again, this is all thanks to a tight close-up that channels the suffocating feeling of the world collapsing around you. Witnessing the closure of an esteemed restaurant run by Chef Terry (Olivia Colman), and reminding herself of the reliable job she left at The Beef, the constant pressure and anxiety of operating a failed restaurant becomes too much. The close-up, despite its narrow scope, encapsulates three seasons of angst and uncertainty in one shot. Any instance of a close-up outside the kitchen further highlights the lingering dread for those pursuing a life of excellence. Other times, such as the array of close-up shots of all The Bear’s staff members during Marcus’ (Lionel Boyce) mother’s funeral, quietly capture the innate hardships of life without being too pressing.

Close-Up Shots Romanticize the Art of Cooking in ‘The Bear’

The drive for perfection is a shared trait among fictional chefs, and Carmy is no different. Between altering the menu daily and re-firing dishes on a dime, Carmy’s grueling precision makes him a demanding boss. In one of the show’s seminal episodes, Season 2’s “Forks,” the tight coverage of Richie cleaning a pile of the titular utensil demonstrates the expectation of perfection that permeates every level of the culinary world.

The signature Bear close-up shot highlights the delicacies of each ingredient within each dish. Insert shots of switches turning, flames shooting out from the stove, and knives chopping vegetables emphasize the machinery involved in their craft. When characters cook in a decelerated setting, the romanticism of the culinary world is allowed to grow. This is where close-up shots display their versatility. While they primarily focus on the dread of the culinary world, close-ups also capture the innate beauty of cooking and making someone’s night unforgettable with a dish. In The Bear, audiences share intimacy with the characters and the ingredients that define their lives.

All three seasons of The Bear are available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

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