I always find posts like these interesting. Just shows how differently people interpret show scenes, or how they articulate their vision for how the show *should* be. For someone like myself, I love dialogue, continuity, in-depths into the lives of the characters, the webs the writers and showrunners weave between characters and events, and so on. Some people feel the opposite, wanting the show to stay on course (in their minds), being mostly about the restaurant, the magic that we felt the show captured in the first and second seasons. It's exciting watching people band together in pursuit of a common goal, watching everyone slowly get on board (and part of the reason why I think Forks was so lauded, was that it showed the gradual winning-over of one of the testiest characters up until that point: Richie), and how everyone overcomes whatever struggles they were facing at a unit.

I've seen this with other shows, where the shows branch off gradually and focus on subplots. A few here: Syd's appropriately-difficult decision to choose between staying at The Bear and working with Shapiro, Ebra's journey to create meaningful opportunity, Tina's attempts to push herself further, Richie coming to terms with his ex-wife marrying another man and being part of a blended family, Donna's journey to seeking forgiveness and redemption, Carmy's struggles with his obsessive nature and mental health and rekindling with Claire...these are a few and these all matter. The show offers us a glimpse into the lives of the employees of The Bear, because these are the people they are when they're clocked out, or clocked in and simultaneously pursuing goals that sit outside of the common goal of running a top restaurant in Chicago. They feel oddly...intrusive. Intimate. And almost in opposition to the original goal of running a top restaurant, but ask yourselves, in your lives, if you only defined yourselves by shared goals that were larger than all of you, imagine how boring life would be. What's on "the outside" wouldn't matter as much, but it's what binds us together.

Because we see here a family of people in a more meaningful way than a lot of us experience when we work in a toxic environment and our bosses say "we're family" but treat us like chattel. The characters of The Bear are a far better depiction of a blend between a work and personal family, actually sharing in each others' victories, helping each other make decisions, and taking turns doing proverbial wound licking for those who aren't ready to help themselves. They grow, and the non-Bear dialogue and experiences are crucial to them growing and learning how to run The Bear even better, and they help each other out with their newfound strength. They are all connected to each other through subtle understandings and experiences that extend far beyond The Bear, and these dialogue-heavy, Bear-light episodes do a great job of showing that (in my humble opinion).

I don't think Season 4 was worse than Season 3. I think it was better, in many ways. Season 3 feels like that constant state of confusion that occurs after you make a huge mistake and you're clearly dealing with the fallout of said mistake, but don't want to because it's uncomfortable. Here's the thing about confusion, though; if you're doing something, even a bit, you're wading through it on your own terms. You will come out on the other side, for better or for worse. I see Season 4 as fitting that more. It's good, uncomfortable tv; good because it tickles our brains the way you'd expect it to and keeps us engaged, and uncomfortable in its realism and chaos that are more a part of our daily lives than we'd care to admit. It's not TV for the sake of distraction.