Review of The Bear Season 2

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

About a year ago (at the time of typing this) I quit my job as a professional film critic to explore what was out there in the world when it came to publishing about the movies and books I wanted to see, not just what was popular in the moment. Digital media and working within it can be fun and all, but it can be grinding when you’re just chasing after all the latest trends and clicks for SEO.

I started this blog four years ago, during the pandemic, but never really took it seriously beyond the occasional post here and there about what I was up to. In 2023 I began to realize the impact this blog was having on me, and other people were reaching out about reading it, so I expanded. Once I quit my job, I decided to focus on the blog more while job hunting, as I do make a few pennies here and there from the display ads on the screen.

Since the job hunt after graduate school really took longer than expected, it meant that I was going to have even more time than anticipated to go through and watch all of these shows I wanted to. I also read a ton of books during this time, which means I have such an incredible backlog of book reviews I need to plough through the rest of the year.

I just published my season one review of The Bear, which means this blog post is dedicated to season two. I ended up watching all of the seasons that were out at the time (so 1-3) back in January 2025, but because of my blog scheduling, this post is definitely coming out much later than then. I will have watched the entire series at that point, which means I can get all of the blog posts in rapid succession.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to ramble too much in the introduction, as I know these can get long winded.

The crew and chefs decide to open a fine dining spot called The Bear, but that doesn’t come without its problems.

At the end of season 1 of The Bear, we learn how the crew at the restaurant discovered wads of cash stuffed inside of cans of small tomatoes. Carmy found this by accident after Richie told him to go get some smaller tomatoes, and then they found themselves with newfound riches for the restaurant. They then decide to open a fine dining spot called The Bear, highlighting their unique talents as chefs.

We begin season 2 with realizing despite this is a large number of cash, they still need more. Carmy asks Natalie to come in as a project manager, as this is going to be a big operation, and Sydney is going to be Carmy’s second hand basically.

They need to make a menu, but before then, they go to Cicero for more money. He gives it to them under the condition it needs to be paid back or he’ll seize the property (foreshadowing? I’m not sure yet).

So begins the rush to try and get this operation on the ground running. This season is a mix of figuring out how to source and make a solid menu, as Sydney ventures all across Chicago to taste menus at restaurants to see what works and what doesn’t. Other members of the crew, like Ebra and Tina, are sent to culinary school to learn more formal cooking methods.

We also see Marcus having his own arc of coming to learn he has a talent as a baker, and he even has a side quest of going to Europe and learning how to bake with Luca. It was during that side quest I learned Will Poulter was actually British, which was fascinating to realize after all of these years.

There’s also a side quest for Carmy when he runs into an old friend: Claire. There’s going to be a bit of an awkward dance between the two throughout the course of the season, as there are clear romantic feelings between the two, but Carmy has other underlying issues emotionally and trauma wise he needs to sort through before he starts loving someone else fully.

Like last season, this season is very much character driven, if not even more so. We really get to focus on these characters now because they’re not brand new, and they’re forming relationships with each other that are deeper.

Even some of the crew is starting to potentially have crushes and romantic feelings for each other, and some of the standout episodes and moments are when we really get to focus on their narrative arcs and growth.

Overall Thoughts

While I found the first season to be a great introductory season, I liked season two even more than the first one because of the fact we got to dig deeper into these characters and their motivations/problems. That’s what I really liked about season one, and season two really goes more in-depth and humanizes them even further.

This show just does such a great job in blending the realms of reality and fiction. There feels like there isn’t a boundary between the two because I could definitely see all of these people existing in real life. Sure, finding a ton of money in tomato cans might not be realistic, but these other situations definitely are.

I’m not tired of this show yet, nor does it feel like a trope at this point in time. And that’s refreshing considering everything on television/movies/even books feels like it’s just rehashing the same kinds of stories with different kinds of packaging,

Go watch this series if you haven’t already, or rewatch it if you want to and haven’t had the chance!

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