Four years since the culinary saga began, The Bear is now back on Disney+ with its fifth and final season. And if the reviews are anything to go by, it looks like it will be a glorious final lap for the comedy-drama.
The eight-part season comes hot off the heels of the standalone special, which focused on Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Mikey (Jon Bernthal) as they take a road-trip to the city of Gary, Indiana.
The fifth season comes back to Chicago, and focuses on Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) following his decision to leave the restaurant behind to Richie, Sydney (Ayo Edibiri) and Natalie (Abby Elliott).
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Furthermore, much of the season plays out in real-time as the characters have to - quite literally - spin several plates, and it seems that the bold creative choice has paid off when it comes to the critical reviews.
At the time of writing, the final chapter has a near-perfect approval rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes from 51 reviews. This is slightly lower than the scores for the first two seasons (100% and 99%), but markedly higher than seasons three (89%) and four (84%).
What to Read Next
You can read a selection of reviews below:
Digital Spy
"Season five acts as a wonderful epilogue to The Bear that's worth seeing in its own right, giving this era-defining show the thoughtful, if chaotic, send-off it deserves."
Empire Magazine
"The Bear lets it rip one last time, earning all of the Michelin stars and then some. If this is truly the final service, it's going out with a bang."
JoBlo's Movie Network
"There are few runs of episodes I can think of that deliver as well as this last season which will absolutely rank as one of the all-time best."
The Times
"Without giving anything away, there are growing signs as the series progresses that the staff have, against all odds, pulled out of the bag something remarkable."
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The Guardian
"If there is a happy ending, the gang have earned it - and so have viewers who have stuck with a show whose refusal to water down its own peculiar flavour (mostly) paid off in the end."
The Hollywood Reporter
"Storer clearly parallels the ending of a restaurant and the ending of a television show, along with the implications that he and Carmy might have learned similar lessons about the necessity, or lack thereof, of chaos in the creative process."
The Bear streams on Disney+.
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Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media. His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.
