‘The Bear’ Season 5 Review: The Storm Is Here But Can The Beef Survive?

For the last five years, The Bear has grown to be a staple of modern television, and is by now a guarantee of quality for small screen viewers every June. In my mind, as a devout fan of the show, there was no question of whether they would stick the landing, but rather how.

Created by Christopher Storer, The Bear follows The Beef of Chicagoland, a fine dining restaurant, and the trials and tribulations of its staff, led by the charismatic but very dysfunctional Berzatto family (Jeremy Allen White, Abby Elliott, Jon Bernthal, Ebon Moss-Bachrach). This season follows The Beaef at the most crucial point in its lifetime. Carmy has retired, the restaurant is out of money, and a storm has caused flooding in the kitchen.

Which leaves us in a very precarious position. Taking place over the course of one day, The Bear Season 5 is not as widespanning as its predecessors, with none of the celebrity stuntcast cameos, or the high tension oners, but instead focuses on mainly the one location (changing to a Jimmy scene maybe once an episode). I think this allows the audience to reconnect following the last few seasons, bringing it crashing back down to earth.

It’s this reconnection that allows the season to excel, with a lot of the character drama under these high tension situations strengthening the bonds between viewer and characters. I particularly thought the drama between Marcus (Lionel Boyce) and his father, and Marcus and Luca (Will Poulter) were particularly riveting, especially in that high tension moment in episode seven, and that whole episode was already one of the best The Bear had to offer.

The cinematography this season is darker than usual, with reflecting lights acting as a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s honestly gorgeous, especially for a season that predominantly takes place in one or two rooms. Other strong technical elements, such as the editing, make for great comedic timings, especially at the ends of the first two episodes, involving pretty funny scenes of the Faks. It’s these elements that bond perfectly with the great performances of the cast, where Moss-Bachrach continues to be a standout.

As much as I loved this season and the show overall, it’s not without its flaws, as there are some flimsy moments where Carmy’s arc is kind of placed on the backburner in favour of Sydney’s and Marcus’s, and Ebraheim is barely in this season. Maybe some of these will be focused on in the series finale, which was not shared with members of the press.

Ultimately, this season feels like the last leg of a marathon, and here its not a race to the finish line, but Storer directs with discipline, reaching the end with good form, rather than a sloppy mess where the end justifies the journey.

The Bear Season 5 stars Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Lionel Boyce, Abby Elliott, Liza Colón-Zayas, Will Poulter, Matty Matheson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Oliver Platt, and many more. The series releases all eight episodes of the final season on Disney+ and Hulu on June 25th, 2026.

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