TV REVIEW: THE BEAR - Season 4

4/5

Bear Grills.

10 Episodes. Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas, Abby Elliott, Matty Matheson & Edwin Lee Gibson. Created By: Christopher Storer. On: Hulu & Disney +.

Ordering up Season 4 of FX's 'The Bear' on Hulu and Disney Plus is not without its fair share of arguing. Fans get into it as much as the pressure cooker stars of the show, once the gas rings get lit. Even so, the show will be served up for a fifth helping next year, no matter how it ends, as we say goodbye. Christopher Storer's now storied psychological comedy/drama has become a cult, indie hit after it became the coolest thing on streaming television this side of 'Succession'. No wonder it went head-to-head with the final season of Netflix's most successful show, 'Squid Game', for TV blockbuster of the summer, released in the same week, with all episodes available. Still, how do you cook a squid when 'The Bear' is facing more people standing up and screaming at it than the new 'Superman' movie? Maybe I missed something, binging on the first two seasons before the third course, last year. It seems people are as fed up with 'The Bear' as Chicago's own are the Cubs. But I can't wait to see it carry on, like Harry.

'The Bear' has become such a grizzled hit that star and Emmy winner Jeremy Allen White, moonlighting as a Calvin Klein model that will really make you feel that you wasted that gym membership, will now get to play the runaway American dream that is Bruce Springsteen, in the 'Deliver Me From Nowhere' biopic off E Street, this fall. Allen White, who was perfect in 'The Iron Claw' and will play a Hutt in 'The Mandalorian & Grogu' movie, is still the Boss of this show though. Alongside the enigmatic and excellent Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who will go from a Cobb salad to clobbering some time with the 'FANTASTIC FOUR' (you sang that, right?) this month, battling DC's 'Superman' for blockbuster of the summer. New megastar Ayo Edebiri has been the voice (April O'Neil in the 'Mutant Mayhem' of an animated 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles') of many people's Envy recently. From 'Inside Out 2', to Glory Grant in the 'Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse' sequel. But this is her 'Opus'. Liza Colón-Zayas will even star in the live action 'brand New Day' of Spider-Man, alongside co-star, The Punisher himself, Jon Bernthal. One batch and one perfect shot, like this T.V.'s classic cinematography.

Bernthal, Jamie Lee Curtis, Olivia Colman, Oliver Platt, Will Poulter, Josh Hartnett. John Mulaney, Bob Odenkirk and many, many more huge guest stars have appeared on 'The Bear's' scratched family tree. The only thing more famous than this is the Shazam ready soundtrack. But as people seemed to have cooled on the A-list alphabet soup that is season three and four of this series, has it been doing all the heavy lifting (shout out to the 'Slow Disco' of St. Vincent this time out)? Hell no! Even if it is a central character, like Chicagoland. The big-three. The outstanding future of Lionel Boyce. The great Colón-Zayas, who we plead to see more of in the fifth after her epic episode in S3. The management under all sorts of heat from Abby Elliott (and a scene-stealing feud fight). Not to mention fond favourite Matty Matheson and the new entrepreneurial direction of Edwin Lee Gibson and the great guest helping him star. Like the aforementioned Hollywood names, we won't spoil the soup. Just like those hating on the Autumn and Winter of this show, shouldn't spoil your fun. A 'Groundhog Day' opening, the perfect snow surprise, another hour long classic episode under a wedding table, and a finale that could play out on a theatrical stage? Now, that's a fantastic four. 'The Bear' still has the beef. So what's yours? TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'The Chef Show', 'Deliver Me From Nowhere', 'Fantastic Four'.