Hopecore: The Bear just had it's best season yet

It feels as if it's all coming to an end, doesn't it?

Finally, beyond the chaos, dedicated fans of this show can see what the central metaphor and profoundness of The Bear has been – beyond "Family" and beyond "the chaos of dysfunction", and even beyond how these two things rhyme with the atmosphere of a restaurant, Season 4 does the leg work, in it's calmest iteration yet, of showing how restaurants, much like people, don't actually thrive in chaos, as addicting as the feeling may seem, and as much as it may present itself during service.

Seasons 2 & 3 have always felt as if they were barreling towards this – an ever present promise of it all being too much to sustain. What we thought might mean the failure or the end of The Bear (the restaurant) instead became the one lesson that is the true mark of growing up – life isn't about the peaks and troughs, but about what you can sustain, with good effort and passion. That is where kings are made, confidence is built, minutes are shaved off and happiness can thrive.

A challenging life is bullshit. The most ambitious thing you can do is consistently good stuff, and loving people.

Carmy, and everyone, learn to break the chaos cycle, because they have no option. Instead of facing doom with more doom, they try, for the first time, to face it with resolve, love and calm, one service at a time. Though some may see this as anticlimactic, I actually found this season to be the most nail biting and frightful of all – because much like decades of trauma, I had been trained to believe there was a figurative and literal fire around every corner.

The genius of the lesson of this season is that this is the lesson Drama can almost never pull off – in Film or TV or anything – because people are so attuned to the "chaos" of the three act structure that they see stories such as Season 4 as being "without substance".

I would argue this was the most substantive, and sentimental, season of television that America has managed to produce in a long time. References were pulled and weaved into the tapestry of the story with an MCU-esque clip, but with far more flow and far less grandeur.

The literal ticking clock stands as the central proof of this – we've been trained to be scared by it, but much like how working through our fears in therapy can slowly train us to stop seeing the threat or the fear, this Season of the show spends endless time defanging the ticking clock, until you're sure it's actually meaningless.

The Bear has always been a comfort show to me – lol, laugh at me if you wish, judge me if you must – but this season cemented it. This show is about family, and chaos, and trauma, but not for the sake of it.

Things are not hopeless.

Mothers can change, cycles can break, tenderness and love can return, men can talk through their feelings, grief can be spoken and given a place, aired out into the sunshine, every guest is family, you can leave what no longer serves you, and you can learn to love again.

The show known for its knife edge, gave us a marshmallow. It is a treasured gift.

(Ritchie my beloved, if you're not dating Miss Lady, please call me istg I would be so good to you...)