#I am also taking sydcarmy fic requests while the muse is agreeable

[invisiblerambler]

I just finished season 3 of The Bear! What did you absolutely love and also what did you absolutely hate about/from this season?

okay so I've written multiple posts about what I loved about this season, but it seems like everything I loved everyone else hated.

one of the biggest things is the way Syd, Carmy and Marcus all represent different reactions to trauma.

Carmy is taking it out on himself, but that radiates outward. He is not allowed to be anything less than excellent and neither is anyone else around him.

Syd is/was/continues to be deeply affected by Carmy leaving her alone. Her fear of failure and the ongoing trauma of being a part of exactly the type of environment she wanted to leave. Her reaction to that is to take it all inward. She absorbs everything and every part of the environment this season, and it isn't until 9 and 10 we see her crack.

Marcus's reaction is obviously similar to Carmy. He just wants to channel it into the work, but there's a catharsis that isn't present with the other two. He is repurposing his trauma as Syd and Luca talk about at the Ever funeral.

The messiness and the rawness of this season really struck me. It feels so real to the way you can experience long-term trauma and C-PTSD. Like Carmy wasn't recovered at all when he left New York, but everything since has just repeatedly opened that wound.

I know the timeline for the season is really messy but if the entire season is from his recollection than it makes sense because these things happened before he got there and obviously trauma affects your memory.

It's hard for me to fully express what I liked about this season because everything I enjoyed was so visceral. The first time I watched it I was mad at the ending, but as it washed over me I was more able to see how painfully and carefully constructed it was.

This show is just so well-drawn in it's exploration of trauma, I could go on about it all day.

As far as what I hated, can I say the overall response. That's me being cheeky, but I could feel the expectations management problem. They told you it would be a different show, and it was! There's such a retconning that S1 and 2 are similar, but they're really not they're shot and edited very differently and have wildy different color palettes. But other than that, I can't really say I hated anything. Like I said this season feels so close to me. That's not to say it's beyond critique, and I have seen some reasonable criticisms. Maybe the cameos in the finale could have been a little tighter. I understand giving everyone their time, but I agree it kind of killed the momentum.

I think there just needed to be a modicum more editorial oversight on those. Just like one or two less cameos, one more Syd/Luca/Carmy interaction.

I wouldn't even say that's something I hated, just something that kind of broke the reality of the show a little bit.

Also this is me being cheeky again but I wish they had played end of beginning by DJO lol. I have such a special place in my heart for that song and I think it could have provided an insight on what Syd could have been thinking throughout the season.

Anyways, sorry this is so long and mostly praise, but this season is too personal for me to have a lot of tangible criticisms.

PS I am take it or leave it about the Faks I get the criticisms but realistically their subtraction wouldn't have added more arcs for other characters because there were already plenty of character arcs.