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This post contains no real spoilers for the fifth season of The Bear. Come back Saturday morning for a deeper dive.
It wouldn't be quite accurate to call "Review" — the Season One installment of The Bear largely presented as a continuous take, in real time, on a disastrous day at The Original Beef of Chicago when the new online preorder system overwhelms the kitchen — the episode that turned the barely-promoted FX series into a viral hit. "Review" was the seventh of eight episodes of that season, which was released as a binge on Hulu. Viewers had already found and liked The Bear enough to quickly watch the previous six half-hours, after all. But "Review" was the episode on which The Bear built its reputation as one of the most beloved and acclaimed shows of this decade — the one that shifted the conversation from "Have you seen this show?" to "Oh my god, can you believe this show?!?!"
The reviews of "Review" emboldened Bear creator Christopher Storer to expand the number and kind of Very Special Episodes he would try in each ensuing season. Season Two brought us a bunch of these, including "Fishes," a flashback at a chaotic Berzatto family holiday dinner that somehow managed to be more stressful than "Review," and its tonal opposite "Forks," a warm hug of an episode in which Richie (Ebon Moss-Bacharach) learned the true power of restaurants while apprenticing at one of the world's best. (It remains, to me, easily the series' high point.) Season Three had "Napkins," a flashback to how Tina got her job at the Beef, and "Forever," a wake for the restaurant from "Forks," featuring an array of famous chefs playing themselves. Season Four had the intimate Syd (Ayo Edebiri) spotlight "Worms," contrasted with the sprawling wedding episode "Bears," which featured tons of famous guest stars and the biggest table in the history of the universe. These later seasons would still feature more traditionally structured episodes about life and work at the restaurant, but more and more, it felt like the creative team's heart was in these format busters.
Depending on your point of view, Storer and company have either done away with Very Special Episodes altogether for the fifth and final season, or they've turned the bulk of the season into the Very Special Episode equivalent of that table at the wedding. Critics were given the first seven of eight episodes. All take place on the same day — the day after Season Four ended with Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) informed Syd, Richie, and Natalie (Abby Elliott) that he was quitting the restaurant business for the sake of his emotional well-being — where Murphy's Law runs amok at The Bear in a way that at times makes "Review" feel relaxed and upbeat.