The Bear Season 4 Is on the Clock

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Season 4 of The Bear.]

In the first episode of The Bear's fourth season, Uncle Jimmy (a perpetually, wonderfully aggrieved Oliver Platt) and his accountant, Computer (Brian Koppelman), place a digital clock in a prominent spot inside the restaurant's kitchen. As soon as that time keeper is plugged in, it starts counting down from 1400, the number of hours in a two-month period.

"When that clock hits zero, this restaurant needs to cease operations," Jimmy announces to the staff. With that declaration, this season of The Bear, a resonant return to form following a comparatively shapeless third season, establishes its narrative structure. All 10 episodes will unfold as those hours continue to tick away and the staff tries their damndest to get the restaurant, if not fully in the black, at least less red. That crucial piece of plotting provides The Bear, both the show and the restaurant-within-the-show that shares its name, with the sense of urgency they need to thrive. 

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This dramedy — yes, it's both a drama and a comedy, and I will not be taking further questions on this matter — always does its best work when it's actively on deadline. Season 1 was driven by uncertainty about Carmy's capacity to keep the sandwich shop The Beef, The Bear's original form, open. The tension in the exquisite second season came from the efforts to turn The Beef into the high-end establishment that Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), an accomplished Michelin-star-level chef, envisioned. One of the show's most memorable episodes, Season 1's "Review," takes place over 20 real-time minutes of abject chaos during the lunch rush that may have been responsible for multiple viewers' blood pressure spikes when it premiered in the summer of 2022. Authorities are still looking into that.

The concept of a running clock not only gives this iteration of The Bear a clear direction in which to head but also serves as a thread that is pulled through every fabric in this surprisingly uplifting season of television. The clear theme of this go-round is the passage of time more broadly and how important it is to value every precious hour we get with people we love, in workplaces we value despite their flaws, and simply living in a present that is going to become the past faster than an eye can blink.

Series creator Christopher Storer and his collaborators have carefully cultivated story details that speak to this notion. Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), the maître d', recruits some of his friends from the recently shuttered restaurant Ever to keep the trains running on time in front and in back of the house. That means dishes now need to be plated and out the door in less than three minutes, a benchmark that eludes the determined line cook Tina (Emmy winner Liza Colón-Zayas) throughout much of the season. Ticking clocks are everywhere in that kitchen.

Marcus, the gifted and unerringly patient pastry chef played by Lionel Boyce, spends much of the season debating whether or not to spend time with his estranged father, while Sydney (Ayo Edebiri, giving the most emotionally deep performance of her career so far) deals with a health scare involving her dad that makes her realize that even the one constant in her life could be taken away with no warning. As ever, the specter of Mikey (Jon Bernthal), Carmy's late brother and the restaurant's original owner, looms large, another reminder that people can just be gone instantly, leaving their loved ones to agonize over all the things they could have done differently.

One of the loveliest scenes in the new season unfolds in the third episode, "Scallop," when a diner visiting from Los Angeles chooses to celebrate six months of being cancer-free with a meal at The Bear. The young woman's parents mention to the staff that their daughter has always wanted to see snow in Chicago. Unfortunately, it's not winter, but Richie figures out a way to make that dream come true, by firing up a makeshift snow machine outside the restaurant's window — because sometimes you have to create the weather you want instead of waiting for it to appear.

Even the needle drops and pop culture references are colored by the idea of time's passage and the importance of memory. Several of the songs on this season's soundtrack function as callbacks. During the seventh episode, another big, long, full ensemble stand-alone that takes place at a wedding, Richie starts a conversation with his daughter just as Taylor Swift's "Style" begins to play, an allusion to the Swiftie bond established between the two back in Season 2. R.E.M.'s "Strange Currencies," basically the love theme between Carmy and his on-again/off-again maybe girlfriend Claire (Molly Gordon), makes a notable reappearance. When the stuttering guitar strings that open "New Noise" by Refused, a frequent music cue throughout the series, are strategically deployed, they put goosebumps on your arms because the show has a history with that song, and everyone watching knows and appreciates that history.

In the first episode of the season, Carmy wakes up on his couch while the movie Groundhog Day is on television. The Bill Murray comedy about a weatherman forced to live the same day over and over again comes up repeatedly this season and serves as an obvious metaphor for how stuck Carmy feels in his own life. But it also serves as another argument for the necessity of time's march. What's the alternative? Keep covering Punxsutawney Phil's shadow, or lack thereof, without ever gaining or losing a minute? Or get out of bed every day and let 'er rip?

During a panic attack prior to the wedding of his ex-wife, Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs), Richie quotes Philip K. Dick, as one does during a panic attack. "Everything in life is just for a while," he tells Syd. He says this as if to reassure himself that his anxiety won't last forever, that this too, like all things, will pass. But the comment is yet another reminder that everything in life is so fleeting: the hours you get to spend with a parent, or a partner, or co-workers who feel like family, even the hours on a countdown clock that keeps digitally warning everyone that the song is almost over. With Season 4, The Bear is essentially giving us the same advice once offered by another wise Chicago native, one some even refer to as that city's sausage king: Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Season 4 of The Bear is now streaming on Hulu.