The Bear Review

The episode was written by executive producer Joanna Calo and directed by series creator Christopher Storer. It was released on Hulu on June 23, 2022, along with the rest of the season.

The series follows Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto, an award-winning New York City chef de cuisine, who returns to his hometown of Chicago to run his late brother Michael's failing Italian beef sandwich shop. The episode is set in real time, and follows the characters as they prepare to open the shop, when chaos ensues in the kitchen. The episode is the shortest of the season at 20 minutes, 18 of which are presented as a single take.

The episode received acclaim from critics, who praised the episode's originality, cinematography, Storer's directing, performances, character development, sound mixing and tension. It was named among the best episodes of 2022 by many critics, and also received award nominations, including wins for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Edebiri at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards.

With 20 minutes before opening, the crew prepares for their shifts. Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) reads aloud a food critic's highly favorable review of The Beef. The critic highlights a risotto dish that Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) had been experimenting with and then gave him to avoid it going to waste, unaware that she was serving it to a critic. Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) arrives, telling Ebraheim to stop reading the review.

Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) arrives late, being forced to bring her son Louie (Pedro Henrique) after he was suspended from school. She asks Carmy to teach him culinary skills, so he assigns Sydney to help Louie. As they prepare for the opening, Sydney and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) get into an argument regarding her desire to put the risotto dish on the menu. Meanwhile, the staff learn that Sydney accidentally left the pre-order option on for the shop's to-go service, leaving them with hundreds of orders that will be due in less than 10 minutes. Overwhelmed, an increasingly furious Carmy screams at the staff to start cooking everything they have. With everyone's nerves on edge with the rush, the staff's conflicts come to a head as Sydney and Richie continue arguing and Carmy furiously shouts at the staff to keep working. Carmy fuels the animosity between Sydney and Richie by giving them conflicting instructions.

Completely oblivious to the chaos in the kitchen, Marcus (Lionel Boyce) neglects his cake-making duties in order to experiment with his side project of perfecting a donut. When Marcus tries to show his latest attempt to Carmy, he angrily throws it on the floor, prompting Marcus to walk out. In the course of this, Sydney accidentally stabs Richie with her knife. With just one minute left before opening, Sydney quits and curses Carmy as she walks out. Distressed, Carmy paces around the kitchen and tries Marcus' donut off the floor: apparently impressed by the results, he destroys the receipt machine and storms out of the kitchen in defeat.

Development

The episode was directed by series creator Christopher Storer and written by executive producer Joanna Calo. It was Calo's first writing credit, and Storer's fourth directing credit.

Filming

Christopher Storer mentioned that the episode was not supposed to be filmed in any specific manner. The idea of filming in a long take was only conceived two or three weeks before filming began, with Storer and Calo re-writing the script to accommodate the necessities of the episode. Calo said, "Having a penultimate episode where things fall apart is very Structure 101. Our dialogue is so stripped back, you find the need to let your camera do more work." Storer was impressed with the original script, but deemed that a cut would kill the momentum, and he felt filming it in one take was the best way to tell the story.

As Storer explained, the crew "wanted to make sure it was absolutely 100 percent in service of the story and not us showing off." To prepare for filming, Storer, Andrew Wehde and camera operator Gary Malouf calculated the route of the set that would be used for the actors, also filming a version of the route with an iPhone. The crew considered using certain points to make a cut if needed, but Storer was confident that the episode could be filmed in one take. The cast reportedly filmed the sequence in four or five takes. With each take, the cast experimented with their performances, with Ebon Moss-Bachrach portraying his character more resigned, while Ayo Edebiri played her character more furious. According to Wehde, the crew did not use the most perfect version of the takes, settling for the "most intense and immersive": one mistake from the take used for the episode is the pile of relish on the floor while Carmy tastes the donut, which occurred due to Malouf knocking over a container of giardiniera.

Jeremy Allen White explained, "They still managed to keep all of the important story points in place for Episode 7, but they wrote it as a blueprint to allow us to shoot it in one shot. That was very important, obviously, for it to start with the words." White praised the episode, considering it as "it really lends itself to the story and where the characters are at because the tension is building so quickly we don't give the audience a break from it. There's no reprieve — it's consistent."

Critical response

"Review" received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised the episode's cinematography, script, tension, performances. Rebekah Valentine of IGN wrote, "'Review' is especially incredible. It's shorter than any of the other episodes, and most of its action takes place over a very small handful of long, uncut shots in the restaurant that perfectly encapsulate the escalating chaos of the season's dramatic climax."

Tim Lowery of The A.V. Club praised the episode, deeming it as "one of the most impressive directing feats I've seen on television this year." Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone wrote, "It is far more panic-inducing than anything to come in the first few episodes, but the difference is that by now, The Bear has made us invested in Carmy, Sydney, Marcus, and all the others. The episode is still a two-ton stress bomb, but now one with people to root for and conflicts we have grown to care deeply about. It's incredible."

Marah Eakin of Vulture gave the episode a perfect 5 star out of 5 rating and wrote, "The Bear's seventh episode, 'Review,' is so good that it should be shown in film school just to show how much tension, backstory, and exposition a show's creators can pack into a mere 20 minutes of television." Nicole Gallucci of Decider praised the episode and compared it to the film Uncut Gems, writing, "'Review' is a remarkable, anxiety-inducing feat that harnesses tension as an art form. The performances are raw, ripe with passive aggression, and at times hard to watch — an especially disturbing truth, since the show has been praised for authentic depictions of abusive culinary workplaces. The dialogue is damning and seamlessly flows like a piping hot plate making its way through a kitchen. And the choice to capture the mayhem in a single shot both dazzles and disorients." Dina Paulson of Collider praised the episode's conclusion, writing "The character tension that boils over in 'Review' is, for sure, between the chefs in this extraordinary kitchen, but it also is about the self feeling self, in natural states of aggravation, healing, and absorbing pleasure because damn, sometimes a thing is so good it stops you in your mind tracks."

The episode was included in many publications as among the best TV episodes of 2022, including The Hollywood Reporter, TV Guide, Mashable, Rolling Stone, IndieWire, Entertainment Weekly, IGN, and Paste.

Accolades