The Bear episode 7. a one-take wonder

Episode 7 of The Bear, titled “The Review,” is one of the single best episodes of television I have seen in a long time, and it clocks in at only 20 mins long. “The Review” is a perfect convergence of story, characters, cinematography and pacing.

I believe there is this false presumption that’s come about of late that longer runtime always equates to more value. Cramming as much story as possible into a season does not make it better. This episode works because it's short, sweet and self-contained; if more showrunners had the ability to greatly vary episode length, I think we would see more episodes like this one.

Starting off at a high point, the one Chef reads aloud a glowing review during the morning prep (Thank you, Chef) the rest is slowly downhill from there.

Something The Bear excels at in every episode but especially in this one is the frenetic overlapping elements; the two conversations are happening at once, and the camera is constantly moving, but it’s never to a point of losing clarity; it captures the environment of a hectic working kitchen so perfectly.

The best one-take sequences are the ones that never draw attention to themselves. I watched every second of “The Review” on the edge of my seat but was so engulfed in the story I didn’t even register there hasn’t been a single cut.

One-ers can be beautiful or extremely gimmicky and come off as the director unnecessarily attempting to flex their muscles. Following the story and frantic activity of the arguments and screaming, I wasn’t paying attention to the intricacies of the camera work. The cinematography added to the story instead of distracting from it.

While I wasn’t conscious of the uninterrupted cut, the one long take did an incredible job of creating the anxious, tense environment of the episode. Its action and intensity feels real; watching Carmy scream orders and expletives it’s as if you’re in the kitchen yourself.

What makes the decision to make this whole episode a one-er even better is its place in the season. What makes many poorly done one-take scenes fall apart into a confusing mess is a lack of understanding of the geometry and environment. For The Bear, on the other hand, by episode 7, the audience has seen every inch of that restaurant; when the camera is frantically moving from room to room, it isn’t confusing or overwhelming.

The episode begins calmly for the first few minutes; the camera smoothly transitions between the characters and each of their conversations. In the exact middle of the episode, everything starts to fall apart. Suddenly the camera moves quicker with a little more shake. The camera itself feels like a character, the POV of one of the chefs desperately racing around.

The tension works so well in this episode because it’s been slowly built up throughout the entire season. Minor storylines and little moments and spats between characters all converge; everything snapping isn’t just for momentary drama but rather a culmination of nearly everything from the last six episodes.

“The Review” is so effective because the entire season has been a mess of roadblocks to getting this restaurant up on its feet; by episode 7, everything is starting to look good for once. One mistake sends the relatively calm opening prep into a chaotic spiral.

The chaos that ensues proves how close to the edge the restaurant truly is; Despite all the hard work the characters have put into trying to make this place successful, they are still teetering on the edge.

When the episode wrapped up and the credits rolled, my first reaction was, “what, that’s it?” Past the moment of shock, a smile immediately grew on my face realizing what I had just watched. 20 minutes is short for an episode, to begin with, but with it an unrelenting sense of movement, it felt like half the time on the first watch.

Choosing to make the penultimate episode to a season by a short 20-minute slice of restaurant chaos was a bold move, oftentimes shows last 2 episodes feel as though they are scrambling to tie up all the loose ends and inject the last little plot points. That wasn’t necessary for The Bear; it proves the season was well written and thought out, there was no need to jam-pack the plot at the end.

The Bear is one of my favorite television shows of the year, but this episode stays with me more than any of the others.

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The Bear is available to stream on Hulu