No one is having a good time in The Bear Season 3 trailer for which FX/Hulu are sticking with the binge model

For some reason, everyone decided to drop a trailer yesterday, but here’s one that stands out—The Bear season 3. Carmy and Syd and Cousin Richie are back, The Bear is open, and…well. It’s The Bear so no one is having a good time.

This is, however, the one season of The Bear I might try to power through when it drops on June 27, because I am SO invested in whether or not Carmy can make his dream come true! And he’s offering a partnership to Syd! So many threads are coming to fruition, including, maybe, Claire, who nobody likes (which is NOT the actor’s fault, people are just deranged about Carmy and Syd). But she’s still around, so. Maybe hold your horses in re: Carmy and Syd being more than friends.

I am surprised, however, given The Bear’s success both critically and with viewers, that FX/Hulu are still sticking with an all-episode dump. This is a show that would benefit narratively and commercially from weekly episode releases. It’s so tense, I find it unpleasant to binge The Bear. I need time to recover and recharge between episodes, so even though they’re all available on one day, I do NOT binge The Bear (sorry chef). And it’s such a layered narrative that, not unlike Shōgun, episodes would benefit from time to unpack and process what happens in each installment.

But they’re sticking with the binge model. It made sense initially, The Bear was not a sure thing, and a binge drop can be a softer landing, like get it all over at once, rather than dragging it out if the show flops. But The Bear broke out, now it’s the best “comedy” on TV, and yet they’re still dumping it all at once like it’s just another morsel in the content firehose. If they did a weekly schedule, though, I might actually keep up in real time, knowing I don’t have to digest it all at once, rather than watch weeks, even months later (seriously, this show STRESSES me out). The Bear could be the show of the summer, but the binge model doesn’t support longevity. Still, this is definitely one show we will all be watching…for a few days.