The Bear, starring Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, is back with its fifth and final season Thursday night, and most Rotten Tomatoes critics are fulfilled by what they’ve seen.
Created by Christopher Storer, The Bear debute on FX and Hulu in June of 2022 with Season 1, which was followed by Seasons 2, 3 and 4 in 2023, 2024 and 2025, respectively. The Bear quickly became a Primetime Emmy Awards mainstay, with 49 nominations through Seasons 1 to 4 and wins for Best Comedy Series for Season 1.
White also won Emmys for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for Seasons 1 and 2, while Moss-Bachrach won a Best Supporting Actor Emmys for Seasons 1 and 2 and Edebiri won a Best Supporting Actress Emmy for Season 2.
All eight episodes of The Bear Season 5 will be available to stream on Hulu on Disney+ at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. On cable, the first two episodes will air on FX at 9 p.m. ET/PT, with the remaining six episodes premiering every Thursday.
In Season 5 of The Bear, head chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) quits the food industry and leaves his restaurant to Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri), Richard “Richie” Jerimovich (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Natalie “Sugar” Berzatto (Abby Elliott).Together, the trio need to band together in the face of adversity to achieve the ultimate goal of earning a Michelin star.
The Bear Season 5 also stars Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas and Matty Matheson, and Ricky Staffieri, Oliver Platt, Will Poulter and Jamie Lee Curtis appear in recurring roles.
The review embargo for The Bear Season 5 lifted on Thursday, and so far, the final season of the show has earned a 97% “fresh” critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer based on 34 reviews. The Critics Consensus for the new season reads, “The Bear closes out its final season with the character-driven finesse that it started with, ensuring its story and fans are served the finest of televisual meals without diminished returns.”
RT’s Audience Summary and Popcornmeter rating based on verified user ratings is still pending.
The first four seasons of The Bear earned “fresh” critics’ scores, with the highest being 100% for Season 1, followed by scores of 99% for Season 2, 89% for Season 3 and 84% for Season 4.
What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘The Bear’ Season 5?
Ben Travers of IndieWire is among the top critics on RT who gives The Bear Season 5 a “fresh” score on RT, writing, “The Bear did the work to stay in our lives consistently for five years, and it pays off in the final season.”
Alison Herman of Variety also awards the final season of the series a “fresh” score on RT, writing, The Bear can’t fully shake off two full seasons of subpar storytelling, but at least it can improve while it’s still around.”
In her “fresh” review summary of the final season of the series on RT, Judy Berman of TIME Magazine writes, “What The Bear suggests, through Syd’s ascendance, is that greatness is more realistically achieved through cooperation and mutual respect. We see her reward the hard work of her team and remind people to treat each other civilly.”
Chase Hutchinson of the Seattle Times also praises the series final episodes, writing in his “fresh” summary on RT, “Now, in its final season, one of the most confined, chaotic and oddly compelling yet, The Bear goes back to basics while it grapples with how time marches on.”
Rebecca Nicholson of The Financial Times has had some reservations about the series, but awards Season 5 with a “fresh” score. Nicholson writes on RT, “The Bear’s unevenness is maddening, because when it hits its stride, it has warmth, empathy and wit to spare.”
While none of the top critics on RT have given The Bear Season 5 a “rotten” score, Bellen Edwards of Mashable is the lone dissenter among all critics on the review aggregation site. In her RT review summary, Edwards calls the new season “a lackluster serving of confusing choices and wasted potential.
All eight episodes of The Bear Season 5 begin streaming on Hulu on Disney+ at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. The first two episodes will premiere on FX at 9 p.m. ET/PT, with the remaining six episodes premiering every Thursday.
