Yes, chef, The Bear season 5 goes back to the franchise’s high standards.

The Bear has become one of the most popular TV shows in recent years, earning many awards throughout its five-season run. That has now come to a close with the release of The Bear season 5, the final entry in the series, with all eight episodes being released on FX and FX on Hulu at the same time on Thursday, June 25. After a strong start to the show, The Bear‘s last couple of seasons had been met with more mixed reception, particularly from viewers, leading to questions of whether it could stick the landing. Well, The Bear appears to have succeeded.

The Bear season 5 has debuted with a high 85% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. It is important to note that, given how the show’s latest season has only been out for less than a week, that score should still fluctuate in the coming days. Still, The Bear season 5’s debut already marks a clear return to form for the comedy-drama after a rocky couple of seasons. The reason for that is simple, as The Bear season 3 holds the show’s lowest audience score, at an abysmal 54%, and season 4 stands at a middling 68%.

For a show that was used to getting near-perfect scores from its audience, The Bear‘s performance over its last two seasons was quite the fall from grace for the series. In season 1, The Bear came out the door with a stellar 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes based on over 2500 ratings. The Bear season 2 then succeeded in the incredibly hard task of following up its freshman year with a new season that matched its fantastic 92% audience score, once again doing so based on more than 2500 ratings. Now, The Bear season 5 gets close to those heights.

After two divisive seasons, The Bear season 5 also managed to get close to its first two outings in terms of what critics think about the show. The Bear season 1 debuted to an impeccable 100% critics’ score, with season 2 only slightly below it at a near-perfect 99%. The show then steadily declined over seasons 3 and 4, though ranking better with critics than with viewers. The Bear season 3 stands at a high 89% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, while season 4 was a little lower than that at 84%. The Bear season 5 changes that with a 98% critics’ score.

Like with its audience score, The Bear season 5’s critics’ score is still subject to change, given that it debuted with a rare perfect 100% score and has slightly dipped since then. However, the Emmy-winning series is clearly back to top form for its final stretch of episodes. In ScreenRant’s The Bear season 5 review, Ben Gibbons rated the final season of the series a perfect 10 out of 10 score. The writer deems the final episodes of The Bear an “intense farewell” to the beloved series and its charming characters.

Release Date

2022 – 2026-00-00

Network

Hulu

Showrunner

Christopher Storer

Directors

Ramy Youssef

Writers

Catherine Schetina, Alex Russell, Karen Joseph Adcock, Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Stacy Osei-Kuffour