The Bear is back. Is there romance in the air?

The Bear returned for its third season this week. The TV show had a slow rise to popularity, but eventually hooked audiences with its tense yet funny episodes about the kitchen staff of a Chicago restaurant. The hotly anticipated new season follows Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and Syd (Ayo Edebiri) as they open their new restaurant alongside their old kitchen crew. 

Film critics Hanna Flint, Rad Simonpillai and Jackson Weaver join Commotion host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to debate the merits of the new season and which characters should — and should not — get romantically involved. 

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: Hanna, what is it about The Bear that you think makes it so popular? Because I feel like if you just describe what this show is about to a person who's never seen it, they'd go, "That doesn't really sound like a hit."

Hanna: I'm a massive Bruce Springsteen fan. I feel like The Bear is like a Bruce Springsteen song: this working man's struggle. What you have here is blue-collar workers, people just trying to make something, trying to be a part of something, trying to enliven and enrich their lives through food and culinary enjoyment. 

Sometimes you watch a series where it's an ensemble, and it'll just be a few of the characters that you'll focus on, and then there's supporting roles. For me, this is like a real orchestra — every single musical player has an integral part. I love it in this season where we get those little moments where you feel like, "I know more about Tina, I know more about Marcus." It's not just the Syd and Carmy show for me. 

Elamin: I think to continue with the idea of a Bruce Springsteen song, you're familiar with everyone's hopes in the show, and you don't always get that — especially when you have a show that has this many characters. 

I don't mean to put Jackson on the spot. I'm going to confess on his behalf that he's never watched The Bear until we asked him to. You're welcome, by the way. Now that you started watching The Bear, do you see what the fuss is about? 

Jackson: I will say from the beginning, first season, I was kind of like, "Guys, really? This is your show?" But I confess, I started to love it. The entire first and second season feel like a prequel to the show that is starting right now. Almost the entirety of season two is self-contained backstories of how all the characters got the skills to be as good at what they needed to be as they're going to do in the future. Season one's all this trauma-bonding, some not bonding. 

There's a fascination with shows about a tortured genius admitting to his own emotionality like, BoJack, Loudermilk, House, Sherlock, Monk. There's a billion shows that is this formula. And this one, you get to sit on the outside, which is the entry way into the story.

Elamin: The two central characters are Carmy as Jeremy Allen White, and then his sous chef, Syd, who's played by Ayo Edebiri. So many people are shipping them together as a couple — I gotta say, me included. A thing that I love about the show is the will-they-or-won't-they? 

Where do you stand on this, Hanna?

Hanna: There seems to be this pattern where any time there is a female character that's a lead and it's a workplace environment, they have to have some sort of romance with another character in the show. It's a very heteronormative projection that we put on these things because we don't really know who Syd could fancy. She could be a lesbian. She could be all of these different things. But we like this connection, we like this intimacy between the characters, and we don't see a lot of platonic relationships on screen. 

Now, that being said, to me, the sexual tension is between Syd and Richie [Carmy's "cousin" and the head of the restaurant's front staff].

Elamin: Oh my God. Jackson is losing it! Rad, do you want to see Carmy and Syd get together? 

Rad: No, I absolutely do not want them together because I love Syd and I want better for her! Can you imagine if she also had to go home to this energy? I want better for her. I think part of the reason why so many people want to see them together is because they see not Carmy and Syd, but they see Jeremy Allen White and Ayo out on the red carpet, and they have such great chemistry and they're having so much fun together. So they want to see that relationship. They don't necessarily want to see what's happening in this kitchen go into the bedroom. 

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jean Kim.