Preparing for "The Bear" S3.

Heard, Chef. It's time to prep our mental kitchens for what could be the most difficult-to-please season yet.

All 10 episodes of “The Bear” from FX will drop on Hulu on Thursday and both joy and chaos will ensue, since this is one of the best and most intriguing shows on television.

So I’ll start by saying, I’m worried.

But first — get lost and come back later if you haven’t watched all of S1 and S2, because this column contains spoilers for both. Also, enjoy! You’re going to have a blast catching up before the new season.

I will quickly add that I have faith, too, in S3, given how excellent (but flawed) “The Bear” is (particularly the finale of S1, which I’ll get to below, and the higher bar from S2, which leads into, let me put this in all bold, a completely different show).

Those are hard to pull off.

Go watch S2 of “The Wire.” I am in no way saying “The Bear” is on the same level as that, but I can tell you that when HBO execs learned what “Wire” creator/writer David Simon was planning for S2 of a barely seen but critically acclaimed series that it had nurtured and supported, they basically went ghostly pale. One or two are probably lucky to be alive to hide the tale.

“The Wire” took every aspect of S1 and made that the B-story of S2 which would have led to immediate cancellation anywhere but HBO. Having covered the TV industry for two decades while being one of its major critics, I’ll say straight up that this was one of the craziest moves any series creator has ever made in television.

So, no, “The Bear” is not in this territory. But “The Bear” is no longer what it was for the first season and most of the second season. The ragged sandwich shop slowly turned better-dining establishment is now going to open as a high end restaurant looking for a Michelin star.

That’s the premise. And that’s a new show. Here’s the official trailer:

OK, so the high-octane crack of this show continues, thank the kitchen gods, and everything that lead up to the ending of S2 starts here, from the new Bear-faced logo on the building to the demand of perfection, which is really the only thing that gets you a Michelin star. My question is this:

Can this season be more than a calculated train wreck where Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) makes everyone unhappy in his pursuit of perfection and then (insert either life-affirming and/or existentialist twist here) he leaves the restaurant to (person X) and S4, allegedly already green-lit, covers the fallout (which could be a fantastic idea because it’s less trapped-in-a-box than S3 seems before watching more than the trailer).

Building the new place. Or building a trap?

Well, let’s deconstruct all that and I’ll tell you what I’m hoping for in S3 and what I’m keenly worried about.