A year ago, The Bear, an FX on Hulu series about a beleaguered Chicago sandwich shop with big-league aspirations, became the breakout show of the summer for primarily two reasons. One, it viscerally captured, better than any scripted show in recent memory, the cortisol and cacophony of a working kitchen; each episode barely left the backroom of The Original Beef of Chicagoland, a near-constant stream of oversubscribed orders, combustible egos and “yes chefs”. And two, it was palpably hot, not least because The Beef was almost always one mistake away from a grease fire.
There was the ever-present heat of a deadline, the scorching pressure to keep up and the volatile perfectionism of head chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White). White’s Carmy – tattooed, masochistic, grief-addled yet highly competent in a tight white T-shirt – became an overnight internet boyfriend, a dirtbag sex symbol whose lack of any apparent interest in sex only heightened his appeal. With eight half-hour episodes, no sexual or romantic storylines and an ensemble kitchen crew cast that grew better by the scene, The Bear was one of the very few shows that left me craving more.
