Now that the first seasons of both House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power have drawn to a close, we ask you to look beyond dragons and rings and instead behold: The Bear.
We may be a little behind (!) as the eight-episode FX comedy drama has been available on Disney+ since August (quickly garnering critical adoration and cooking up a slurry of memes and lust for lead Jeremy Allen White), but we're ready to serve up a hot take: This might just be the TV show of the year.
OK, I'll bite. What is The Bear?
We don't want to spoil the show and reveal what the title alludes to, but we will briefly outline what the show is about because this is an explainer. Capiche?
Jeremy Allen White (Shameless) plays Carmen "Carmy" Barzatto, a James Beard Award-winning fine-dining chef who comes home to Chicago after the suicide of his brother, to take over his old-school sandwich shop: The Original Beef.
With the help of a newly hired ambitious sous-chef, Sydney (a breakout performance by comedian Ayo Edebiri), he fights to keep the struggling business afloat and whip a ragtag group of long-term staff into shape.
That group includes belligerent "cousin" Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Girls), stubborn old-timer Tina (veteran actor and playwright Liza Colón-Zayas) and Marcus (Odd Future member Lionel Boyce), a sweet baker on a mission to create the perfect doughnut.
Plus Molly Ringwald, Oliver Platt and Jon Bernthal pop up in the series.
So it's a show about fine dining? Yum.
Yes and no.
It's less about fine dining (more accurately: the torture of working in it), than about grief, trauma, addiction and gentrification, the changing face of Chicago, and the changing dynamics in the kitchen as Carmy tries to transform his brother's beloved sandwich shop into something more ambitious and bougie.
The show also unpacks toxic masculinity — a salient subject given renewed interest in the work of the late chef and food critic Anthony Bourdain (whose memoir Kitchen Confidential exposed the less glamorous side of high-end hospitality) and the industry's own recent #MeToo moment (see: the allegations of sexual misconduct against chef Mario Batali).
What's the Beef?
The Original Beef is inspired by Mr Beef, a real Chicago institution that serves up Italian beef.
White explained to NPR: "It's beef thinly sliced on a roll. You can do hot or sweet peppers, and then you can really get them wet in jus or leave them dry. And that's the story."
Side note: Sandwiches are a quintessentially American food trend, but they are starting to find a foothold in our local food scene.
Who's in the kitchen?
The Bear is the first writing and showrunning credit for Chicago native Christopher Storer, a director and executive producer of Ramy and a number of comedy specials (including ones by Bo Burnham and Hasan Minhaj).
Storer, whose sister Courtney is a chef (as well as a culinary producer on the series), lost a friend to suicide before writing the show, and also drew on his family history of mental illness and addiction. He told Esquire:
"Some of the same thoughts that I was feeling about my family I noticed in a lot of toxic work environments … [particularly] in kitchens, you realise that they were probably mistreated by someone, they probably learned this, they probably have something they're not dealing with."
While Carmy and Sydney set out to create a different kind of workplace, they both end up falling into the same toxic traps.
"It said something to me about the disease of addiction, and some of the toxins that run through families," said Storer.
Is a real-life kitchen really that bloody hectic?
Restaurant workers told Bon Appetit that they were unable to finish the series, describing it as "triggering".
Jess Ho is a freelance food writer who spent years in the hospitality industry (including working as a host at Melbourne's Chin Chin), something they explore in their memoir, Raised by Wolves.
Aside from some details (e.g. there's no way Carmy would be reaching for the kewpie, when he can whip up mayo from scratch), they say The Bear has nailed much about the hospitality world.
"Those really intense moments of being in service and those personalities are so real, that is exactly what it's like and the pressure is like that and it is that stressful.
"That's what people are addicted to in hospitality: You go through all this stress and all this turmoil and then you're like, 'Look at this fucking magical shit we just did!'"
In flashbacks to Carmy's time as a chef in a New York fine-dining establishment, we see him verbally abused by his boss (played by Community's Joel McHale). Ho says they've witnessed and experienced this kind of bullying firsthand, and that physical abuse is also a part of the industry.
"People are moving away from it, but if it happens no-one is surprised," they say.
But the series also captures the camaraderie of kitchens: "You are in this complete cycle of abuse, but you stay for your colleagues … all these people that I used to work with are still my closest friends."
Is the phrase 'yes, chef!' really uttered that many times in a restaurant kitchen?
Yes, chef!
Though Ho says it's less common in Australian kitchens, it is the American way: "It is a sign of respect because everyone's a chef; it doesn't matter what your level is, you're all doing the same job."
How did they re-create this world so well on screen?
Writer and co-showrunner Joanna Calo (Hacks; BoJack Horseman) told Forbes that the creative team were determined to capture "the insane pace of an actual kitchen, [which] had never really been shown on TV or film".
To that end they shot scenes quickly and with few takes (the blood pressure-raising penultimate episode that I'm still recovering from is one single 18-minute take), and the team were able to draw on the expertise of chef Matty Matheson (who both acts in and produces the series).
The actors were trained at restaurants and by Courtney Storer, who told People: "Every single time there was a food shot, we were cooking."
What makes this show so tasty?
Beverley Wang, co-host of ABC RN's Stop Everything!, recommends you "gorge" on The Bear.
"What I love about it is that it just drops you straight into this portrayal of restaurant and hospitality life," she said.
"And they actually find time to not only to make jokes, satirise and send up the fine-dining world, but also have loving moments where they dwell on a beautifully iced cake or some doughnuts. So you still get that ode to fine dining and food."
Wang appreciates how the series blends humour and darkness, and compares its exploration of mental health, stress, grief and family dysfunction (plus sandwiches!) to the 2021 hit Mare of Easttown.
Reviewing the series in The Guardian, Lucy Mangan described it as "flawless" and wrote that The Bear is aptly named: "To watch it is to experience something between a huge, enveloping hug and a huge, eviscerating attack."
This writer's two cents: Aside from the frankly perfect penultimate episode, each episode is like a well-balanced dish, shifting from the frenetic energy of the kitchen to well-crafted one-on-one scenes, where the characters are given the room to connect (see also: White's incredible 7-minute monologue in the finale).
Are they cooking up a second season?
Yes (chef), expect a season two in 2023.
I have binged it all yet I am still hungry, what do I devour now?
After you read Ho's memoir — which Wang says is "a brutally honest and ruthlessly funny look into the world of high-end hospitality, told from a survivor's point of view" — here are some fictional gems to sink your teeth into.
Wang recommends Ang Lee's 1994 Taiwanese comedy drama Eat Drink Man Woman (Netflix) and 1985 Japanese "ramen western" Tampopo (available to stream on Ritz Cinemas at Home).
Jason Di Rosso from ABC RN's The Screen Show suggests Danish drama A Taste of Hunger (currently out in cinemas) and Japanese anthology series Midnight Diner (first broadcast on Japanese TV from 2009-2014 until being picked up by Netflix from 2016-2019).
Bon appetit.
