For your streaming selections this week: a few high-profile second seasons, a couple of new series and a beloved movie franchise top the list.
First up, the second season of FX's critically acclaimed and award-winning series “The Bear” premieres Thursday on Hulu. The series starring Jeremy Allen White had everyone repeating “yes, chef” last year, and reliving their food industry trauma — or learning about it for the first time. This series about a chef who returns home to Chicago to take over his deceased brother’s sandwich shop is a gritty, funny and existential text that defies genre-convention — it is at once a comedy, a horror film, a thriller and a meditation on passion, purpose and the inner workings of a restaurant kitchen. In the second season, the team undertakes a fresh start, gutting the restaurant and trying something new, sending line cooks to culinary school and revamping the menu. All episodes drop on Thursday, so get a jump on what’s sure to be one of the most talked-about shows of the summer.
One of the other most-discussed shows of the summer, already, is the second season of the “Sex and the City” sequel “And Just Like That…” This series had the online denizens chattering when it debuted at the end of 2021 with the surprise death of one of the original main characters, and the wild journeys of these New York City friends. But it was also notably missing one of the original fearsome foursome — Samantha. Kim Cattrall declined to participate in the series, so her character was relegated to a few text message interactions. However, news broke a few weeks ago that Cattrall made an appearance in the second season, with Samantha having a phone conversation with Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie. Season 2 also features the return of one of Carrie’s famed former flames, Aiden (John Corbett) and debuts Thursday on Max.
