The Bear
The FX original television-series The Bear features a young chef, Carmen, after he leaves his fast-paced culinary career at a Michelin-starred restaurant. When a tragic family event draws Carmen back to his family restaurant, The Original Beef of Chicagoland (“The Beef,” for short), he soon realizes the unorganized working environment and the rocky state the restaurant is in. “The Beef” contains a family-like system in which each person in the kitchen relies on one another on a working and personal level. Carmen feels like an outsider once he returns home because everyone at The Beef feels jaded that he chose not to use his professional culinary skills for their business instead of the fine-dining restaurant. The complicated family dynamics that are intertwined within this show demonstrate why Carmen left Chicago, and these relationships are the foundation of this series.Carmen’s “cousin” Richie gives him the hardest time about his return, as there are conflicting views from everyone currently working at The Beef on how things should either remain the same for their originality and regular customers, versus what Carmen thinks would help the business. As Carmen is well-known for his culinary awards, he draws the attention of the highly trained chef, Sydney, and she is eager to collaborate with Carmen as his sous-chef. Sydney soon witnesses the flawed and constrained state of The Beef, and she is skeptical about working there as she is treated the same way as Carmen, but the restaurant grows on her. The kitchen team constantly questions her about why she weathers the storm for the restaurant, but she gains a love for The Beef and only hopes for its future success.
The Bear features many visual film techniques that highlight the cooking aspects, and there is a lot of kitchen-based lingo that the viewer learns, which serves as a constant throughout the series. In the second season, there are more answers to Carmen’s dysfunctional upbringing and the current family values he maintains as a result, as shown in the 66-minute episode titled “Fishes.” Interestingly only after two seasons, The Bear has won four Golden Globe Awards, including one for the Best Television Series for Comedy in 2024. Watch for the third season of The Bear, which will be released in summer of 2024. Streaming on Hulu.
—Kayu Brooks, TV Editor