The Bear (TV series)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Bear is an American television series created by Christopher Storer for FX on Hulu, and its sandwich shop is a copy of a real one. The set was modeled on Mr. Beef, on Orleans Street in the River North neighborhood of Chicago. Storer was a frequent customer there. He is also a friend of Christopher Zucchero, who inherited the shop from his father.

  On screen, the shop belongs to the Berzatto family, and its owner is dead. Carmen Berzatto, known as Carmy, has cooked in Michelin-starred restaurants. After his older brother Michael dies by suicide, Carmy goes home to Chicago to take over an Italian beef sandwich shop. He finds a rundown kitchen, his brother's unresolved debts and a staff that answers to nobody. Jeremy Allen White plays him.

  Three questions run through everything that follows. Why does a show about a sandwich shop carry an animal in its title? How does a series this heavy end up competing for comedy trophies? And how do a few dozen days of filming per season make a viewer feel a particular city?

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• 2. Many Meanings of Bear

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  A real bear appears in a dream sequence in the pilot episode, and that is the first meaning of the title. One published analysis counts several more. Carmy's surname, Berzatto, echoes the animal. So does the name of the fine dining restaurant he later builds. The bear is also tied to a dream Carmy once shared with his brother.

  The nickname Claire Bear, given affectionately to his girlfriend, adds another layer. The same analysis says the title hints at the NFL's Chicago Bears, and perhaps at baseball's Chicago Cubs. It also notes a nickname Carmy has within his own immediate family, and others attached to people connected to the Berzattos.

  The restaurant that carries this name began as something much plainer, and the people who work in it each pull the story in a different direction.

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• 3. The Kitchen Brigade

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  The Original Beef of Chicagoland, called simply The Beef, is where the cast gathers. Carmy is an award-winning chef de cuisine from New York City. He later converts the failing shop into The Bear.

  Ebon Moss-Bachrach plays Richard Jerimovich, called Richie, who was Michael's best friend. Richie is the de facto manager at The Beef and later becomes the maître d'hôtel at The Bear. Ayo Edebiri plays Sydney Adamu, called Syd, a talented young chef who joins as the new sous-chef under Carmy.

  Lionel Boyce plays Marcus Brooks, a bread baker who turns into the pastry chef with encouragement from Sydney and Carmy. Liza Colón-Zayas plays Tina Marrero, an acerbic and stubborn line cook who seizes the chance to train professionally. Abby Elliott plays Natalie, nicknamed Sugar, the sister of Carmy and Michael. She is the reluctant co-owner and business manager.

  Matty Matheson plays Neil Fak, a childhood friend of the Berzattos and sometime handyman for the restaurant. He is recurring in season 1 and a regular from season 2. Edwin Lee Gibson plays Ebraheim, a Somali veteran line cook who is close with Tina. Gibson moves from recurring in seasons 1-3 to the regular cast in season 4.

  Behind the actors stands a crew built from the same Chicago circles, and that crew decided how every plate and street corner would look.

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• 4. Shot in Chicago

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  In March 2021, FX ordered a pilot for The Bear, to be written and directed by Storer. He had first conceived the story as a feature film. Others convinced him it needed time to unreel. The pilot was filmed in July 2021, and FX ordered the full series that October for a 2022 premiere.

  Neighborhoods including River North, Ukrainian Village and Wicker Park appear on screen. The production also films inside real Chicago restaurants such as Kasama. Time and trains recur as visual and thematic motifs. A shoot typically lasts about 39 days, which works out to roughly four days per episode. The guiding principle is that everything needs to feel, look and sound of the place.

  Andrew Wehde is the primary cinematographer. A-camera operator Gary Malouf and B-camera operator Chris Dame had both worked with Storer and Wehde on earlier projects. The show uses digital Alexa Mini LF cameras with Panavision lenses, and the camerawork is frequently handheld. Two flashback episodes, "Fishes" and "Gary", were shot on film.

  The food is run by culinary producer Courtney Storer, a co-executive producer and the sister of the creator. C. J. Capace is culinary co-producer, and chef Justin Selk is among the culinary team. Prop master Laura Roeper is the sister of Chicago Sun-Times film critic Richard Roeper. Merje Veski is the production designer, and Courtney Wheeler leads costume design.

  Parts of the fourth season were shot while the third was in production, and filming then restarted in 2025. Before the rest of the world heard any of that, though, viewers heard the kitchen.

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• 5. Talk and Structure

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  Creative Screenwriting magazine wrote in 2025 that the dialogue in The Bear unfurls like poetry, a stream of consciousness in fragmented thoughts. In the magazine's words, it is "messy, natural speech." The magazine compared each insult or expression of concern to a beat. Overlapping voices, it argued, create percussive drama inside a confined kitchen.

  One reviewer called the swearing a "symphony of swearing." A Christian magazine columnist cited Colossians 3:8, the New Testament verse against swearing, before recommending the series anyway. The columnist saw in the staff's shared family meal an echo of the early church described in Acts, where believers ate together and left no one behind.

  In January 2023, Storer told reporters, "Season 2 is sort of where the show properly begins, once we've met everyone and seen their backstory." The series is organized into parts marked by onscreen title cards. The Part II card appears in the first episode of season 2. The Part III card opens season 3, which ends on a "to be continued" card.

  The mean running time is 35 minutes. The shortest episode is the 20-minute "Review." The three longest are the 59-minute "Gary", the 66-minute "Fishes" and the 70-minute "Bears." Four of the episodes also open with a distinct credits sequence, each built around a single song.

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• 6. The Soundtrack

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  Those four credits sequences show how much the show leans on its music. "Review" is episode 7, and its credits play "Chicago" by Sufjan Stevens. "Fishes" is episode 14, with "All Alone on Christmas" by Darlene Love. "Omelette" is episode 17, with "The Day the World Went Away" by Nine Inch Nails. "Next" is episode 20, with "Save It for Later" by Eddie Vedder.

  Storer and executive producer Josh Senior choose the songs, drawing on rock, pop, folk and punk from the 1970s through the 2000s. Chicago band Wilco appears with "Spiders (Kidsmoke)", "Impossible Germany" and "Handshake Drugs." Other artists include Radiohead, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Weezer, The Smashing Pumpkins, Led Zeppelin, Oasis and The Decemberists. Taylor Swift's re-recorded "Love Story", "Long Live" and "Style" also appear.

  The show shows a clear affection for cover versions, live recordings, B-sides and demos. Part of the reason is cost, because they are sometimes less expensive to license. Senior gave another reason: "they are different enough for you to think about them a little." Speaking to a music writer in 2023, he said concert tracks, with audience noise and applause and a little more distance between performer and microphone, feel "more real and authentic" next to the dialogue and sound design.

  The principal composers are Chicagoans Jeffrey "JQ" Qaiyum and Johnny Iguana, whose instrumentals mostly play under scenes in the back of house. In 2025, Iguana called JQ a "wizard producer" who makes the beats, and described himself as the "chords and notes guy." Songs and instrumentals by Nine Inch Nails and by composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross dominate the run of episodes from "Forks" to "Forever." Season 3 adds opera and classical music.

  The trailers have their own songs, from Wilco's "Via Chicago" for season 1 to St. Vincent's "Fast Slow Disco" for season 4.

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• 7. Critics and Audiences

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  On the 23rd of June 2022, all of season 1 arrived on FX on Hulu. It reached international viewers through the Star hub on Disney+. Season 1 held 100% approval on Rotten Tomatoes from 82 critic reviews, and a Metacritic score of 88 from 24. The American Film Institute named it one of the ten best programs of 2022. The Guardian ranked it number one among its 100 best TV shows of that year and called it "the best workplace drama since Mad Men."

  Season 2 followed on the 22nd of June 2023 with ten episodes. It reached 99% approval from 113 reviews and a Metacritic score of 92 from 43. The American Film Institute again named it a top ten program. On the 6th of December 2023, the series also became available on Disney+ in the United States through the Hulu hub.

  Season 3 arrived on the 26th of June 2024. Rotten Tomatoes recorded 89% approval from 104 critics, and Metacritic gave a score of 80 from 45. Season 4 came on the 25th of June 2025, with 84% from 86 critics and a Metacritic score of 72 from 40. Across all seasons, the series holds 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and 83 on Metacritic.

  The audience numbers climbed too. FX said season 1 was the most-watched comedy series in its history, and season 2 had the most-watched season premiere in the network's history. The season 3 premiere drew 5.4 million views in four days, a 24% increase over the season 2 premiere. That made it the most-watched premiere for any scripted series on Hulu.

  Nielsen counted 1,233 million minutes watched from the 24th to the 30th of June 2024, beating a previous peak of 1.01 billion minutes. JustWatch ranked it the third most-streamed show in the United States in 2024, and second in Canada.

  The awards tally reached twenty-one Primetime Emmys, including Outstanding Comedy Series, and five Golden Globes. A special episode, released on the 5th of May 2026, starred Moss-Bachrach and Jon Bernthal and centered on their two characters.

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• 8. The Comedy Question

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  The word comedy in 2024 nearly became the show's most contested label. Reviewers more commonly call the series a psychological drama with occasional comic touches, given its largely dramatic style. It deals with alcoholism, familial trauma and workplace dysfunction. The Satellite Awards listed it in drama categories in 2023, then in comedy-or-musical ones in 2024.

  Proponents of the comedy label argue it is a dark comedy. They point to ridiculous situations, comic timing and the humor that chaos produces. They also describe it as a comedy of errors, full of back-and-forth banter and snark.

  In 2024, The Bear became the most-nominated series in comedy categories at the Emmys, with 23 nominations. That surpassed the 22 earned by 30 Rock in 2009. Yet it lost Outstanding Comedy Series to Hacks, which it had been heavily favored to beat. The Hollywood Reporter suggested voters may have been insulted by its continued classification as a comedy. In June 2025, Vulture claimed that "an undercurrent of industry resentment" over the show's lack of comedic content cost it that award.

  The argument now has a final chapter to feed on. The series was renewed in July 2025 for a fifth and final season of eight episodes, scheduled for release on the 25th of June 2026 on FX on Hulu and FX.

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