The Bear (TV series)

The Bear is an American comedy-drama television series created by Christopher Storer for FX on Hulu. Jeremy Allen White stars as Carmy Berzatto, an award-winning chef who returns to his hometown of Chicago to manage the chaotic kitchen at his recently deceased brother's Italian beef sandwich shop. The regular cast includes Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas, Abby Elliott, Matty Matheson, and Edwin Lee Gibson.

All episodes of the first season were released on FX on Hulu on June 23, 2022; the second season was released on June 22, 2023. In November 2023, the series was renewed for a third season, which was released on June 26, 2024. Ahead of the third-season premiere, the series was renewed for a fourth season, which released on June 25, 2025. The series was renewed for a fifth and final season in July 2025. A special episode was released on May 5, 2026.

The series has received critical acclaim for its performances, writing, directing, visual style, soundtrack, and production values. The series' classification as a comedy, particularly at award ceremonies, has been contested; reviewers more commonly describe the series as a psychological drama with occasional comedic elements, given its largely dramatic style and focus on heavy topics including suicide, alcoholism, familial trauma, and workplace dysfunction.

The Bear has received many accolades, including twenty-one Primetime Emmy Awards (including Outstanding Comedy Series) and five Golden Globe Awards (including Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy).

Talented haute cuisine chef Carmen "Carmy" Anthony Berzatto inherits his family's Italian beef sandwich shop after his older brother Michael's suicide. He goes home to Chicago to run it, leaving behind his world of working in Michelin-starred restaurants. He is left to deal with his brother's unresolved debts, a rundown kitchen, and an unruly staff, while dealing with his own pain and family trauma.

• Jeremy Allen White as Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto, an award-winning New York City chef de cuisine, who returns to his hometown of Chicago to run his deceased brother Michael's failing Italian beef restaurant, The Original Beef of Chicagoland (more commonly known as "The Beef"); later he converts The Beef to a fine dining restaurant called The Bear.
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richard "Richie" Jerimovich, Michael's best friend, the de facto manager of the restaurant; later maître d'hôtel of The Bear.
• Ayo Edebiri as Sydney "Syd" Adamu, a talented young chef who joins The Beef as its new sous-chef under Carmy.
• Lionel Boyce as Marcus Brooks, The Beef's bread-baker-turned-pastry-chef, spurred on by Sydney and Carmy's mentoring.
• Liza Colón-Zayas as Tina Marrero, an acerbic and stubborn line cook who embraces the opportunity to train professionally.
• Abby Elliott as Natalie "Sugar" Berzatto, Carmy and Michael's sister, the reluctant co-owner and business manager of The Beef/The Bear.
• Matty Matheson as Neil Fak (season 2–present, recurring season 1), a childhood friend of the Berzattos, and sometime handyman for the restaurant.
• Edwin Lee Gibson as Ebraheim (season 4, recurring seasons 1–3), a Somali veteran line cook at The Beef who is close with Tina.

The storyline of The Bear is subdivided into parts marked by onscreen title cards. The Part II title card appears in the first episode of season 2. The Part III title card appears in the first episode of season 3, which concludes with a "to be continued" card. There is an opening credits sequence, each with a distinct montage and song selection, in "Review" (episode 7, "Chicago" by Sufjan Stevens), "Fishes" (episode 14, "All Alone on Christmas" by Darlene Love), "Omelette" (episode 17, "The Day the World Went Away" by Nine Inch Nails), and "Next" (episode 20, "Save It for Later" by Eddie Vedder). In January 2023 Christopher Storer told reporters, "Season 2 is sort of where the show properly begins, once we've met everyone and seen their backstory." Most of the episodes are roughly half an hour, but running time ranges from the 20-minute "Review" of season one to the 70-minute "Bears" of season four.

FX ordered a pilot for The Bear in March 2021, to be written and directed by series creator Christopher Storer. Storer had initially conceived The Bear as a feature film before being convinced the story needed time to unreel. FX then ordered the series in October 2021 for a 2022 premiere date. The sandwich shop interior is copied from the Chicago shop Mr. Beef on Orleans Street, in River North. Storer was a frequent patron and is a friend of Christopher Zucchero, the shop's current owner who inherited it from his father.

In July 2022, the series was renewed for a ten-episode second season. In November 2023, it was renewed for a third season. In March 2024, the series was renewed for a fourth season. Parts of the fourth season were filmed during filming for the third season, with production set to restart in 2025. In July 2025, it was renewed for a fifth season. Jamie Lee Curtis later revealed that the series will conclude with the fifth season.

The Bear of the title refers to an actual bear that appears in a dream sequence in the pilot episode, as well as "Carmen's surname Berzatto, his new restaurant's name, a dream he once shared with his brother, [and] to the affectionate nickname given to his girlfriend, Claire Bear. The bear also hints to the NFL's Chicago Bears," and perhaps Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs, Carmy's nickname within his nuclear family, and multiple other people associated with, if not biologically related to, the Berzatto family.

Creative Screenwriting magazine wrote in 2025, "...the dialogue in The Bear unfurls as poetry—a meditation, a stream of consciousness, a series of fragmented thoughts. It's messy, natural speech." The show treats dialogue almost as a distinct audio track that combines with sound effects and music, diagetic and non: "Consider that each expletive, insult, or voice of concern is a beat in The Bear: you've got a highly rhythmic train of dialogue right there. With voices overlapping, you get percussive drama within a confined kitchen environment." The dialogue is rich with profanity—one reviewer described it as a "symphony of swearing." Many hundreds of fucks are given. One Christian magazine columnist made sure to cite a Bible verse from the New Testament (Colossians 3:8; swearing bad) before going on to recommend the series as a practical model of family and community construction: "[In the early church, described in Acts, they] meet together every single day, and as well as serving others they eat together, enjoying the sort of 'family meal' that's also common among workers in the hospitality industry who lovingly cater for each other before or after a gruelling shift. They don't allow anyone to be left out or left behind, ensuring that no one in need remains so...When I watch The Bear, I'm not sure that the image created is all that different, even if the characters' central 'god' is the journey towards financial stability and fantastic restaurant reviews."

The show films in Chicago, including on location in neighborhoods such as River North, Ukrainian Village, and Wicker Park, and at real Chicago restaurants including Mr. Beef and Kasama. Recurring visual and thematic motifs include time and trains. They typically shoot for "about 39 days," or an average of about four days per episode.

Everything needs to feel, look, and sound of the place.

The show's culinary producer, responsible for the food of The Bear, is co-executive producer Courtney Storer, sister of creator Chris Storer. C. J. Capace is culinary co-producer. The culinary production team includes chef Justin Selk, Nicole Biyani, Danielle Stefanick, Gabriel Wallace, Jeffrey Thomas, and chef Brian Lockwood.

The Bear's lead costume designer is Courtney Wheeler; assistant costume designer is Lariana Santiago. Ally Vickers heads the hair department. The Chicago-based prop master is Laura Roeper, sister of Chicago Sun-Times film critic Richard Roeper. The production designer is Merje Veski. The art director is Lisa Korpan. Eric Frankel heads the set decoration department.

The show's primary cinematographer is Andrew Wehde. A-camera operator Gary Malouf and B-camera operator Chris Dame had both worked with Storer and Wehde on their previous projects. Scott D. Smith has led the sound mixing team since the pilot episode. Steve "Major" Giammaria is the supervising sound editor. Evan Benjamin is the sound editor for dialogue. The film editors who cut the episodes are Joanna Naugle, Adam Epstein, and Megan Mancini. The color grading is done by Christian Rush and Mishel Hassidim.

The Bear has a soundtrack of 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s alternative and mainstream rock, pop, folk, and punk, chosen by Storer and executive producer Josh Senior. Several songs featured on the show include Chicago-based Wilco with "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" and "Impossible Germany", and "Handshake Drugs", Radiohead's "Let Down", Pearl Jam's "Animal" and "Come Back", John Mayer's "Last Train Home", Refused's "New Noise", The Breeders' "Saints", Erasure's "A Little Respect", The Replacements' "Bastards of Young", Counting Crows' "Have You Seen Me Lately?", Genesis' "In Too Deep", John Mellencamp's "Check It Out", R.E.M.'s "Oh My Heart", "Half a World Away," and "Finest Worksong", Weezer's "The Christmas Song," "In the Garage," and "Getchoo," The Smashing Pumpkins' "Disarm", Led Zeppelin's "That's the Way", Oasis's "Stay Young," The Decemberists' "The Crane Wife 3" and "A Beginning Song," and Taylor Swift's "Taylor's version" of "Love Story", "Long Live," and "Style". Kim Deal, Chrissie Hynde, Brian Eno, John Cale, David Byrne, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Van Morrison, Otis Redding, Carole King, Mavis Staples, and Darlene Love make a fair few appearances. The show has an evident affection for cover versions, live-concert versions, B-sides, and demo versions, in part because they are sometimes less expensive to license, and in part, per Senior, "they are different enough for you to think about them a little." Regarding concert tracks, Senior told a music writer in 2023, "We do try and build around the fact that you can hear audience and applause and a little bit more distance between the performer and the microphone. I think those songs always feel more real and authentic when we try and put them in and around our dialogue and sound design."

The show's principal composers are Chicagoans Jeffrey "JQ" Qaiyum and Johnny Iguana, whose instrumentals play primarily over "back of house" scenes. In 2025, Iguana told an interviewer, "JQ is a wizard producer. He makes the beats," and described himself as the "chords and notes guy". Nine Inch Nails songs and instrumentals by composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are prevalent during the run of episodes from "Forks" to "Forever". Season 3 also adds introduces opera and classical music onto the soundtrack for the first time.

The songs used in the trailers are "Via Chicago" by Wilco for season 1, "Strange Currencies (Remix)" by R.E.M. and "If You Want Blood (You've Got It)" by AC/DC for season 2, "Mixed Emotions" by the Rolling Stones for season 3, and "Fast Slow Disco" by St. Vincent for season 4.

The Bear premiered on FX on Hulu in the United States on June 23, 2022, and became available internationally in the Star hub on Disney+. The 10-episode second season was released on June 22, 2023. Along with other Hulu content, The Bear became available to stream on Disney+ in the United States via the Hulu hub on December 6, 2023. The third season was released on June 26, 2024. The fourth season was released on June 25, 2025. A surprise special flashback episode, "Gary," was released on May 5, 2026 on Hulu. Since 2022, The Bear has had a consistent annual release schedule, usually premiering a new season in northern hemisphere summer (June).

The Bear has received critical acclaim. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the overall series holds a 93% rating. On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the overall series has received a score of 83 out of 100.

For the first season, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 100% based on 82 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Like an expertly confected sandwich, The Bear assembles a perfect melange of ingredients and stacks them for optimal satisfaction—and thankfully keeps the crust-iness for extra flavor." Metacritic gave it a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 based on 24 critic reviews.

The American Film Institute named it one of the ten best television programs of the year. The Guardian named it number one of the best 100 TV shows of 2022 and described it as "the best workplace drama since Mad Men". The Bear appeared in the top ten on numerous publications' "Best of 2022" lists, including first for The A.V. Club, BBC, People, and TVLine, among others.

On Rotten Tomatoes, 99% of 113 critic reviews are positive for the second season. The site's critical consensus reads, "Instead of reinventing the menu, The Bear's second season wisely opts to toss its lovable characters into another frying pan of adversity, lets 'em cook, and serves up yet another supremely satisfying dish." Metacritic assigned it a weighted average score of 92 out of 100 based on 43 critic reviews.

For the second year in a row, the American Film Institute named The Bear one of the ten best television programs of the year. The Bear appeared on many publications' lists of the best TV shows of 2023, including Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, and People, among others.

On Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 104 critics gave the third season a positive review. The website's critics consensus states, "Having set an exceedingly high standard of excellence for itself, The Bear spends its third season simmering, stewing, and giving off an aroma that whets the appetite." The website also reported that the season was "as audacious as ever" and it "still seems to continue delivering compelling and often intense television with performances that are so dependably brilliant that they're not even mentioned in most of the reviews. Instead, at this point in a show's life, it's easier to find faults in its sameness or changes, or in its attempts to repeat or outdo itself." Metacritic assigned it a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 based on 45 critic reviews.

On Rotten Tomatoes, 84% of 86 critics gave the fourth season a positive review. The website's critics consensus reads, "After simmering for too long, The Bear's fourth season finally turns the heat back up with a renewed sense of urgency, serving a rich meal despite tiresome wait times between courses." Metacritic assigned it a weighted average score of 72 out of 100 based on 40 critic reviews.

The classification of The Bear as a comedy in certain award ceremonies, specifically the Primetime Emmys, has attracted criticism, given its dramatic style and focus on heavy topics. Proponents of the series' categorization as "comedy" argue that the show unfolds as a dark comedy marked by ridiculous situations and comedic timing, relies on the comedic effect inherent to chaos, is a comedy of errors and is heavily characterized by back-and-forth banter or snark.

In 2024, the series became the most-nominated series in comedy categories at the Emmys with 23 nominations, surpassing 30 Rock which had 22 nominations in 2009. However, it went on to lose the award for Outstanding Comedy Series, which it had been heavily favored to win, to Hacks, with The Hollywood Reporter suggesting that there was an insult among voters over its continued classification as a comedy. In June 2025, Vulture published an article, claiming that "an undercurrent of industry resentment" over the show's lack of comedic content led to its 2024 Comedy Series Emmy loss.

The streaming aggregator Reelgood, which monitors real-time data from 5 million users in the U.S. for original and acquired streaming programs and movies across subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) and ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) services, reported that The Bear was the second-most-streamed program during the week of July 13. It later rose to become the most-streamed program for the week of July 22, before ranking as the seventh most-streamed during the week of July 27. JustWatch, a guide to streaming content with access to data from more than 20 million users around the world, estimated that The Bear was the second most-streamed series in the U.S. during the week ending July 3. It maintained the same position during the week ending July 17. FX announced that the first season of The Bear was the most-watched comedy series in the network's history.

FX reported that the second season of The Bear was the most-watched season premiere in the network's history. Reelgood calculated that The Bear was the second most-streamed program in the U.S. during the week of June 22. It later rose to first place during the week of June 29. JustWatch reported that The Bear was the most-streamed series in the U.S. during the week ending June 25. Whip Media, which tracks viewership data for the more than 25 million worldwide users of its TV Time app, announced that The Bear was the eighth most-watched streaming original television series of 2023.

The season 3 premiere of The Bear garnered 5.4 million views in its first four days of streaming, marking the best performance for an FX premiere on Hulu and the most-watched season premiere for any scripted series on the platform. This viewership represents a 24% increase over the season 2 premiere and accounts for streaming on Hulu, Hulu on Disney+ in the U.S., and Disney+ in available international territories. The Bear achieved the third-largest season premiere for Hulu overall and the biggest Hulu on Disney+ premiere since the bundle's launch on March 27. Nielsen Media Research, which records streaming viewership on U.S. television screens, calculated that The Bear was watched for 1,233 million minutes from June 24—30. It surpassed its previous peak of 1.01 billion minutes recorded shortly after the premiere of its second season the previous year. JustWatch reported that The Bear was the third most-streamed show in the United States in 2024, while in Canada, it ranked as the second most-streamed show of the year.

• Food of The Bear (TV series)

• Bibliography of The Bear (TV series)

• Nikolova, Zlatina (July 2025). "'Every second counts': Urban affect and culinary chaos in The Bear". The Journal of Popular Television. 13 (1): 43–59. doi:10.1386/jptv_00135_1. ISSN 2046-9861.

• Official website

• The Bear on Hulu

• The Bear on Disney+

• The Bear at What's On Disney+

• The Bear at IMDb

• Rotten Tomatoes TV (May 31, 2022). The Bear Season 1 Trailer – via YouTube.

• Rotten Tomatoes TV (May 16, 2023). The Bear Season 2 Trailer – via YouTube.

• Rotten Tomatoes TV (May 29, 2024). The Bear Season 3 Trailer – via YouTube.

• Rotten Tomatoes TV (May 20, 2025). The Bear Season 4 Trailer – via YouTube.