Over the years, many shows have taken a crack at everyday life and the portrayal of anxiety as a working-class citizen. From Cheers to Grey’s Anatomy, there is just something intriguing about watching other people live their lives and go through their own dramas and embarrassments. That daily marriage of comedy and anxiety is what FX’s new show is trying to showcase with The Bear. However, this isn’t all that makes the show incredible; the show’s authenticity and the actor’s dedications add to that.

To prepare for his role as a high-end chef, Shameless actor, Jeremy Allen White went full method. He took two weeks of cooking school and worked in Michelin-rated restaurants under incredible chefs from Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. White stated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he had “never studied a skill that much for any other job.” He specifically studied with amazing chef Dave Brenan and was allowed to “cook on the line during busy nights” and was grateful that they “really let [him] in.” White wanted to strive for authenticity in his performance, and with such preparation, he just might achieve it.

But the show’s depth knows no bounds because producer Calo discussed with EW how she strove for The Bear to showcase what restaurant culture is really like, even in the smallest of businesses. Consulting producer Matty Matheson shared many stories that served as inspiration for the show. Calo states that the stories he gave them were “insane [and] not only about what people are willing to put themselves through but just the work ethic and the ways in which that ethic can both soothe and sort of help you evade any emotional processing, which kind of was perfect for [the] show.”

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Calo went on in her interview to discuss how shocking it was to discover the amount of intensity that came with the restaurant business. “The stories that Matty would tell always involved a lot of violence and insanity then also love…there’s so much love there and a lot of kindness to each other, and those kitchens do become family.” Calo felt impressed by the way that the restaurant staff work such incredibly long, stressful hours and never stop. “They can’t stop. If they stop at all, if they give up at all, it just all goes to sh-t”. Calo hopes to be able to showcase all the pieces of the culture of restaurants and do them justice.​​​​​​​

Here is everything we know about FX’s The Bear.

The Bear: The Plot

The show has the makings for great dramedy, although it’s being marketed as mainly a comedy. As stated in a press release for the show:

“The Bear follows Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) a young chef from the fine-dining world, who comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop — The Original Beef of Chicagoland — after a heartbreaking death in his family.” Carmy, so far away from the world he has grown accustomed to is left to deal with the “realities of small business ownership, his strong-willed and recalcitrant kitchen staff all while grappling with the impact of his brother’s suicide.”

While the show will deal with many topics, ultimately it will be “about food, family, the insanity of the grind, the beauty of Sense of Urgency and the steep slippery downsides.” As White describes in an interview with TV Insider, Carmy will soon realize that he is “trying to change something that might not be broken” and ultimately finds his chosen family in his employees and reconciled family members.

The Bear: Cast & Crew

The FX and Hulu show will be directed by the director of Ramy and Eighth Grade, Christopher Storer, who also serves as an executive producer for the show. He is also a writer of the series along with newcomer Alex O’Keefe. He is joined in his executive producing duties by Joana Calo (BoJack Horseman, 2015-2020), Josh Senior (Bo Burnham: Inside, 2021), Nate Matteson (Station Eleven, 2021-2022), and Hiro Murai (Atlanta, 2016-2022). Tyson Bidner will serve as producer, known for producing Hulu’s Ramy (2019-2020).

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The series is star-studded with amazing talents. White leads the cast as main character Carmy Berzatto. White previously played Lip Gallagher for 11 seasons on the award-winning show Shameless (2011-2021). He is joined by Chris Witaske, an alum of The Second City Theatre in Chicago and most recently seen in Netflix’s original The Wrong Missy (2020). Ebon Moss-Bachrach can also be seen on the show. Fans will recognize Bachrach from The Punisher (2017), Girls (2014-2017), and The Dropout (2022).

The cast is rounded out by Abby Elliot (Cheaper by the Dozen, 2022), Ayo Edebiri (Dickinson, 2021), Lionel Boyce (The Jellies!, 2017-2019), Liza Colón-Zayas (In Treatment, 2021), and Edwin Lee Gibson (Fargo, 2020). Celeb chef Matty Matheson will also star in a recurring role in the show and be a consulting producer.

Release Date

The show will release in half-hour installments in its entirety on Hulu exclusively on June 23, 2022, this summer.