“The Bear,” the FX/Hulu series starring Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, and Ebon Moss Bacharach, is shooting seasons 3 and 4 back to back. Instead of showing them all at once, FX will air them over a two year period, drawing them out and letting its stars work on their respective movie projects. A fifth season is still rumored, and it could be the final one.
I actually love this show. It’s about a young chef, from the fine dining world, who comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop after his brother dies. The first season was almost entirely set inside a tiny nerve-wrecking kitchen space. It felt like something The Safdies would concoct on the small screen: a gritty, soul-crushing realism that managed to fit in small business ownership, strong-willed kitchen staff and strained familial relationships all into one.
The second season was about them packing up shop as they get ready to move over to their new venture, presumably purchased with all that tomato can money. It was short, sweet, and incredibly well-directed and acted. There was also that very memorable standalone sixth episode, which ran for 67 minutes, and was set five years before the show began.
It helps that the performances, led by Jeremy Allen White, feel authentic — not to mention creator Christopher Storer’s effervescent knack for “gutter poetry.” But, really, the entire cast is just aces: Ayo Edebiri, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Abby Elliott, Oliver Platt, Matty Matheson, and many other notables. “The Bear” season 3 is set to air in June 2024.