The Bear: Back For Seconds, Funnier, Richer and Only a Notch Less Anxiety-Filled

By Karen Gordon

Rating: A

For streaming series, the first season is, in relative terms, the easy part.  The show sets up its premise, introduces characters, and generally creates the rules that establish its existence and define its parameters.  

It’s all new, and so for the audience, it is often a season of constant surprises. 

The harder part comes with Season Two.  And for a series that has become an instant hit, the question is, can it sustain all that as the series continues? 

This is the challenge facing The Bear.  Thanks to sharp writing, and direction, note-perfect casting, and superb acting, the show became a phenomenon. Can it deliver on the addictive charisma of the first season, while doing deeper dives into the issues it set up without losing its momentum? 

Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) take stock of the establishment.

Although classed as a comedy, the show - about a group of people working at a Chicago lunch restaurant - ran at a high pitch of intensity and angst.  It has been described as a show about workplace anxiety, and that's a huge part of the series. The Bear is, in part, about how work shapes us, or can transform us.

It's also about how this odd group of people in daily crisis, but who, at the end of that day, wouldn’t quit the job, or each other for that matter. At the heart of it all, The Bear is also about relationships— the ties that bind,  the effect that those have on who we are, and who we can become, for better or for worse.

The series centers around Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto played by the superb Jeremy Allen White.

Carmy is an award-winning chef, who leaves his job at a a Michelin-star restaurant in Manhattan, and moves home to take over The Beef, his family’s eatery in Chicago, after his brother, Mikey  (Jon Bernthal) commits suicide.  Family and family tragedy has drawn him back. But in spite of his success, he’s dragging an emotional suitcase full of anxiety and what seems to be PTSD from the pressure of the work. 

Carmy, who co-owns The Beef with his sister Natalie Berzatto (Abby Elliott), arrives to find the restaurant deeply in the red, and the  staff in a state of chaos. 

The chaos starts with his ‘cousin’ Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) a man in a permanent rage. The rag-tag staff is still loyal to Mikey and resistant to change, to the point where one staffer, Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) is in a state of permanent belligerence and seems willing to sabotage the whole place. 

And then there’s his uncle Jimmy “Cicero” Malinowski (Oliver Platt), who is a major investor in the restaurant and has his own opinions.

Also in the mix, a talented serious minded young chef, Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri ) who can see how the place could be saved if it started to act like a normal restaurant, with a certain hierarchy.   

There were, to understate things, tensions. 

But underneath it all, there was the quiet hum of grief over the death of Mikey, something that (although is never really spoken about) is the line that connects most of the characters.

Rather than fire everyone, Carmy keeps things running,with  Syd trying to impose a new, more professional and organized culture on the place. By the end of the season, the culture in The Beef had evolved. The season ended with Carmy announcing the closure of The Beef and the opening of a new restaurant called The Bear. 

So, as Season Two begins, the Beef is no more.

The sign comes down, the restaurant is being gutted with Richie, Neil Fan (Canadian Chef Matty Matheson, who is a surprisingly good actor) and a few others actively involved in construction.  Sydney asks Natalie to overcome her resistance to working in the restaurant and become project manager for the new place.  Uncle Jimmy is hit up for a loan with a guarantee that could ultimately sink the whole project. An incredibly ambitious opening date is chosen, giving them three months to get it all done. And Carmy and Sydney begin to develop recipes.

But even though the storyline revolves around the new restaurant, based on the first four episodes, the season is focusing on each of the key characters. Tina and Ezra (Edwin Lee Gibson), will get a chance to push themselves.  Marcus is sent to Copenhagen to work with a pastry Chef Luca (Will Poulter).  

(Poulter is the first of many name actors who will be making guest appearances in Season Two, including Olivia Colman, Jamie Lee Curtis as Carmy and Natalie’s mother, and Bob Odenkirk as her sometime boyfriend).

For Sydney and Carmy, the changes are more personal. Sydney is working things through with her father (Robert Townsend), who is not happy with the precariousness of her career direction. And Carmy bumps into an old friend Claire (Molly Gordon), and something romantic begins. 

There is less intensity than in the first season. It would be impossible for the show to keep that up without burning out the audience, never mind the characters. And the renovations allow for opportunities to remind us that the series has a comedy vibe to it.  

For fans of the series, and I’m one of them, It feels good to connect with these characters again.  The acting is once again a strong point.

But the anchor of The Bear is the performance of Jeremy Allen White as Carmy. Carmy is the heart and soul of the  restaurant, and of the series. He’s a quiet serious guy who doesn’t reveal much, and yet when he’s on camera, he has our full attention.  

There’s a layer of calm to him. But below that appears to be an ocean of things yet to surface and be resolved.  

There's a whole crew of talent behind The Bear, the excellent writers, the production design, the direction and of course, the fine cast.

But it's White's performance that holds the center of the show, and makes us want to stay and know more. 

The Bear, Season Two. Starring Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas, Abby Elliott, Oliver Platt, Matty Matheson. Begins streaming Wednesday, July 19 on Disney +