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.

The first season was released in its entirety on FX on Hulu on June 23, 2022. The second, third and fourth seasons were released in June 2023, June 2024, and June 2025, respectively. A standalone special episode was released on May 5, 2026, starring Moss-Bachrach and Jon Bernthal, and focused solely on their characters. The fifth and final season was released on June 25, 2026.

The series has received critical acclaim for its performances, writing, directing, visual style, soundtrack, and production values. Also, many real-life culinary professionals have praised the show for its sense of urgency and realistic depiction of the physical, emotional, and financial demands of restaurant life. The Bear has received many accolades, including 22 Primetime Emmy Awards (including Outstanding Comedy Series) and five Golden Globe Awards (including Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy).

Premise Talented haute cuisine chef Carmy Berzatto inherits his family's Italian beef sandwich shop after his older brother Michael's suicide. He returns 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.

Cast and characters

Jeremy Allen White as Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto, also referred to as "Bear", 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, also referred to as "Cousin", 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's and Carmy's mentoring. Liza Colón-Zayas as Tina Marrero, an acerbic and stubborn line cook who eventually embraces the opportunity to train professionally. Abby Elliott as Natalie "Sugar" Berzatto, Carmy's and Michael's sister, the reluctant co-owner and business manager of The Beef/The Bear. Matty Matheson as Neil Fak (seasons 2–5, recurring season 1), a quirky childhood friend of the Berzattos, and occasional handyman for the restaurant. Edwin Lee Gibson as Ebraheim (seasons 4–5, recurring seasons 1–3), a Somali veteran line cook at The Beef who is close with Tina.

Episodes 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. Christopher Storer told reporters in 2023, "Season 2 is sort of where the show properly begins, once we've met everyone and seen their backstory." There is an opening credits sequence, each with a distinct montage and song selection, in episode 7 "Review," episode 14 "Fishes," episode 17 "Omelette," and episode 20 "Next." The mean running time is 35 minutes per episode. The episode with the shortest runtime is "Review" (20 minutes). The longest episode is "Bears" (70 minutes).

Season 1 (2022)

Season 2 (2023)

Season 3 (2024)

Season 4 (2025)

Special (2026) Surprise prequel episode that follows Richie and Mikey on a day trip to Gary, Indiana.

Season 5 (2026)

Production

Development 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. The pilot was filmed in July 2021. FX then ordered the series in October 2021 for a 2022 premiere. 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 10-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 and final season of eight episodes.

Writing The Bear of the title refers to an actual bear that appears in a dream sequence in the pilot episode, Carmy's nickname "Bear" (derived from his surname), the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cubs, maybe the whole city metonymically, the name of the new restaurant, Carmy's girlfriend's nickname, the collective noun for the extended family, and can be interpreted as a metaphor for trauma. The show's themes include masculinity and father figures, team sports and collaboration, menswear and good taste, filmmaking and creativity, addiction and intergenerational transfer of maladaptive behaviors, the importance of a good wine list, the importance of strong institutions, the importance of regulatory easing for small business owners, gentrification and class warfare, Catholic mysticism, scars and ghosts and grief, women without men, mothers and women laboring, women in the workplace, dreams, and love.

Creative Screenwriting magazine wrote in 2025, "...the dialogue in The Bear unfurls as poetrya meditation, a stream of consciousness, a series of fragmented thoughts. It's messy, natural speech." The dialogue is rich with profanityone reviewer described it as a "symphony of swearing."

Filming 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, Ever, 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.

Cinematography 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. The show is shot with digital Alexa Mini LF cameras and Panavision lenses. Two flashback episodes, "Fishes" and "Gary", were shot using film. The show frequently uses handheld cameras.

Notable production staff Jeanie Bacharach is The Bear casting director. The Bears lead costume designer is Courtney Wheeler; assistant costume designer is Lariana Santiago. Ally Vickers heads the hair department. The production designer is Merje Veski. Eric Frankel heads the set decoration department. The Chicago-based prop master is Laura Roeper, sister of Chicago Sun-Times film critic Richard Roeper. The art director is Lisa Korpan. The Ballbreaker video game was designed by Brooklyn-based game designer and artist Diego E. Garcia.

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. Chicago artist Denise Dietz and Abacuc Rodriguez of The Bear art department created Carmy's food illustrations and journal sketches.

The film editors who cut the episodes are Joanna Naugle, Adam Epstein, and Megan Mancini. 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 color grading is done by Christian Rush and Mishel Hassidim. Music The Bear soundtrack features 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)", "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' "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 introduced opera and classical music onto the soundtrack. The season 5 score was composed by Christian Lundberg of Bleeding Fingers Music, and produced by Bleeding Fingers co-founder Hans Zimmer.

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, "Fast Slow Disco" by St. Vincent for season 4, and "Love, Reign o'er Me" by The Who for season 5.

Release 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 U.S. 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. The fifth season was released on June 25, 2026, on FX on Hulu, with a weekly broadcast on FX beginning the same day, making it the first returning FX on Hulu series to receive a simultaneous broadcast on FX following a change in the latter's programming release strategy.

Reception Critical response