There is one thing that we all have in common as viewers of The Bear: since we started watching it, whenever we have to cook even a chicken breast, we shout “Yes, chef!” with the enthusiasm we would have in a Michelin-starred kitchen. In fact, there is no one who has worked in a place like this restaurant who doesn’t say it is an uplifting experience, yes, but also terrible and terrifying. And despite the anxiety attacks, the nerves, the shouting, and the mental chaos, the best example of the decay of working in a kitchen like this can be found far from Disney+.
Yes, chef, in a single shot, chef!
If you haven’t been living under a rock in 2025, you will know perfectly well what Adolescencia is, the Netflix marvel in which, in four episodes shot in a single take, we explore the reaction of teenagers to incel culture and the manosphere. It is a complex work that was very difficult to pull off, but somehow, it did, winning over the international audience… In part because its creator, Stephen Graham, had the perfect team to create incredible single takes and not die trying.
And it is that, in 2021, the actor, screenwriter, and director already released ¡Hierve!, a breathtaking marvel in a single shot that takes place entirely in a restaurant kitchen for 92 minutes where stopping is not an option, problems go from bad to worse and its protagonist is unable to stop the heart-pounding pace for even a moment. In fact, The Bear draws heavily from ¡Hierve! in terms of the treatment of mental illnesses among chefs, the nerve of living in a kitchen, and the suffering of a job that should be idyllic.
That said: Graham alone (“alone”) is the protagonist of the movie, he is not involved, as in Adolescence, in script or production tasks. The director is none other than Philip Barantini, who has also taken charge of the Netflix series (it’s the same team, after all) and whom the streamer has already hired to shoot the highly anticipated (well, more or less) Enola Holmes 3. And although this series has shattered everything we thought about series in 2025 (and their comfort, bending to the algorithm) into a thousand pieces, I personally still maintain that the key is in ¡Hierve!
Make way, I’m burning
But, if you don’t want to watch a movie and feel more comfortable in a series format, you’re in luck, because Barantini himself made a sequel to ¡Hierve! that serves as a perfect complement to The Bear and featured four episodes in a single shot. Stephen Graham also appears in this, but as a very secondary character, which makes sense considering the ending of the original movie. In Spain, it can be seen on Movistar Plus+, although in just two years everyone seems to have forgotten about it (unjustly).
¡Hierve! has even more merit considering that they could only make four complete shots before having to close due to COVID. They originally planned to make eight, but they had no choice but to choose from what they had. The only doubt many of us have is to know if the team formed through this type of production will continue filming exclusively in long takes (like in the upcoming season 2 of Adolescencia) or, perhaps, they have some other narrative trick up their sleeve.
For now, whether you have enjoyed The Bear or are a bit fed up with Carmy and his misfit cooking, you have a new opportunity to get excited about elite cuisine in ¡Hierve!, both in movie and series versions… Or, why not, the short film that started it all and to which everyone involved owes so much. That said, a warning: the next time you go out to eat, you might want to give a hug to every waiter and cook. Just in case they need it.