Television and cooking shows are two realities that cannot be dissociated. As long as one exists, the other does too, and it makes sense. It takes many hours of production to fill a schedule, and cooking shows are cheap to produce, practical, and suitable for the whole family. That’s why they are popular both among the audience and the networks. Because it’s hard not to have one for every person.
That doesn’t mean that everything that happens in the kitchen works. Because although cooking shows have always done well on television, there is something that has always eluded them. There has never been a great fiction series on television about the world of cooking.
The problem is that the fiction between stoves is not as cheap to produce as its real counterpart. Producing a series where the drama revolves around the reality of cooks or a kitchen is just as expensive as any other series and, in principle, is less attractive than other already proven formulas. Or more interesting premises. That’s why it’s not surprising that there hasn’t been any major cooking series. Or that there hasn’t been one until very recently.
The Bear is the cooking series you should be watching
The Bear, which premiered its first season in 2022, is a psychological drama with touches of comedy about a chef who inherits his family’s sandwich shop after the suicide of his brother, Michael. Leaving behind his work in Michelin-starred restaurants, he decides to turn family trauma, his own pain, and the restaurant into something that honors his family’s memory and pays tribute to what he has learned during his time working for some of the best chefs in the world.
The key to why it has worked is, like many of these prestigious series, the quality of its writing and direction. Very well crafted, knowing how to emphasize the drama, the journey of turning the restaurant, the titular The Bear, into the new sensation of the city is as significant as the lives of its characters. This is something that is aided by its actors.
It is undeniable that much of the success of The Bear rests on the shoulders of Jeremy Allen White. A 34-year-old actor who made his debut in 2006 and has since been weaving minor roles in both television and film. It wasn’t until 2011 that, being one of the protagonists of the dramedy Shameless, he would manage to stand out in the acting world. Leading to him landing the role of Carmen Berzatto, the protagonist of The Bear, in 2022.
Since then, his career has clearly taken off. Playing Kerry Von Erich in the extraordinary The Iron Claw, and portraying Bruce Springsteen and Rotta the Hutt in the upcoming Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere and The Mandalorian and Grogu, it is evident that his career has soared since The Bear.
Something that can also be seen in the number of awards that both the series and he in particular have garnered. Being one of the most awarded series at the Golden Globes in recent years, while being nominated and awarded in practically all the major television awards in the US, the importance of The Bear in the current landscape is absolutely undeniable. Or the quality it has managed to maintain over the last three seasons.
A fourth season you can’t miss
What can we expect from this fourth season? Considering how the third one ended, it is to be expected that the Chicago Tribune’s review did not go too well. We also know that Sydney Adamu, who spent the entire third season serving as the restaurant’s creative and ethical compass, has the opportunity to create something of her own. All of this while the survival of the establishment hangs by a thread, making it unclear whether everything will fall apart and to what extent.
That is to say, we can expect drama. A lot and very good. Although when it comes to The Bear, it is also likely that some of these stories will not conclude in this season. And that some unexpected conflicts will occur.
If you haven’t seen The Bear until now, or if you’re eager to watch the fourth season, you’re in luck. Because it comes out on Wednesday, June 25. Today, as we publish this article. So you won’t have any excuse not to start watching it right away, whether from the beginning to catch up as soon as possible, or from the fourth season if you’ve already seen all the previous ones. Because if a series is working within the fiction of the kitchen, that is The Bear.
