‘The Bear’ Is (Really!) the Best Sports Show on TV – The Wall Street Journal

One of the most talked-about TV shows of the summer is “The Bear,” an eight-episode FX series on Hulu about an acclaimed chef who returns to his home city of Chicago to try and turn his late brother’s beef sandwich joint into a more elevated dining establishment. Those sound like low stakes, but “The Bear” delivers far more. It’s already been celebrated as a master class of acting, writing and directing; as a traumatically accurate rendering of kitchen life; as a stirring example (in these work-from-home times) of the magic and peril that happen when talented people face extreme pressure in cramped spaces.

Frantic and claustrophobic, “The Bear” is a show for anyone who’s ever wondered what really goes on in the back of a restaurant (short answer: you do and don’t want to know). It has the side effect of teaching actual cooking technique and jargon. It won’t be long before you’re carefully attending to simmering stocks and saying “chef” to everyone passing through your kitchen as a term of respect/affection, as in Yes, chef and Thank you, chef.