Since its first season began streaming in 2022, fans of The Bear have debated whether the series, about chefs and other food service workers in a Chicago restaurant undergoing a radical change in style, is a comedy or a drama. Everyone, however, agrees that The Bear is perhaps the most stressful scripted television show ever made. 

Created by Christopher Storer, an alum of the great Hulu series Ramy, the series begins with prize-winning young chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White from Shameless) returning to Chicago to take over the family-owned sandwich shop after the suicide of his beloved older brother Mikey. Carmy and his protege Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) try to bring some high cuisine approaches to this old standard, much to the skepticism of Mikey loyalists Richie (Ebon Moss-Bacharach) and Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas), even as Carmy and Sydney’s innate anxiety makes it difficult for either of them to take the lead. 

Binge-released to minimal fanfare in one of TV’s slower months, The Bear quickly went viral. It struck an emotional chord with viewers who could appreciate the intense emotions bouncing around the kitchen, even if their own workplaces had nothing to do with cooking. The series quickly won acclaim and awards (its first season alone earned 10 Emmy wins out of 13 nominations), even if not everyone agrees what category it should have gotten those awards for. Great is great, period.