Nominally, The Bear is the hyperrealistic story of life behind the scenes in a restaurant, one that kitchen veterans have called one of the closest things they’ve seen to the real thing. Especially compared to the marathon lengths of the two recent drops of Stranger Things episodes. All eight episodes debuted at once, and each is around a half-hour, give or take, making a binge of the entire season, not a very tough lift. The Bear is what would have been an “FX on Hulu” show before that branding was dropped it is showing exclusively on Hulu. Hiro Murai, the primary director of Atlanta, is among the executive producers, which is apropos, since The Bear announces the arrival of a voice behind the camera, on television, like no one since Murai back in Atlanta‘s early seasons. Most of Storer’s credits are from directing comedy specials, although he did direct episodes of Ramy and Dickinson. The show was created by Christopher Storer, who also directed five of the eight episodes. The story of a chef suddenly taking over the Chicago neighborhood sandwich shop owned by his late brother is equal parts funny, tense, sad, poignant, and, most of all, authentic.Īnd beyond that, it’s the sort of thing that makes me think its creator is destined for great things, possibly even in the movies. The Bear, an eight-episode series that debuted on Hulu in late June, is the first streaming show in recent memory that was so good that I finished it and wanted to immediately watch it again. We watch shows, we finish them up, sometimes within the span of a couple of days, and then we don’t think about them again until the next season, sometimes two or three years later. The problem with so much streaming TV these days is that it’s so ephemeral. Is The Bear the best suprirse hit of 2022?

Elliott smith either or fanart.tv