Series / The Bear (2022)

"Let it rip." ^{From left to right:} Marcus, Richie, Carmy, Sydney, Tina, Natalie, Ebraheim. Not pictured: Fak.

"It would be weird to work in a restaurant and not completely lose your mind."

— Sydney Adamu

The Bear is an FX Networks Dramedy created by Christopher Storer, first aired in 2022. It stars Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas, and Abby Elliott. As of November 6, 2023, the series has been renewed for a third season.

Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto is a James Beard Award-winner who used to work at the best fine dining restaurants in America. Now, he runs The Original Beef of Chicagoland, a Greasy Spoon left to him by his brother Michael, who died by suicide. Dealing with a failing business and a staff that doesn't understand or respect him, Carmy struggles to turn things around and keep his brother's legacy alive.

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This series provides examples of:

• Actually a Good Idea: At the birthday party, Richie mocks all the fruit Carmy is slicing until he hears what it's for:
  Carmy: Homemade Ecto Cooler, motherfucker.
  Richie: *beat* That fuckin' rips, actually.
• Angry Chef: Just about every one at the Beef, except for Marcus, is incredibly hot tempered and are constantly clashing with each other. This is less due to their temperament and more the stressful, horrible conditions — when things go smooth, they're generally all kind people, with the exception of Richie (who is also dealing with grief).
• Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear if the abusive chef actually told Carmy "You should be dead." Notably his face isn't in the frame when Carmy hears the words, unlike all the other insults when he is clearly shown saying them. Considering the problem is over broken sauces, it also seems over the top even for a guy who makes Gordon Ramsey look like Fred Rogers.
• Arc Words: For season 2: "Every second counts."
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: "Fishes" is a flashback episode revealing the entire Berzatto clan is a mess of neuroses, addiction issues, mental health problems, and a breathtaking lack of anger management, culminating in Mikey almost coming to blows with his mom's partner and matriarch Donna crashing her car into the family living room.
• Bittersweet Ending: Season 2. Despite several setbacks, Friends and Family dinner is a success, with Jimmy and Emmanuel both especially impressed and Sydney and Richie making it through tough challenges. After some awkwardness, Syd and Marcus seem to be on good terms again. Donna has a Heel Realization and steers clear of The Bear to avoid ruining the evening, and Pete keeps her secret. But Carmy has an Accidental Confession in front of Claire that sends her running off in tears and then gets into a subsequent argument with Richie. Furthermore, Marcus misses urgent texts about his mother's health, and it's unclear if the restaurant will survive past its opening week.
• Bland-Name Product: Sydney is determined to get “a star” for the restaurant (in season 2) and is obviously talking about a Michelin Star rating, though they never actually say that.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Inverted, in an "all sides have faults" way in episode 7. Sydney makes a very significant (but understandable) mistake with the tablet to go system, leaving on pre-orders that hit the restaurant with huge amounts of food required by the time they open. Likewise Marcus is behind on cakes because he's focusing on donuts. Carmy is right to be upset with both of them, but he takes it way too far because he is still dealing with severe grief, leading them both to walk out. It's the kind of moment that only happens because everyone has already been on a very thin edge for too long-something similar was bound to happen eventually.
• Bottle Episode: Aside from the opening, most of Episode 7 is filmed in a long take in the BOH.
• Black Comedy: The series has been advertised as both a comedy and a drama, both are correct. When Carmy has Sydney lay out the brigade system, Ebraheim says he was in a brigade once, and Sydney asked what happened. Clearly meaning the other kind of brigade, Ebraheim says "a lot of people died." His quiet delivery and the fact that no one comments on this is what sells it.
• Brick Joke: In Episode 7, Carmy repeatedly asks for a working sharpie, then destroys the ticket printer in a fit of rage. In Episode 8, somebody found a working sharpie, and wrote "Carmy is an asshole" on the broken printer.
• Call-Back:
  • In "System," Richie complains about Carmy not making spaghetti. Later, in the Season 1 finale "Braciole," the last note Mikey left for Carmy turns out to contain a spaghetti recipe that suggests using small cans of tomatoes. Carmy and the staff open all the cans they have in stock and find cash hidden in all of them.
  • In Episode 7, Carmy freaks out at Marcus's behavior during the rush by throwing the doughnut he was making on the floor. In the following episode, Marcus and Sydney repeatedly refer to Carmy as a "little bitch" for his behavior. In Season 2, Episode 9 "Omelette", Marcus debuts his new dessert for Carmy and Sydney, which he labels "Sydney's Donut (After Carm Destroyed It Like a Little Bitch)". An amused Sydney remarks they can work on the name.
  • In the series premiere, Richie derisively refers to Carmy as an "Eleven Madison Park dickhead", referring to his background in fine dining. In "Bolognese", after having spent the previous episode staging at a fine dining restaurant and finding the joy in it, he apologizes to Carmy, admitting he now gets it, to which Carmy sneakily repeats the insult right back at him.
  • In "Fishes", Cicero shares with Richie's then-wife Tiffany a fond memory he has of eating chocolate covered bananas with his father. In the Season 2 finale "The Bear", Cicero receives a gift during dinner courtesy of Richie: a chocolate covered banana, a gesture that clearly moves Cicero.^note Richie was present for this conversation but likely wasn't paying much attention. Up to this point, his and Cicero's relationship has been marked with conflict, but by revealing to Cicero he remembers this stray detail, he's shown that he's truly become a kinder and more considerate person.
  • The first ten minutes or so of "The Bear" is a callback to "Review": both episodes deal with the restaurant in a uniquely busy situation where personality conflicts can threaten order in the kitchen. Additionally, we have the visual callback with the entire sequence being one-take, although unlike "Review" it does not last for the whole episode. Sydney is also clearly still traumatized by the machine spitting out order tickets from "Review", as shown when she nearly panics staring at it while trying to figure out what to do, and she imagines it continuing to print tickets even after service is done.
  • In "Fishes," Carmy is asked about his time in Copenhagen, to which he mentions sleeping on a house boat and "feeding an invisible cat." In "Honeydew," Marcus ends up sleeping on the same house boat, feeding the same cat (that still never appears), and relates these to his ill mother when he calls home.
• Career Versus Man: A rare male example. Opening up and running a restaurant takes a lot of work, and Carmy's burgeoning relationship with Claire offers an alternative, but it's clear that spending time with her is taking too much of his time and attention away from his professional responsibilities. He ends up tacitly choosing his career without being aware that she's listening to him, recognizing that he can't have both at this point in his life.
• Character Development: The entire thrust of season 1 is about Carmy trying to fix the restaurant, which can't be done without changing the attitudes of the people who work there.
  • Tina at first has clear disregard for Sydney, distrusting her and talking bad about her to Ebra. She also makes it very clear that she considers her practical experience (having worked at the restaurant since before Mikey) more important than Sydney's attempts to implement the brigade system. But around episode 4, Sydney wins Tina over and by episode 7, Tina can see Sydney is very upset and repeatedly tries to help her, even seeing through Sydney's anger as "not being her."
  • In a positive and negative way, Marcus is inspired by Carmy and begins to dedicate himself to pastries at a higher level. However, he is unable to balance this with his existing responsibilities, though his actual donuts are praised by both Carmy and Sydney.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Early in Season 1, Ritchie finds a letter from Mikey to Carmy, and as he is furious at Carmy at the time, he hides it behind the employee lockers. At the end of the season, the two reconcile and Ritchie gives him the letter, which contains the clue that money is hidden in the spaghetti sauce.
  • In "Pasta", Natalie warns Carmy that they are low on forks. They run out of forks during their soft opening in the finale, and Sweeps has to go out to buy more.
  • Throughout season 2, other characters keep asking Carmy to call a repairman to fix the restaurant's refrigerator, only for him to get distracted and push it back each time. This comes back to bite him in the finale, when the fridge handle breaks and Carmy gets stuck inside during The Bear's soft opening.
  • Early in season 2, Richie reveals that Mikey once hit such a low point that he tried to burn down The Beef for insurance money. As the renovations proceed, the restaurant keeps failing its fire suppression tests and Fak is stumped on what is going on. He finally has a "Eureka!" Moment when he remembers the arson story and realizes that Mikey must have sabotaged the fire suppression system's control unit and never got around to repair it after the arson scheme failed.
• Chekhov's Gunman: In Season 1, after Carmy tells Sydney that he doesn't want to start serving her proposed risotto dish yet, Sydney gives the risotto plate away to a random customer. That customer turns out to be a newspaper food critic who writes a glowing review of The Beef and specifically mentions the risotto.
• Chekhov's Skill: When Richie is sent to stage at a major upscale restaurant, he spends time shadowing a host responsible for expediting the very complicated, personalized orders, and eventually grasps the pattern of getting the orders out properly. When orders start stacking up at the Bear's soft opening, Richie is able to remember the pattern, take over the expediting station, and get the kitchen working again like a pro.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Every episode is absolutely filled with almost every imaginable profanity, but especially the word "fuck"- which, if you've worked in a kitchen, you'd know is VERY accurate.
  • Season 1 has a whopping 403 uses of the word "fuck" across all 8 episodes.
  • Season 2 has 578 uses of the word "fuck", with an impressive 192 of them coming from episode 6, "Fishes", and 123 in episode 10 "The Bear".
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Richie in season 2. Goes from being a foul mouthed dumbass to working at a fine dining establishment, learning so many tricks of the trade and becoming a bona-fide fine dining professional.
• "Eureka!" Moment: While struggling to fix The Bear's fire suppression system to pass a critical test, Fak sees a scorched picture of Mikey and has a sudden realization; Mikey once bypassed the suppression system when trying to burn the restaurant down for the insurance. Fak is able to reactivate it and they pass the test.
• Experienced Protagonist: Carmy is already an award-winning chef with years of experience in some of the finest kitchens in the world before taking over The Beef.
• Family of Choice:
  • Carmen and Richie aren't related by blood but refer to each other as "cousin" as a sign of how close they are.
  • In a way, the whole restaurant is this — they have a tiny staff of 9 people (10 if you count Fak) which means they all work all day, every day seeing each other probably more than they see anyone else. The restaurant is a terrible place to work at first (and is implied to have been the same under Mikey) yet they choose to stay, partly because some of them have nowhere else to go and to cement this point. They have near-daily family meals together, often bonding over the food.
• Fauxshadowing: "Review" introduces Tina's son Louie, who has been getting into trouble, and she wants Sydney to mentor him in becoming a member of the staff at The Beef. Any kind of development this plot thread would have quickly takes a backseat when the order tickets start coming in.
• Flashback: Carmen regularly experiences these due to his trauma and heavily implied PTSD. We see his time in a toxic workplace, as a world-renowned chef, him and his brother cooking together, as well as other scenes.
• Food Porn: You get to see all levels from world class chefs to sandwich shop workers making the most exquisite dishes from cakes to consomme's to corndogs, each one with closeups of each masterful, artistic step that goes into the creations of the cooking craftsmen. You can practically sense the steamy aromas coming off the screen. Exceptionally well-done (no pun intended) as many of the staff working on this show real-life kitchen experience.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In "Braciole" Carmy finds references to "KBL Electric" in Mikey's documents, which was apparently where the money loaned from Cicero was going. They eventually learn the money was going into the tomato sauce cans, but in the following episode, the Season 2 premiere "Beef", they learn KBL was more specifically an investment opportunity cooked up by Cicero Kalinowski, Mikey (now Carmy) Berzatto, and Lane.
  • Following from that, Carmy asks who "Lane" is, only for Cicero and Natalie to reveal it's "Uncle Lee Lane", much to his displeasure. The audience will find out why in "Fishes."
  • In Season 1, Episode 5 "Sheridan", Carmy asks Tina when Mikey taught her about making a large batch of onions, to which she replies Christmas. He immediately catches that she must have had Christmas dinner with the Berzatto family and asks if his mother was "full psycho". Tina replies, as An Insert reveals Carmy anxiously hitting his hand with a spoon, that she "wasn't calm" but the food was delicious. The exact nature of a Berzatto family Christmas dinner will be revealed in Season 2's "Fishes."
  • Several moments in season 2, people mention that they can't get in contact with Carmy. Not only this causes several issues in the restaurant since they have to do things without his approval and he can't contact the repairman for the fridge door, this is the final nail in the coffin that causes his relationship with Claire to end as he rants about phone reception.
• Freudian Trio: Throughout season one, we see the hot-tempered but street smart Richie (the Id) clash with the formally trained but less personable Sydney (the Superego), with Carmy functioning as the Ego in between them due to a personal background similar to Richie's and a professional background similar to Sydney's.
• Friend Versus Lover: Carmy's burgeoning relationship with Claire causes tension with Sydney, who frequently finds herself getting left alone to make decisions and handle matters while Carmy runs off with his new girlfriend and shunts his responsibilities. They end up arguing about it after Carmy makes a menu change based off of Claire's suggestion, and Carmy apologizes for not being there for her. In the penultimate episode of Season 2, he has a panic attack, and thinking of Claire — who is inextricably linked to his traumatic past — cannot get him out of it, but thinking about Sydney does, proving how important she is in his life.
• Funny Background Event: Somebody used the "C" of the Health Rating and wrote "Carmy" with it, making it less obvious.
• Gilligan Cut: In Dogs, Richie and Carmy are driving to cater a birthday party at Cicero's, and Richie is very clearly not a fan of Cicero. Carmy stresses how important it is that things go smooth and asks Richie not to bring anything up, Richie responds that he will not. The very next second is Richie and Cicero having a very loud and clearly old argument, talking over each other the whole time. Carmy doesn't seem too surprised, and sarcastically thanks Richie.
• Greasy Spoon: The Original Beef is a little sandwich place far from the haute cuisine restuarants Carmy was working at before his brother's death.
• Hash House Lingo: A variant. While the food at the Beef doesn't have many nicknames, the series is a masterclass in showing off kitchen lingo and restaurant terminology, from basic courtesy measures (such as saying "behind" when moving behind someone) to an in-depth explanation of a brigade system.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Everyone on staff, it seems. Carmy spends all his time at the restaurant so he doesn't have to deal with processing his grief (Richie has shades of this as well), which eats him alive. Sydney is impatient to the point she starts making costly mistakes. Marcus fixates on his desserts, trashing the brigade system. And so on.
• Hollywood History: While the show is pretty accurate in its depiction of how the restaurant industry works, its depiction of Chicago is a different story.
  • There's a recurring theme in the first season regarding gentrification and its effect on the neighborhood. The show is set in 2022: while gentrification is an issue in Chicago, River North has been heavily gentrified for years, compared to the show's depiction of it being dark and gritty.
  • Chicago restaurant inspectors don't give letter grades, unlike the inspector depicted in "Hands." Instead, they fail restaurants if they find any issues that are a threat to public safety.
• Honor Before Reason: The restaurant where Carmy sends Richie to stage is collectively obsessed with providing a perfect dining experience, to the point they'll even forego the check if it means ensuring the customer is happy. It still works out for them because they have an endless supply of reservations and word-of-mouth advertising.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Almost all of the episode titles are One Word Titles, with the only exception so far being the second season's finale The Bear. In addition, all of the titles are name-dropped somewhere within the episode, either verbally by way of the characters or visually through key items.
• Inheritance Backlash: Carmy inherited the Beef from Mikey, so he left his job at one of the best restaurants in the country to run a failing sandwich shop with mountains of debt. However, Mikey had clearly been planning for a change for some time, saving up hundreds of thousands of dollars, leaving it for Carmy to find to change the restaurant). It's made clear that Carmy has a choice to not run the restaurant — Cicero clearly wants to buy it — but he refuses because the restaurant means a lot to him and the others.
• The Inspector Is Coming: In Hands, it's too late — the inspector is already there. Richie is out of his mind but Carmy, having just had the staff clean the place, isn't as worried ... until a pack of cigarettes is found by an oven.
• Intoxication Ensues: While catering a child's birthday party for Cicero, Richie accidently drops his Xanax bottle into the punch bowl, causing the kids to all fall asleep.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Carmy completely goes off on Sydney and Marcus in Review even going so far as to throw the doughnut Marcus had been trying to perfect for weeks at that point, and he definitely went too far in berating them, but he's not wrong to be angry considering that the kitchen has suddenly been put in a severe time crunch and they're focusing on things other than what they're supposed to be doing.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: In "Beef", anxiety about the timeline for paying back Cicero drives Carmy, Sydney and Natalie to pull an all-nighter and draft plans to open The Bear in three months instead of an initial six.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: In season 2, Carmy sends Tina, Ebraheim, Marcus and Ritchie off to get more culinary experience, to prepare for the opening of The Bear. Tina and Ebrahim enroll in culinary school, Marcus stages with a former colleague of Carmy's in Copenhagen, and Ritchie stages with the wait staff at a high-end restaurant in Chicago run by Carmy's former boss.
• Lighter and Softer: Season 2, but this is entirely by design. The cast has learned from the previous season and a number of them Took a Level in Badass; one episode focuses on a character being taught in Europe; another focuses on a character getting a job at a prestigious fine dining establishment. The season also features more obviously humorous moments, usually revolving around the characters' antics clashing with The Bear's launch. The only truly stressful episodes are Episodes 6 and 10, with the former being a flashback episode and the latter being centered around a launch.
• Lonely at the Top: Carmy had an extremely successful fine dining career, but at the time he was semi-estranged from his family, had no friends or girlfriends, and would throw up every morning before work. The only flashback to that part of his life consists of him getting verbally abused by his boss.
• Mean Boss: In a flashback, Carmen recalls being ruthlessly berated by an executive chef over a commis chef's struggles in the middle of an otherwise smooth-running service.
• Meaningful Rename: At the end of Braciole, Carmy decides to rename the Beef to The Bear. It is heavily implied this is what he and Mikey had talked about calling their own place when they were younger.
• Messy Hair: Carmy's hair is often messy to reflect how stressed he is. During a flashback to when he worked at a high class restaurant, his hair is neatly slicked back.
• Mr. Fixit: Fak does repairs about the Beef.
• Never Accepted in His Hometown: Carmy has gained national recognition for his skills and won prestigious culinary awards. Back in Chicago, the only person impressed by his fine dining career is Sydney. The rest are content to call him a snob and make fun of him for it, less because they deny his skills and more because most of them knew him when he was just a kid.
• Never Bareheaded: Sydney is almost always seen wearing a bandana around her head.
• Never My Fault: Sydney. When quitting in "Review," she claims the mess is "not on her", when it is very much the result of her mishandling the options on the to-go tablet which itself was only implemented because of her pressuring Carmy over and over again. Implied this kind of thing happened a lot in her past jobs.
• Nightmare Sequence: Carmy has a number of these throughout season 1 as a result of his unresolved trauma.
  • The opening of System sees Carmy trying to approach a bear in the middle of bridge. The bear slowly approaches him at first, then it bears its teeth and lunges after him. He immediately jolts awake before we can see what happens next.
  • Hands has one where Carmy is seen cooking while giving out orders, trying to keep up with the demand of the printer. Then the printer goes from orders to self-deprecating messages, while flashbacks to his days in a professional kitchen and prior episode's events intersperse with the dream's events. He wakes up when he nearly sets fire to his apartment by cooking random items in his kitchen.
  • Braciole opens with Carmy dreaming he works on a cooking show called The Bear that is very PBS style with bright colors and a studio audience. However, he quickly relates the story of Mike's suicide, which is a Call-Back to the opening of episode 1 (when Carmy dreamt of a bear on a bridge — the bridge Mike killed himself on), and talks about how he feels the restaurant going to him was a fuck you from Mike. Soon, his utensils disappear, he burns himself on a mysteriously hot pot, and calls out for his brother while flashbacks of the last episode, jagged static, and bear behind the camera all intrude on his dream. It eventually jolts him out of sleep and his brother's voice continues to haunt him after he is awake.
• No Antagonist: There is no straight-up villain in the series, as all of the main characters are fundamentally decent people trying to do their best. Even Cicero, who is set up at first to be a loan shark, is very genial and wants the best for Carmy.
• No OSHA Compliance: In season 2, the attempt to transform The Beef into The Bear hits serious snags when the restaurant has to be re-certified and serious health and safety issues are discovered in the building. When they take down some of the drywall, what they discover there is enough for them to consider the building a biohazard till they knock down all the interior walls and do a huge deep clean on the entire building. When they keep failing the fire safety tests, they discover that the fire suppression system has been sabotaged and has not worked for a very long time.
  • OSHA states that all walk-in cooler doors must be openable from the inside, to prevent the exact situation of an employee being trapped within.
• Oh, Crap!: Richie in Braciole. After knocking out a guest the bachelor party Cicero had them host, he realizes that the other guy won't wake up. He's then arrested and told that he could be facing manslaughter charges. Thankful, the guest wakes up from his coma, Richie's charges are reduced to aggravated assault, and Carmy bails him out.
• The Oner:
  • Aside from a few brief scenes at the start, the episode Review is one long shot. According to star Jeremy Allen White, it was done with "no cheating".
  • Approximately the first twelve minutes of the Season 2 finale "The Bear", from Sydney running orders to Carm getting stuck in the walk-in fridge are one long-take.
• One-Shot Character: Will Poulter as Luca in Season 2 Episode 4.
• Only Sane Man: Sydney is typically the most calm and level-headed person in the kitchen.
• Pain to the Ass: Sydney accidentally stabs Richie in the ass in Review, but he manages to walk it off.
• Paying in Coins: To demonstrate the Beef's dire financial situation, the beginning of System has Carmy using a sack of quarters from one of the arcade games to pay for a shipment of beef.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Mikey's suicide causes Carmy to return and start running the Beef.
• Posthumous Character: Carmy's brother, Mikey, died, leaving him the restaurant. Everyone in the cast — from the restaurant workers to their friends and family — are still working through their grief, heartbreakingly so. He almost classifies as The Ghost, although we end up seeing him in some flashbacks, most prominently in Ceres and Fishes.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Carmy. He's stern and can be abrasive, but he understands that the Beef staff is very different from what he's used to and is working on helping them improve.
  • To an extent, Cicero as well. Despite being owed a huge sum of money, he's rather relaxed in getting it paid back and understands what Carmy and Richie are going through (though he still argues with Richie frequently.)
• Shown Their Work: In the first episode, Carmen has to raise money fast to pay for the rest of a beef shipment, doing so by selling off his vintage denim collection. The terminology is completely accurate amongst denim collectors (the products are “Big E”, or very rare Levi’s items), as is Carmen’s explanation for why they lack rivets (copper shortage after World War II).
• "Shut Up!" Gunshot: A crowd of nerds waiting for a video game tournament in The Beef nearly riot, until Richie fires a shot in the air and quiets them down.
• Sleepwalking: Carmen nearly sets his apartment on fire due to his trauma-induced sleepwalking and it’s implied this has happened before.
• Skilled, but Naive: Sydney. She's a quick study and a fantastic chef, but her impatience and lack of experience hampers her attempts to make updates to the Beef.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Pretty much every character in the show swears like a sailor, with Carmy and Richie being the worst offenders.
• Slice of Life: The show runs hard on showing the many real-life struggles and details of running (and renovating) a restaurant, especially one packed with people dealing with their own personal and family issues.
• Slobs Versus Snobs: A major point of conflict in the first half of the season is Carmy's haute cuisine background clashing with his staffs more humble line cook origins. In an interesting turn for the trope, the narrative leans towards Carmy's side of the argument, with the kitchen becoming much smoother and the chefs starting to flourish in their respective roles once he implements a brigade system. Season 2 expands on this, with Richie finally coming to respect fine dining.
• Small Reference Pools: In-universe, Carmy pretty much knows about Chicago and cooking, and that's it. When he looks at Sydney's resume, he understands that she went to CIA (Culinary Institute of America, not the other one), but sees that she worked at UPS and asks if that's a place in Chicago? She kind of slowly explains that it's the United Parcel Service. This is Truth in Television, as restaurants (especially newer ones) often have unique names and many are only known by initials.
• Smoking Is Edgy: Carmine "Carmy" Berzano usually has a cigarette in hand representing both edge and cynicism and often smokes while on the job.
• Spicy Latina: Tina is blunt, hot-tempered, and strong-willed, but she has a soft core. In the very first episode, she says she's thankful for "all you motherfuckers", perfectly summing up her attitude. In the season 1 finale, she warns Carmy not to lose his temper with her the way he did with Sydney and Marcus, saying she'll "fuck his ass up." Carmy clearly takes this to heart.
• Supreme Chef: Carmen is an award-winning chef who received industry-wide attention for his talents, being considered the best chef at some of the best restaurants in the whole world. He struggles to apply his knowledge and skills to a sandwich shop.
• Sweet Baker: Marcus, who's the most gentle and levelheaded member of the cast, is in charge of baking desserts.
• Take That!: The show takes a shot at the "Snyder Cut" or, more specifically, its toxic fandom by listing them with incels, QAnon, and 4chan.
• Take This Job and Shove It: At the end of Review, Sydney, after arguing with Richie, getting yelled at by Carmy, and accidently stabbing Richie, has a momentary freak-out and abruptly quits. She returns the following episode, after some convincing from Carmy.
• The Team Benefactor: Cicero is the one providing the funding that allows the Beef to survive and for Carmy to transform it into the Bear. However, he's also intent on getting his money back and won't hesitate to seize the property and sell it off if necessary.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. Carmy knows he needs professional help to deal with his PTSD, but is so wrapped up in his kitchen work he can barely find time. He eventually finds his way to a support group recommended by his sister and keeps up with it.
• Through His Stomach: When some gangsters start arguing outside the Beef, Sydney is able to calm them down by offering them some sandwiches.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Downplayed, but Sydney becomes noticeably more confident as first season goes on, and is fully capable of going toe-to-toe with Richie in a heated argument.
  • Season 2 is basically a whole season of this trope. Carmy helms a whole renovation and relaunch of The Beef as a new, hot dining establishment known as The Bear. Sydney becomes far more of a leader in the kitchen. Richie gets a job at a sophisticated fine dining establishment and comes out of it a changed man with far more maturity and a better understanding of what makes a fine night out in Chicago. Marcus is trained in Europe by a world class fine dining chef. Tina is trusted as a leader in the kitchen and leads the kitchen with TONS of confidence.
• Truth in Television:
  • Carmy's flashback to his time in a fine-dining kitchen shows the executive chef treating him and his colleagues as subhuman, expecting complete and utter submission in the face of nonstop verbal abuse. Sadly, this exemplifies the well-known, real-world problem for professional chefs, who are subjected to verbal or even physical abuse because it's seen as inherent to the position—"If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen."
  • Outside of the kitchen, Carmy lives off of frozen dinners and PB&J's. It's surprisingly common in the culinary industry for chefs to have simple food at home.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Sibling example. Carmy was hurt that Mikey never let him work at the Beef when he was younger, so he became an executive chef to impress him. Tragically, they never reconciled before Mikey's death. This is why Carmy is so devoted to fixing the Beef.
• Work Off the Debt: Cicero uses the restaurant's outstanding debt to cater his kid's birthday party and a bachelor party, reducing the huge debt by trivial amounts.
• The Unfavorite: No one likes Pete, with the small exception of his wife. It could just be the stressful family vibes, but he is a bore and a bit of a dullard. Some of the others' reactions to him, however, border on ridiculousness.
• Verbal Tic:
  • Carmen addresses everyone in the kitchen as "chef" both as a sign of respect and out of habit from his former profession as a fine-dining chef de cuisine. Like his mean boss before him, he also sometimes uses "Yes Chef" as a prompt to get that same response back from someone he's talking to, as a way to indicate they are supposed to just agree and listen, not actually talk back.
  • In a funny play on this, Tina first mishears this as "Jeff", and thereafter frequently refers to Carmy as "Jeff" and occasionally "Jeffrey".
• Wham Episode:
  • "Review." Aside from being (mostly) a Bottle Episode and The Oner, it features Sydney accidentally stabbing Richie, Carmy reaching his breaking point, and both Marcus and Sydney quitting.
  • "Fishes," a Whole Episode Flashback which introduces us to several character we'd only heard about before and adds important details about the Berzattos, especially Mikey and Donna.
• Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: A professional instance. Carmi is the one to apologize to Marcus and Sydney for his actions in Review, while their actions are hand waved and they suffer no consequences for abandoning the Beef during a crisis (Sydney is a double offender cause she was the reason for the mess in the first place), simply coming back to work like nothing happened.
• Whole Episode Flashback: "Fishes" is set five years earlier, during a Berzatto family Christmas that goes spectacularly off-the-rails. The only regulars who appear are Carmy, Ritchie, Natalie and Fak, and it’s notable for being the longest appearance of Jon Bernthal as Mikey and the introduction of Jamie Lee Curtis as Donna, the Berzatto matriarch.
• You Are Not Alone: In "Omelette", Carmen and Sydney have a heart to heart where she confesses to be terrified of failing with The Bear after failing to make her previous business work as well. They end the talk by assuring each other that neither is struggling alone.

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