The Bear season 2
The second season of the American comedy-drama television series The Bear premiered with all episodes on June 22, 2023, on FX on Hulu. Christopher Storer and Joanna Calo serve as showrunners for the season. FX renewed the series for a ten-episode second season in July 2022. Jeremy Allen White stars as Carmy Berzatto, an award-winning chef who returns to his hometown of Chicago to manage the chaotic kitchen at his deceased brother's sandwich shop.
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas, and Abby Elliott return from the previous season as the supporting cast, with Matty Matheson promoted to a series regular. In July 2022, following the release of the first season, FX renewed The Bear for a second season, which began filming in February 2023 in Chicago, and wrapped in April of that year. The season consists of ten episodes.
The season received widespread critical acclaim, with many reviewers considering it an improvement over the first. It received eleven Primetime Emmy Awards wins from 23 nominations, making it the season of television with the most wins in a single year for a comedy series until the record was beaten by the series' second season. The Emmy wins included acting wins for White, Moss-Bachrach and Colón-Zayas, and for guest stars Jon Bernthal and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Cast and characters
Main
- Jeremy Allen White as Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto
- Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richard "Richie" Jerimovich
- Ayo Edebiri as Sydney Adamu
- Lionel Boyce as Marcus Brooks
- Liza Colón-Zayas as Tina Marrero
- Abby Elliott as Natalie "Sugar" Berzatto
- Matty Matheson as Neil Fak
Recurring
- Jon Bernthal as Michael "Mikey" Berzatto
- Joel McHale as David Fields
- Edwin Lee Gibson as Ebraheim
- Corey Hendrix as Gary "Sweeps" Woods
- Oliver Platt as Jimmy "Cicero" Kalinowski
- Richard Esteras as Manny
- Chris Witaske as Pete
- Molly Gordon as Claire Dunlap
- Robert Townsend as Emmanuel Adamu
- Alex Moffat as Josh
- Ricky Staffieri as Theodore "Teddy" Fak
- Jack Lancaster as Connor
- Isa Arciniegas as Daniela
Guest
- Adam Shapiro as Adam Shapiro
- Carmen Christopher as Chester
- Gillian Jacobs as Tiffany "Tiff" Jerimovich
- Mitra Jouhari as Kelly
- Will Poulter as Luca
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Donna Berzatto
- Olivia Colman as Chef Andrea Terry
- Sarah Ramos as Jessica
- Andrew Lopez as Garrett
- Rene Gube as Rene, the general manager of Ever
- Maura Kidwell as Carol
- Bob Odenkirk as "Uncle" Lee Lane
- Sarah Paulson as Michelle Berzatto
- John Mulaney as Stevie
Episodes
Production
Development
In July 2022, following the release and positive reception of the first season, FX renewed The Bear for a ten-episode second season, with Christopher Storer and Joanna Calo returning as showrunners.Casting
Matty Matheson was promoted to a series regular in this season. Will Poulter was cast as Chef Luca after being a big fan of the series. Jon Bernthal reprised his role as Michael Berzatto from the first season. Jamie Lee Curtis, John Mulaney, Gillian Jacobs, Sarah Paulson and Bob Odenkirk were all cast as members of the Berzatto family, with only Odenkirk's casting being announced prior to the season's release. Christopher Storer asked Ayo Edebiri who she wanted to play her dad, and Edebiri named Robert Townsend, who was cast in the part of Emmanuel Adamu. The casting of Molly Gordon as Claire was announced on Matty Matheson's Instagram and confirmed by Variety.Writing
Series creator and co-showrunner Christopher Storer wrote three of the ten episodes, and co-showrunner Joanna Calo wrote three episodes. The rest of the episodes were written by Karen Joseph Adcock, Catherine Schetina, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Alex Russell, Rene Gube and Kelly Galuska.Filming
Filming for the second season began on February 21, 2023, and wrapped on April 28, 2023. Storer directed seven of the ten episodes, and Calo directed two. The only episode not directed by Storer or Calo was "Honeydew", which was directed by Ramy Youssef.The episode "Forks" was filmed on location at Chicago's two-Michelin-starred restaurant Ever. The restaurant was shut down for one week and turned off its online reservation system to accommodate the filming schedule. Head chef Curtis Duffy cooked all the meals featured in the episode. Exteriors for "Honeydew" were shot on location in Denmark, but the kitchen scenes at "Noma" were filmed in Chicago at After, the cocktail lounge adjacent to Ever. The "Fishes" episode was filmed on location in a house in Evanston, Illinois.
Castmembers were actually demolishing the actual Original Beef of Chicagoland set at the Cinespace studios, using "hammers and crowbars." This authenticity was a surprise and minor challenge for the sound recording team, who had expected that the demolition "would be filmed as an insert shot separate from the dialogue." The restaurant kitchen is a fully functional working kitchen, not just a dead set. Similarly, the kitchen was designed with "practical lighting" so that "the lighting crew actually never had to light it....we worked with the lighting designer...very closely where to put exactly what lights and light temperature."
All told, production and post-production on season two took about four months.
Music
According to composer Jeffrey Qaiyum, "They're trying to do something more sophisticated with the restaurant, and the whole show has to do that as well, including the score. Less raw beats, less dirty electric guitars. Season two has more pizzicato strings and cellos and Rhodes and piano. Even in the mix, I was using side-chaining compression stuff you usually hear in EDM music to add a level of sophistication to the sound." Per producer Josh Senior, season two used three separate versions of R.E.M.'s "Strange Currencies: "the original, the incredible Scott Litt remix, and an unreleased demo." Apparently the lead singer of the band was quite hyped about the use of R.E.M. on the show; per Salon.com in 2023, "Michael Stipe has been posting on his Instagram Stories constantly. He's so excited."Release
The second season of The Bear premiered on FX on Hulu in the United States on June 22, 2023, and became available internationally in the Star hub on Disney+. Along with other Hulu content, The Bear became available to stream on Disney+ in the United States via the Hulu hub on December 6, 2023.Reception
Audience viewership
According to the streaming aggregator Reelgood, The Bear was the second most watched program across all platforms in the United States during the week of June 22, 2023, and the most during the week of June 29, 2023. According to JustWatch, The Bear was the most streamed television series across all platforms in the United States during the week ending June 25, 2023. According to FX, the second season was the most-watched season premiere in the network's history. According to Whip Media's viewership tracking app TV Time, The Bear was the eighth most-watched streaming original television series of 2023.Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, 99% of 109 critic reviews are positive for the second season, and the average rating is 9.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Instead of reinventing the menu, The Bears second season wisely opts to toss its lovable characters into another frying pan of adversity, lets 'em cook, and serves up yet another supremely satisfying dish." Metacritic assigned it a weighted average score of 92 out of 100 based on 42 critic reviews.For the second year in a row, the American Film Institute named The Bear one of the ten best television programs of the year. The Bear appeared on many publications' lists of the best TV shows of 2023, including Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, and People, among others.