The first season of the American comedy-drama television series The Bear premiered with all episodes on June 23, 2022, on FX on Hulu. Christopher Storer and Joanna Calo serve as showrunners for the season. 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. The supporting cast includes Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas, and Abby Elliott.
In March 2021, FX ordered a pilot for The Bear to be written and directed by Storer, and the series was given a full season order in October 2021. Filming for the season began in February 2022 in Chicago, and wrapped in March of that year. The season consists of eight episodes.
The season received critical acclaim. It received ten Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series and acting wins for White, Moss-Bachrach, and Edebiri, 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 season was the most-watched comedy series in FX's history.
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
Recurring Matty Matheson as Neil Fak 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 José Cervantes as Angel, a dishwasher at The Beef Richard Esteras as Manny, a dishwasher at The Beef Chris Witaske as Pete, Natalie's earnest and buoyant husband
Guest Christopher Zucchero as Chi-Chi Carmen Christopher as Chester Gillian Jacobs as Tiffany "Tiff" Jerimovich (uncredited) Amy Morton as Nancy Chore Molly Ringwald as Al-Anon meeting facilitator
Episodes
Production
Development FX ordered a pilot for The Bear in March 2021, to be written and directed by series creator and co-showrunner Christopher Storer. In October 2021, FX greenlit the series for a full-season order, scheduled for a 2022 premiere date. The season was produced by FX Productions (FXP), with Hiro Murai, Nate Matteson, Joanna Calo and Josh Senior serving as executive producers. Matty Matheson, who portrays Neil Fak in a recurring role in the season, serves as a consulting producer. The sandwich shop interior is copied from the Chicago restaurant Mr. Beef on Orleans Street, in River North. Storer was a frequent patron and a friend of the owner's son.
Casting
On May 21, 2021, it was announced that Shameless star Jeremy Allen White would be starring in the pilot for The Bear in the leading role, alongside co-stars Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce, Abby Elliott and Matheson. In October 2021, Liza Colón-Zayas was announced to be joining the main cast, with Matheson and Edwin Lee Gibson starring in a recurring capacity. The season features many guest stars, including Oliver Platt, Joel McHale and Jon Bernthal. Joanna Calo told The Hollywood Reporter after the launch of season one, "We were looking for surprising people, the most exciting people, and people with kindness at their center as a way to ground some of the sharper edges of the show. And Lionel [Boyce] and Ayo [Edebiri] were people Chris had worked with in different ways. And Ebon [Moss-Bachrach] was someone that we both really admired and kind of just found through the casting process. All the people that we cast were willing to read, which was a really interesting process to navigate. And that wasn't even about them, showing us how good they were, we knew how good they were. But it was a way for us to meet them and talk to them and see if they wanted to work with us and see if they kind of could have a shared energy."
Writing Storer wrote four of the eight episodes, and co-showrunner Joanna Calo wrote two. The rest of the episodes were written by Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Karen Joseph Adcock, Catherine Schetina and Rene Gube. The scripts for all the episodes in the season were submitted to the Writers Guild of America on May 6, 2022.
According to Calo, "One of the things that changed greatly ended up not being put into the final pilot. We wrote a big explosion for Jeremy [Allen White], getting at this thing that happens in kitchens, which is that the hot temperatures and the close quarters and the abusive cycles often lead chefs to yell at each other. There was this big moment for Jeremy to freak out at everyone. If you've seen the series, there are moments like that later on. When we made the pilot, we decided that we were able to draw that out for longer, but I do think that it showed FX what Jeremy could do and what the show could be. And that was something exciting to them. And also Sydney [Adamu] was supposed to appear first in episode three. And I loved her and I said, 'let's get her in.'"
Season 1 covers the period from June 2022 to January 2023. The pilot is clearly set in the summertime. In "Hands," Richie tells Syd that Mikey's February suicide was "four months ago." "Brigade" takes place in November 2022. The events of "Review" and "Braciole" (and possibly "Ceres") take place back-to-back. There is no straightforward evidence of the date included in most of season 1, but in the season 4 episode "Groundhogs," Carmy sends a text message to dead Mikey's dead phone. Older text messages are visible, including one dated to Saturday, January 21, 2023, at 4:03 p.m. that reads, "Found the tomato cans."
Costuming Courtney Wheeler did the costume design for episodes two through eight of season 1, taking over from Cristina Spiridakis, who costumed the pilot episode. Carmy's fuzzy block-patterned jacket is a Gael 8267 jacket by NN.07. Producer Chris Storer originally envisioned Carmy wearing a navy pea coat but White gravitated to the earth-toned piece from the Danish brand. For much of season 1 Sydney's work shirt is a "classic Thom Browne button-front." The aprons that Carmy hands out to the staff to visually unify the crew are the Travail style of bib apron from a French brand called Bragard. The season 1 aprons were surplus, purchased from the French Laundry restaurant after they were rejected for being the incorrect shade of blue. Tina and Richie refuse to wear the blues until the season finale; Tina's Mrs. Always Right apron came from Amazon.com.
Filming Several scenes for the pilot were filmed on location at Mr. Beef, although a set was built for the kitchen scenes. The pilot was filmed in summer 2021. Principal photography for the season began in February 2022, and wrapped on March 31, 2022, in Chicago. Storer directed five of the eight episodes, with the other three being directed by Calo. The seventh episode of the season, "Review," features an 18-minute long take.
According to cinematographer Andrew Wehde, episodes two through eight of season one were shot over 27 days (two fewer days than had been scheduled) with "about 18 days in that primary set [at Cinespace Chicago], and then we were out at the original Mr. Beef and elsewhere around the city for the remaining eight or nine days." The pilot was "shot widescreen, 2:39." According to Wehde, "We started realizing the pilot lived in its own world. The show was going to be its own thing. We shot tests before principal [photography] of season one, and we were pulling grabs of widescreen and 1:85. It started to feel timeless at 1:85. We felt 1:85 worked great." He told Panavision.com in 2022 about the set constructed for filming episodes 2 through 8 of season 1:Storer told one interviewer that the challenges of shooting in the tight confines of the kitchen had them watching submarine films like Das Boot and Crimson Tide.
Editing Chris Storer encouraged Joanna Naugle to watch the 1999 Martin Scorsese film Bringing Out the Dead to prepare for editing season 1. According to film editor Adam Epstein, "We were blessed-slash-cursed with an absolutely massive amount of B-roll...We had six hours of them doing the full beef process, or four hours of Chicago at dusk, and at night. We had shots of the kitchen when it was messy, and when it was clean. It was really purposeful and specific, and that enabled us to bring some interesting ideas and transitions into the episodes." Naugle told Gold Derby, "[The actors] have a lot of that intensity and overlap already happening on set and then we just try to find ways to ramp it up...it was really exciting to be able to take out basically any breath so that at any moment you hear at least two voices, sometimes three, and just making it feel like you're in the kitchen with them listening to the chaos and going along for the ride."
Sound design According to supervising sound editor Steve "Major" Giammaria, season one is loud by design, so the key issue was how to focus through the noise for the audience: "Often there's a song playing as score, multiple people yelling, and production sound that includes pots and pans and working stoves tied to the dialogue as well as added foley and sound FX. The trick then becomes what to focus on at each moment."
Music The songs used in the season 1 trailer are "Three Way Split" by Dick Walter and "Via Chicago" by Wilco.
Josh Senior told Uproxx, "We did the music for the show on Saturdays. We would shoot during the week and edit. And then on Saturdays, Chris and I would text each other songs that we would then play over cuts that didn't have music, or had different music in it."
Executive producer Josh Senior and composer Jeffrey Qaiyum first met when Qaiyum taught a hip-hop theater class at Lehigh University. Senior then began hiring him for various production projects, leading up to The Bear. Qaiyum, in turn, brought in Johnny Iguana: "I use session musicians when scoring and I wanted to use only Chicago people for The Bear. Johnny Iguana is one of the greatest piano/organ players alive. He's a Chicago legend and has played in the Junior Wells band and was quite big regionally with a band called Oh My God. His current band is the Claudettes. I used Johnny Iguana a lot in season one and when we were discussing the vibe for season two, I got him involved in a more official capacity and we co-wrote many of the themes for S2." In season one, they served, in part, as musical adjuncts to the low-budget operation. According to Block Club Chicago, "Qaiyum and Iguana were often asked to compose music with similar tones and beats per minute to popular songs the show's producers wanted to use but couldn't afford."
Release The season released on FX on Hulu in the United States on June 23, 2022, with all eight episodes. Internationally, the season became available to stream in the Star hub on Disney+.
Reception
Audience viewership The first season of The Bear was the most watched program during the week of July 22, 2022, and the second-most-watched program across all platforms during the weeks of July 3, and July 13, and July 17, 2022. According to FX, the first season was the most-watched comedy series in the network's history.
Critical response The first season received an approval rating of 100% with an average rating of 8.7/10, based on 80 critic reviews on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The website's critics consensus reads, "Like an expertly confected sandwich, The Bear assembles a perfect melange of ingredients and stacks them for optimal satisfaction—and thankfully keeps the crust-iness for extra flavor." Metacritic gave the season a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 based on 24 critic reviews.