“He [had] the opportunity to get everything that he wanted when we met him,” said Jeremy Allen White of his character Carmy, who effectively captured the attention—and hearts—of the public last summer, during the first season of The Bear. “The question becomes, Is that enough? Is that going to make him happy?” These inquiries served as centerpieces for Carmy’s struggle as a fine-dining chef suddenly tasked with saving, and hopefully elevating, his late brother’s Chicago sandwich shop. The Bear quickly became a cultural phenomenon—“Yes Chef!” rang from Carmy’s kitchen and viewers’ living rooms, asserting itself within the 2022 vernacular. Hoping to maintain the electricity of last year’s cliffhanger, Season 2 sees the return of favorites Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and the added support of Bob Odenkirk. —Jack Sullivan