The much-praised Hulu series The Bear is about a young chef named Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White of Shameless) who tries to bring his fancy restaurant experience home in order to save his family’s failing Italian sandwich shop. While he’s attempting to get his fractious cooking staff to call each other “chef” as a matter of respect, and freaking out over unpaid bills, family contention, and all the filthy cooking stations and unsharpened knives at the restaurant, he’s meeting recalcitrance from everyone around him. The longest employee at “The Beef” is the formidable Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas), a cook ferociously committed to the old way of running the restaurant. Carmy’s strident cousin Richard “Richie” Jerimovich (Ebon Moss-Bachrach of The Punisher), called “Cousin” by Carmy in a way that emphasizes the burden of family, is the most envious of Carmy, and therefore the most opposed to anything he attempts to do.

Only Carmy’s newest hire, Sidney Adamo (Ayo Edebiri), well-trained and ready to take her place as a sous-chef, recognizes his serious talent, and supports his colossal endeavor against all odds. She comes in for her share of the backlash of resentment among the restaurant’s line cooks too. Though the sweet-natured young Marcus (Lionel Boyce, member of the hip hop band Odd Future) seems eager to up his culinary game and take on the role of pastry chef.

The reason behind Carmy’s obsession with saving the restaurant only emerges gradually after several gripping episodes. He’s inherited the business from his brother Michael “Mikey” Berzatto (Jon Bernthal of The Punisher and The Walking Dead), who committed suicide. His family’s mode of expressing grief is an all-too-common one — avoiding the subject altogether, displaying simmering resentment, bonding over occasional flashes of dark humor, and periodically, furiously lashing out at each other.