12 Best TV Shows Like The Bear To Binge Next

Few shows in the past few years have announced themselves as must-see television right out of the gate with as much aplomb and certainty as FX on Hulu's "The Bear." The Christopher Storer-created American series has become one of the defining TV phenomenons of the post-streaming zeitgeist, racking up 21 Primetime Emmy awards across its first two seasons alone.

The stories of Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), Richard "Richie" Jerimovich (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri), and the rest of the staff at a chaotic sandwich restaurant have continued to attract new fans with each passing season — and one of the things that continually speaks to those fans is how unique the show feels in the TV landscape. There's nothing else quite like "The Bear," but there are plenty of shows that share a lot of common narrative, aesthetic, and emotional ground with it. Here, we've listed 12 that have particular potential to be ideal post-"The Bear" binges.

A great place to start for a fan of "The Bear" looking to get into shows with a similar energy is, of course, the one where Jeremy Allen White earned his stripes. "Shameless" tells the story of the Gallaghers, a poor Chicago family made up of amoral patriarch Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy) and his various children, with eldest Fiona (Emmy Rossum) as the one who does most of the de-facto parenting and struggles to keep the family afloat amid Frank's constant scheming and manipulation. White plays second-eldest Philip Gallagher, one of the only "Shameless" characters to appear in every episode — a well-meaning and academically bright young man who repeatedly gets his future and present derailed by his tumultuous family life and the need to care for his siblings.

Needless to say, "Shameless" is akin to "The Bear" in the way it showcases White's chops as both a comedic and dramatic performer, and places him within a messy and raucous yet relentlessly authentic and deeply-felt family dynamic, striking a similar tone somewhere between edgy comedy and gritty drama. Philip and Carmy are very different characters in most respects, but they're equally enthralling to watch develop — or not — from season to season.

"The Bear" is one of the most successful fictional shows about cuisine and restaurant management in TV history, but it's far from the only worthwhile one. You will find several cooking-themed shows on this list, but to start things off, let's go with a short-lived, tremendously underrated British sitcom that honed in on the same kind of pressure-cooker kitchen mayhem that "The Bear" now makes its primary ingredient. Meet "Whites."

The premise of this BBC Two sitcom, which aired a single six-episode season in 2010, is quite simple: After years of flaming out and failing to deliver on his potential, former rising star chef Roland White (Alan Davies) finds himself settled into life as the executive chef at a hotel restaurant. Largely uninterested in the restaurant's day-to-day operations, Roland leaves most of it to be handled by sous chef Bib (Darren Boyd) and restaurant manager Caroline (Katherine Parkinson).

Unlike "The Bear," "Whites" mostly stays within the confines of the hotel and the restaurant, with brief excursions to the characters' off-the-clock lives. It's also much more overtly comedic in tone, with a zany, agitated wit that belies its design as a workplace comedy by veteran sitcom scribes Matt King and Oliver Lansley. Otherwise, it's a strikingly similar show to "The Bear," right down to the rhythms of the kitchen and the earthy, warm-colored cinematography. Anyone with a taste for gastronomic backstage turmoil will find a lot to savor in it.

One of the most quietly interesting and consistent outings in the Netflix catalog since the streamer's early days of original production has been "Chef's Table," a documentary series that takes chefs and their creations as its raw ingredients. Created by David Gelb (director of the renowned Jiro Ono documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi"), and featuring a process-oriented bent that emphasizes artistry and creativity, it's one of the best cooking shows of all time.

Seven seasons and five spin-offs have aired since the show's premiere in 2015, and the core formula remains the same: Each episode focuses on a different worldwide celebrity chef, hopping from country to country to offer a wide range of different cuisines and styles. In the process, each episode also analyzes the chef subject's life outside the kitchen, the better to understand their creative process and proclivities.

As such, "Chef's Table" is a fascinating real-life companion piece to the investigations into the nexus between life and the culinary arts on "The Bear." Several of the restaurants visited by the show's documentary crew bear a striking resemblance to The Bear, and the love demonstrated by the professionals on display has echoes of their use of cooking as a vehicle for expression and connection.

Years before Ella Purnell was wowing sci-fi fans with her performance as Lucy MacLean on "Fallout," she got her first chance to headline a TV series by starring on Starz's "Sweetbitter," which aired for two seasons between 2018 and 2019. Those two seasons add up to just 14 episodes running 30 minutes each, so this is definitely a show you'll want to add to your binge queue if you're looking for more zippy, saucy, and dramatically hefty television about life in the culinary world.

A big difference between "Sweetbitter" and "The Bear" is that the former takes place in New York City — and is, in fact, one of those shows that's as much about the rhythms and character of the Big Apple itself as it is about the trials and tribulations of the people navigating it. Purnell plays Tess, a 22-year-old English major with little real-world experience who moves impulsively to New York and winds up landing a job as a waitress at a fancy restaurant in Manhattan. From there, she begins to get a taste of what life is like in the United States' biggest metropolis — "Sweetbitter" puts equal emphasis on Tess's acclimation to her new home and her blossoming relationships with the restaurant's staff, which make up the bulk of the show's ensemble dynamic. It's perfect comfort viewing for anyone who likes their restaurant dramas a little more personal.

A lot of the notable works that share thematic and stylistic similarities with "The Bear" can be found in the film medium — including the likes of "Chef," "Burnt," "The Hundred-Foot Journey," and "Ratatouille." But perhaps the single most crucial movie of interest for "The Bear" fans is Philip Barantini's "Boiling Point," a propulsive 2021 British dramatic thriller about the head chef at a London restaurant (Stephen Graham) trying to get through a particularly grueling business day. A critical success, "Boiling Point" scored four BAFTA nominations, including best actor in a leading role for Graham. We can't recommend it on this list, seeing as it's a movie — but we can recommend its TV miniseries sequel, also titled "Boiling Point."

Intended as a viable watch for viewers who aren't familiar with "Boiling Point" the movie, BBC One's "Boiling Point" follows Carly (Vinette Robinson) as she opens up a restaurant of her own following her stint as Andy's sous-chef at Jones & Sons. The show, which was created by Barantini, Graham, and movie co-screenwriter James Cummings, maintains much of the film's spirit of refined, nerve-racking anarchy and constant escalation — also tenets of many a great "The Bear" episode. Plus, the miniseries' runtime allows "Boiling Point" to develop an even greater level of dramaturgical weight and sophistication, not unlike how "The Bear" uses the episodic format to deepen and enrich the characters, and, by extension, the storytelling.

Despite its title, Netflix's "Beef" doesn't have much to do with cooking — but it still stands out as a show that can be very fulfilling for fans of "The Bear." Despite significant differences in plotting and thematic focus, both are fiery, fast-paced, emotionally heady comedy-drama series that bend the typically lightfooted format of the half-hour episode into a perfect vehicle for lean, concentrated bursts of intensity.

They do have at least one thematic thread in common: Like "The Bear," "Beef" is about people trying to manage businesses and coming up against difficulties brought on by the universe — and by themselves. Created by Lee Sung Jin and produced by A24, the series follows Danny Cho (Steven Yeun), a contractor with a flailing professional life, and Amy Lau (Ali Wong), the wealthy owner of a plant business about to be sold to a home improvement chain. One day, Danny almost bumps into Amy's SUV with his truck, setting off an escalation of bitterness and anger between the two that culminates in a full-blown road rage event.

From there, Danny and Amy become venomously obsessed with each other. The twisted repercussions of that obsession unfold at an addictive clip that makes "Beef" the perfect bingeworthy watch. If you don't believe us, take it from the Primetime Emmys, which showered "Beef" with accolades for Yeun, Wong, the writing, the direction, and handed them the award for best outstanding limited or anthology series in the same year "The Bear" had its big debut haul in the comedy categories.

It shouldn't be so rare for shows to go for the same "tartly funny and clever, yet unafraid to plunge headfirst into depths of misery, trauma, and despair" tone that "The Bear" manages so expertly. And yet it is — it's no wonder that "The Bear" keeps stirring controversy every time it lands in the comedy field at an award show, given how few other series understand as keenly that comedy minus time equals tragedy. One show that never got any Emmys for exercising that same understanding, but very much should have, is FX and FXX's "You're the Worst."

One of the most underrated shows of the last 15 years, "You're the Worst" could be described as a relic of the left bank of the TV Golden Age. It's a bold, sharp, non-crowd-pleasing creative adventure that acted as edgy counterprogramming to the more universally popular comedy and drama shows of the time. It's ostensibly a romantic comedy, following the evolution of the relationship between British novelist Jimmy Shive-Overly (Chris Geere) and music PR manager Gretchen Cutler (Aya Cash) in Los Angeles over the course of several years. The twist is that Jimmy and Gretchen are both utterly toxic, bitter, destructive people, whose sputtering start-stop romantic and sexual dynamic is as maddening as it is endearing. Few other shows have ever been so brilliant and unsparing in depicting the hard-fought battle for connection and companionship of two screw-ups lost in the big city.

An unjustly forgotten HBO production that deserves mention in a list of shows similar to "The Bear" is "How to Make It In America." At the time it aired its two seasons between 2010 and 2011, the series garnered comparisons — not all of them flattering — to HBO's own "Entourage." But in hindsight, despite superficial similarities, "How to Make It In America" was much too sinuous, complicated, and emotionally honest to slot comfortably into the same aesthetic niche as that more popular network predecessor.

A decade and a half later, we have "The Bear," and it acts as a much more productive frame of reference for what "How to Make It In America" was trying to do: Grapple candidly with the bustle, kineticism, and sublimated brutality of contemporary life, without shortchanging its way of inviting a certain melancholy. The bro-y slant of the storytelling — which focused on aspiring twentysomething entrepreneurs Ben Epstein (Bryan Greenberg) and Cam Calderon (Victor Rasuk) as they struggle to make in the fashion world of New York City — was counterbalanced by a healthy amount of emotional introspection and focus, vividly cinematic style, and keen attention to the authentic textures of life in New York. In its own unassuming way, it was one of the 21st century's most perceptive and engaging shows about the struggle to make it.

There are several tonal, stylistic, and even narrative similarities between "The Bear" and "Fleabag." Come to think of it, they're both tragicomic series about messed-up people trying to keep small businesses together while grappling with increasing anxiety and emotional distress.

What really bridges the two shows, though, is the attention they both devote to grief, and the way it reverberates across the members of a bickering but close-knit family, especially its siblings. The passing of Fleabag's (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) mother, and of Fleabag's best friend Boo (Jenny Rainsford), cast a shadow over the farcical buffoonery of "Fleabag," much like the death of Mikey Berzatto (Jon Bernthal) impacts the sprawling "The Bear" family tree and contextualizes everything that unfolds on the show. And, in both cases, viewers drawn in by those shows' lighter pleasures might find themselves suddenly demolished by the emotional wallop they pack.

"Fleabag," to be clear, is a lot funnier, and significantly less concerned with cuisine, despite its focus on a café manager — we see more of her shopping for frozen supermarket meals to serve to customers than actually cooking anything. But its story of a woman trying to balance the challenges of business management, modern dating and sex, and a crushing amount of guilt and remorse will nonetheless strike a chord with anyone who enjoys "The Bear" — not least because "Fleabag" is pretty safely one of the best TV shows of all time.

It's a great time for intimate, detailed, bittersweet shows about modern life from the perspective of young people. "The Bear" is a testament to that, and one of its FX on Hulu siblings, "Reservation Dogs," is another. Created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, the show was the first in American TV history to be made entirely by Indigenous writers and directors — befitting its aspiration to change the face of art and entertainment focused on Native Americans.

Despite that lofty ambition, "Reservation Dogs" is often endearingly low-key. Much like "The Bear," it's a comedy series that makes plenty of room for slow, quiet, meditative moments. Like "The Bear," it's shot with a lush, cinematic flair, courtesy of its enormously talented team of directors. And also like "The Bear," it's set in the aftermath of a suicide that drastically affects the protagonists and their plans for the future.

Rather than a workplace or family dramedy, however, "Reservation Dogs" is about a group of friends: Elora (Devery Jacobs), Bear (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Cheese (Lane Factor), and Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis), the self-proclaimed Rez Dogs, four teenagers living in a small Muscogee Nation town in Oklahoma. A year after the death of their friend Daniel (Dalton Cramer), the Rez Dogs support each other through the ups and downs of adolescence, and find ways to scrape money together while pondering whether to fulfill Danny's dream of moving to California. What the show does with that premise is bracing, deeply affecting, and fiercely political.

"The Wire" is the more famous David Simon brainchild to have aired on HBO in the 21st century, but "Treme" is arguably the more vibrant and richly-textured portrait of a specific urban milieu. And while it's a drama-drama show as opposed to "The Bear'"s comedy-drama tagging, it actually has a very similar tone to the FX on Hulu hit, similarly luxuriating in the convivial, restorative pleasures of community while keeping an eye out for those pleasures' poignant flipside.

Co-created by Simon and Eric Overmyer, "Treme" takes a sprawling and novelistic narrative approach much like "The Wire," following the lives of a large ensemble of characters, ranging from musicians to writers to business owners, as they try to make ends meet in New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina. A lot of the action is centered around the Tremé neighborhood, a historical hub of African American and Créole culture.

Fans of "The Bear" might be particularly drawn to the story of Janette Desautel (Kim Dickens), a chef trying her hardest to keep her restaurant open while dealing with massive damages and uncooperative insurance, and holding on to her love of cooking and New Orleans to get herself through incessantly trying times. But really, "Treme" is one of those shows where every character and every storyline is interesting — a sumptuous human tapestry all the more impressive for being unflaggingly committed to hard, unembellished reality.

The spiritual overlap between "The Bear" and "Bob's Burgers" is not lost on fans of both shows. It's not uncommon to find lovingly-made fan art around the internet of "Bob's Burgers" characters styled as though they were on "The Bear," or of "The Bear" characters if they were drawn in the style of "Bob's Burgers." Sure, part of it is just the inherent silliness of melding the goofy cartoon world of "Bob's Burgers" with the gritty world of a dramatic FX show, but there's something more to it. In a way, both series are really about the same thing: Dysfunctional families hashing out their problems via cooking and restaurateurism.

"Bob's Burgers" is, of course, a little more playful about it than "The Bear." An anything-goes madcap animated sitcom that turned out nothing like its pitch, the Fox series uses the titular hamburger restaurant in a fictional New Jersey coastal town as a narrative anchor, but it's the kind of show where no plots and no narrative detours are off the table. Still, the daily routine of managing Bob's Burgers, and the strain it puts on the financially struggling Belcher family, are the show's guiding themes, and "Bob's Burgers" imagines the challenges of managing a restaurant about as exuberantly and hilariously as any media ever has — while still managing to endear you to the Belchers as much as "The Bear" does to the Berzattos.