A man walks into a Chicago sandwich shop called The Beef. It could be the set-up for a chronically awful joke but is in fact more like the elevator pitch for 2022’s prime sleeper TV hit, The Bear. The rest of this joke/pitch would relate how a fine-dining chef (Carmy, played with a subtle power by Jeremy Allen-White) reluctantly moves back home to inherit the business from his older brother who recently died in tragic circumstances. Almost inevitably, Carmy is not exactly walking but stumbling into a whole heap of trouble including serious debts, a dilapidated kitchen, and staff on the verge of mutiny.

That could easily be the summary for an indigestion-inducing food documentary series but instead, out of an unpromising premise came an innovative and ultimately very affecting comedy-drama; you can almost feel the heat of a claustrophobic kitchen sizzling off the screen as you’re taken deep into the heart of red-blooded chaos. Camaraderie and loyalty just about keep everyone intact but when Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), a new sous chef, enters proceedings and rubs the more veteran members of this crew all the wrong ways (particularly uber-alpha Richie played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach), tensions quickly escalate to, you guessed it, boiling point.

If you haven’t caught its first season, don’t even consider simply jumping in to the new episodes; this is a story best savoured from the top. Not much is being given away about plot details but after its early success, the list of actors arriving for season two tells its own tale: Olivia Colman, Sarah Paulson, Will Poulter, Jamie Lee Curtis and Bob Odenkirk have all signed up for the ride.

The Bear is now Streaming on Disney+.