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The Bear poster

Shows that feel likeThe Bear (2022–2026)

Carmy, a young fine-dining chef, comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop. As he fights to transform the shop and himself, he works alongside a rough-around-the-edges crew that ultimately reveal themselves as his chosen family.

If you loved The Bear, the closest series we have are After Life (2019), Shrinking (2023) and Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (2016). All three share The Bear's contemplative and witty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Carrie (2026).

★ 8.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗5 seasons · Hulucreated by Christopher Storercontemplativewittyplayfulmelancholy
12 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

If The Bear hit the spot, these will too

After Life poster
After Life
2019–2022 · 3 seasons · Netflix
★ 8.4comedy · dramaNetflix

A man wrecked by loss, kept upright by the people at work

The difference: Gervais lingers in sentiment — none of the kitchen's pressure-cooker pace

Tony had a perfect life. But after his wife Lisa suddenly dies, Tony changes. After contemplating taking his own life, he decides instead to live long enough to punish the world by saying and doing whatever he likes from now on.

Shrinking poster
Shrinking
2023– · 3 seasons · Apple TV
★ 8.2drama · comedyApple TV+

The same mix in both: stillness, then wit

Jimmy is struggling to grieve the loss of his wife while being a dad, friend, and therapist. He decides to try a new approach with everyone in his path: unfiltered, brutal honesty. Will it make things better—or unleash uproarious chaos?

Guardian: The Lonely and Great God poster
Guardian: The Lonely and Great God
2016–2017 · 1 season · tvN
★ 8.5drama · sci-fi & fantasy · comedy

The same preoccupation in both: suicide

The difference: Sits closer to sci-fi & fantasy than The Bear does

In his quest for a bride to break his immortal curse, a 939-year-old guardian of souls meets a grim reaper and a sprightly student with a tragic past.

Time poster
Time
2021– · 3 seasons · BBC One
★ 8.1drama · crime

Both keep coming back to the same thing: suicide

The difference: Takes it somewhere less witty than The Bear does

Guilt, violence and impossible choices – what does it take to survive? Tense, gritty and heartbreaking – Jimmy McGovern's award-winning prison drama, with an all-star cast.

This Is Us poster
This Is Us
2016–2022 · 6 seasons · NBC
★ 8.7dramaHuluParamount+

Loss rippling through a family for years, with no shortcuts to healing

The difference: Openly sentimental network drama — it wants your tears, not your stress

Follows the lives and families of three adults living and growing up in the United States of America in present and past times. As their paths cross and their life stories intertwine in curious ways, we find that several of them share the same birthday - and so much more than anyone would expect.

Fleabag poster
Fleabag
2016–2019 · 2 seasons · BBC Three
★ 8.7comedy · dramaPrime Video

Grief metabolized through wit, in tight half-hours that cut deep

The difference: One woman's interior monologue — no ensemble, no workplace to hold onto

A portrait into the mind of a dry-witted, sexual, angry, porn-watching, grief-riddled woman, trying to make sense of the world. As she hurls herself headlong at modern living, Fleabag is thrown roughly up against the walls of contemporary London, with all its frenetic energy, late nights, and bright lights.

Barry poster
Barry
2018–2023 · 4 seasons · HBO
★ 8.3comedy · crime · dramaMax

Both land play and melancholy at once

A hit man from the Midwest moves to Los Angeles and gets caught up in the city's theatre arts scene.

Broadchurch poster
Broadchurch
2013–2017 · 3 seasons · ITV1
★ 8.3crime · drama · mysteryNetflixPeacock

Grief examined patiently, with a whole community absorbing the blow

The difference: A murder procedural at heart — the case structure sets the pace

The murder of a young boy in a small coastal town brings a media frenzy, which threatens to tear the community apart.

Six Feet Under poster
Six Feet Under
2001–2005 · 5 seasons · HBO
★ 8.7dramaMax

Siblings running the family business their father's death left behind

The difference: Slow, mournful hours — meditation where The Bear delivers adrenaline

When death is your business, what is your life? For the Fisher family, the world outside of their family-owned funeral home continues to be at least as challenging as—and far less predictable than—the one inside.

The House of Flowers poster
The House of Flowers
2018–2020 · 3 seasons · Netflix
★ 7.5drama · comedyNetflix

A family business as the stage where every buried resentment surfaces

The difference: Campy telenovela gloss — chaos played for fun, not for anxiety

A wealthy matriarch tries to maintain her family's facade of perfection after her husband's mistress exposes their dirty secrets.

Carrie poster
Carrie
2026 · 1 season · Prime Video
★ 7.8mystery · drama · sci-fi & fantasyPrime Video

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

The difference: Trades the wit of The Bear for an angle of its own

After her father's sudden, untimely death thrusts her into the unforgiving ecosystem of public high school, Carrie is forced to navigate a viral bullying scandal that tears through her community, the relentless pressure and casual cruelty of the social‑media age, and the awakening of mysterious telekinetic powers that rise alongside her adolescence.

given poster
given
2019 · 1 season · Fuji TV
★ 8.2animation · drama

Comedy built on melancholy, twice over

The difference: Easier on the wit than The Bear

Ritsuka’s lost his spark for music—until he hears Mafuyu sing. One voice pulls him back in, and suddenly, everything starts to change between them.

In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative shows →

The best-reviewed series that share The Bear’s defining feeling.