'The Bear' is back on Hulu. Here's what happens when it ventures outside the restaurant

When it’s cooking, “The Bear” is hands down one of the best shows on TV.

That’s not a metaphor. The show, about a gifted chef who returns to Chicago to take over the family sandwich shop after his brother dies by suicide, is at its best when we’re in the restaurant with the staff, pressure building as small mistakes turn into big ones.

There’s your metaphor. In its first season, FX's “The Bear” used the restaurant and its struggles as a way to explore the complex — which is to say, severely damaged — relationships among everyone who works there. It was outstanding television.

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Season 2 of 'The Bear' ventures outside the restaurant

In Season 2, the show, created by Christopher Storer, goes farther afield, allowing several characters their moments. As is often the case, that’s somewhat hit-and-miss, though the acting is so … let’s just say it, chef’s kiss that it’s always worth watching.

But when we’re back on the line, orders piling up and time running out, that’s when the show is at its agonizingly delightful best.

That said, Season 1 gave us heaping portions of that, as Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), the prodigal chef who returned home, tried to turn the restaurant around. Storer doesn’t allow the show to repeat itself, which is a good thing.

The new season is in its way more ambitious. (Spoilers for Season 1 follow. If you haven’t seen it, stop reading and binge it.) When the staff discovered the cans of tomatoes with cash in them, left behind by Michael (Jon Bernthal) after his death, it set a new path in motion.

Season 2 follows that path, with Carmy trying to open his new restaurant: The Bear. Of course, his best efforts will be waylaid by problems both professional and personal — if running a restaurant seems monumentally difficult, something the show portrays better than any other, opening one seems impossible.

Carmy and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), his sous-chef, have ambitious plans to turn the sandwich joint into a fine-dining establishment. They certainly have the training and the talent, but as anyone who has worked in the restaurant business knows (and any other business, for that matter), that’s not enough.

Renovations and obtaining permits is a miserably slow process, and if there’s anything these two don’t need, it’s time on their hands. They’ll worry a sauce to death, overthinking everything about it. Of course, that’s why Carmy is one of the best in the world at what he does, and why Sydney is getting there.

Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Carmy’s friend (and Michael’s best friend), is still sorting out his place in the pecking order. Marcus (Lionel Boyce), the pastry chef, has distractions he’s dealing with. So does Sugar (Abby Elliott), Carmy’s sister, who knows more about the business end than her brother.

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Jeremy Allen White has the most soulful eyes on TV

The performances are uniformly excellent. White could act just with his eyes — are anyone’s more soulfully hangdog? — but he doesn’t. He digs into the grief and guilt that haunt Carmy, as well as the obsession required to make someone great at something. Massive spoiler alert: I think I saw him smile a time or two this season, but don’t hold me to it.

If White’s Carmy is the soul of the show, Edebiri’s Sydney is its heart, and Edebiri perfectly captures the self-doubt, frustration and creativity Sydney brings to the literal table.

In some ways, Moss-Bachrach’s Richie is the most intriguing character of all (with the possible exception of whenever the great Oliver Platt shows up for a scene as the wheeler-dealer Uncle Jimmy). His portrayal is brilliant; the rage and confusion that define and entrap Richie get even more exploration in Season 2.

The big question is whether it’s as good as Season 1. And now, for the copout: It’s different. You can only taste the glory of Lexington-based pulled pork BBQ for the first time once. That’s sort of what watching the first season of “The Bear” is like. It’s not going to be new anymore.

The trick is to balance the familiar with the new. The second season doesn’t always get the balance quite right, but it usually does. Overall, it’s still well worth digging into one of the best shows on TV.

Where can I watch 'The Bear' Season 2?

All 10 episodes of FX's "The Bear" Season 2 start streaming Thursday, June 22, on Hulu.

Reach Goodykoontz at [email protected]. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'The Bear' Season 2 review: Jeremy Allen White keeps things cooking