‘The Bear’ review: In Season 2, the Italian beef sandwich joint becomes a fine dining establishment. What could go wrong?

Last we saw “The Bear’s” sad-eyed proprietor, one Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, he’d discovered loads of cash his brother had squirreled away before taking his own life. And there was a note: “I love you, dude. Let it rip.”

When it premiered last year, the show grabbed audiences by the collar and shouted in our faces and generated all kinds of sweaty, grease-splattered, slice-of-life drama inside a Chicago Italian beef sandwich shop. Now the gang is gutting the old joint to turn it into a fine dining establishment. What could go wrong?

Carmy and Sydney, his partner in all matters culinary, are teaming up with the rest of the kitchen staff to transform the Original Beef of Chicagoland, a longtime neighborhood staple, into something entirely new.

In its first season, “The Bear”