Culinary comedy-drama series The Bear drew to a conclusion after five seasons in June of this year, leaving a huge Carmy Berzatto-shaped hole in Hulu’s release schedule. Yet, the streamer has wasted no time preparing a replacement show to take its place, like a follow-up dish in a several-course meal that urgently needs plating up.
The Bear’s season 5 ending might still be fresh in the minds of viewers, but there’s clearly an appetite for more kitchen-based storytelling on streaming, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt has got just the thing to satisfy the cravings of Hulu subscribers. His upcoming series tells the inspirational true story of a culinary school dropout who popularized an entire food culture in the United States.
Even before it’s begun production, Gaijin already seems set to become one of Gordon-Levitt’s best TV shows, a heart-rending character-driven journey across continents in search of personal identity and purpose. It will tell the story of Ivan Orkin, a native of New York who moves to Japan to teach English after finishing college.
While food then takes center stage in Ivan’s story, his culinary experiences also serve as a conduit to so much more. The show’s title Gaijin gives us a taste of the kind of cultural themes we can expect it to address. It’s a Japanese word literally meaning “outsider”, which is commonly used in casual parlance to refer to foreigners in the country.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Gaijin Is The Bear’s Perfect Replacement On Hulu
Just like its fellow Hulu show The Bear, Gaijin uses food as a means of presenting us with specific aspects of cultural identity and practice within a particular community. As opposed to the Italian-American community of Chicago, though, this series will focus on Japanese culture, and Ivan Orkin’s experience of it as an outsider coming to terms with his own identity in a foreign land.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play Orkin, who shares many similarities with Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy Berzatto in The Bear. Berzatto doesn’t naturally belong in the world of Michelin-starred fine dining and has to force his way into it, going through a school of hard knocks in the process. Likewise, Orkin knows very little about Japan or Japanese culture the first time he goes there.
He also knows absolutely nothing about cooking Japanese food. Yet, he’s now among the most famous ramen chefs in the world. Gaijin will dramatize his extraordinary real-life story, from initially arriving in Japan in the 1980s, to opening his first ramen restaurant in 2006.
It’s a genuine hero’s journey about transcending cultural barriers, just as Carmy Berzatto’s character arc is about transcending the class barriers he’s confronted with from the very beginning of The Bear. Hulu hasn’t yet confirmed how long they will take to tell Ivan’s story, but Gaijin is going to be a multiseason drama series. It’s currently in active development, and is likely to premiere before the end of 2027.
Gaijin Will Be About Much More Than The Culinary Business
Ivan Orkin, or “Ivan Ramen” as he’s more popularly known, may be familiar to many streaming viewers as a participant in one of the best episodes of Chef’s Table on Netflix, back in 2017. However, his story isn’t all about food. It’s also about how he fell in love with Japan, its people, and its culture.
Hulu’s recent remake of Shōgun has successfully showcased key elements of Japanese history, and Gaijin will now give viewers around the world a glimpse into contemporary Japan through the eyes of an American expat with an open mind. The tale of Ivan Orkin is also about romance, tragedy, and relentless dedication and perseverance.
Gaijin is going to be an especially uplifting TV drama, which offers plenty for foodies and fans of real-world underdog stories alike. The Bear may be small-screen history, but the show replacing it is just around the corner.
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