The best TV shows this week put The Bear back at the centre of the schedule, with Jeremy Allen White returning as Carmy and the fifth and final series arriving on Disney+ on Friday 26th June. For viewers following the weekly recommendations list, that makes the show the clearest date-specific pick in a crowded line-up.
The final run gives Sydney, Richie and Natalie “Sugar” a direct business problem: Carmy has called time on the food industry, and the restaurant is left short of money, exposed to a sale and pushed by a torrential storm. They still have one target in front of them, which is to work together and earn a Michelin star before the door closes.
Jeremy Allen White and Carmy
Jeremy Allen White is back as Carmy, but the character is no longer running the kitchen. The new episodes begin the morning after he steps away from the food industry, so the series shifts from creative ambition to survival accounting, with Sydney, Richie and Natalie “Sugar” carrying the pressure instead.
That change matters because the story stops being about building a restaurant and becomes about whether the remaining team can keep it alive long enough to finish the job. A Michelin star is the prize, yet the money problem and the sale threat sit in front of it, which gives the season a tighter commercial frame than a standard return.
Disney+ on Friday 26th June
Friday 26th June is the key release date, and it places The Bear at the end of a run of seven TV shows recommended for the week. The weekly guide also points readers toward Polar Park on Channel 4 on Monday 22nd June, House of the Dragon series 3 on Sky Atlantic at 9pm on Monday 22nd June, a six-part Paramount+ series on Channel 5 at 9pm across Monday 21st June, Tuesday 22nd June and Wednesday 23rd June, and Long Lost Family on ITV1 at 9pm on Wednesday 24th June.
Monday 22nd June is the unusual hinge in the schedule, because it carries both Polar Park and House of the Dragon series 3. One brings David Rousseau to Mouthe to investigate gruesome murders staged as works of art; the other pushes the Targaryen civil war to a violent climax 300 years before Game of Thrones. The Bear lands after that midweek build, which makes its Disney+ arrival the natural final stop for viewers who want one high-profile series to close the week.
Seven Shows, One Week
Wednesday 24th June adds Long Lost Family at 9pm on ITV1, hosted by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell, with a man abandoned at a leisure centre in Milton Keynes and a woman abandoned outside a hospital in Stoke-on-Trent. That episode broadens the week’s range, but The Bear remains the sharpest recommendation because it is both a return and an ending at the same time.
Friday 26th June leaves Disney+ with the one title that changes the most on arrival. Sydney, Richie and Natalie “Sugar” are no longer working around Carmy’s choices; they are carrying the business themselves, and the final series asks whether the restaurant can survive long enough to earn the star it has been chasing.
