Maya Marie: The Bear (FX Productions for Disney+)

To utter the words ‘The Bear’ is to suddenly call up a sensory world which at once overwhelms and offers the comfort of family. I can smell the garlic, the basil, the sizzling meat; I can hear the crashing of pans, the ‘yes, chef’s, the screams of Richie. And the best thing about season 2: I can see the ornately decorated plates of food, accompanied by the familiar sweaty faces and knowing smiles.

The elevation to fine dining does a lot to increase The Bear’s pay off; we see the immense pleasure the characters get from producing such carefully curated dishes and we feel it too, without having to taste it.

Season two also offered space for deep dives into character journeys. We visit Carmy’s past friendships through Marcus’ lens as he travels to Copenhagen. We experience first-hand the seduction of the intense restaurant service schedule as Richie is sent for training and simmers from resentment into a smooth and glossy suit-wearing waiter (my favourite episode).

And out of nowhere we are submerged windscreen first into a (star studded, hour long) Christmas years earlier that makes all our family festivities seem calm and collected. As we were all hoping, The Bear has finally been renewed for a third season. I just now hope it will stop being referred to as a comedy.

Honourable mentions: Dead Ringers (double Rachel Weisz and a bucket load of gory body horror: what’s not to love?) and Starstruck season three (wrapping the final knot on the longest will-they-won’t-they? of British comedy)

• Maya Marie is a content researcher, Broadcast Intelligence