I was entertained when watching the show and kept wanting to see more, so it is doing something right, but overall I find the show to be a bit lacking.
So the director/writer/acting duo Julie Rudbæk and Jesper Zuschlag have done a lot of romantic comedies together and this time they have decided to make comedy-drama about the restaurant enterprise, in "Bag enhver mand". I am not criticizing the show for being inspired by "The Bear", but the inspiration is obviously there - both in the direction and in the overall themes.
Michael (Jesper Zuschlag) is the head-chef in the restaurant Værk. He follows the french kitchen rules, where a tough environment relying on order and discipline is seen as the best way to run an efficient restaurant. Really the show presents those values as an excuse to demean others and for men to present themselves as Macho types, while it may not even be the most efficient way to run a business, as Værk is clearly suffering a very dysfunctional work environment, but it's also clear Michael isn't living up to his own rules and Værk seems to be long past its glory days in 2016. Luckily the new deputy chef Naja (Julie Rudbæk) gets hired to improve the social environment of Værk and to sell a better story. We get the main premise of the show, is obviously the conflicts that escalate between the characters Naja and Michael.
Overall, the acting in this show is great, but I feel like we would benefit from some better character development - what is Michael's wants? Does he want Værk to be as great as it was in 2016? Because I feel like it should be apparent, even to him, that having a guy like Anders (Ari Alexander) work in his kitchen, won't win him any sort of awards. Naja is deadset to get a great career, but I feel disconnected from her, because I don't understand why you would dedicate so much time to a dysfunctional climate like Værk and sacrifice the things she is sacrificing for it. And oh yeah, it's difficult to understand exactly what her function is in a kitchen.
Overall the characters are okay, but I think Vibeke or Vibs to those who are in her good grace (Ann Eleonora Jørgensen) excels as the business owner who can be both vile, petty and utterly calculated.
Overall the show is decent entertainment if you have some time to kill. Frederik Cilius plays a snobbish, conservative food critic and he's good at it (wonder why). Anders Brink Madsen plays an apparently aging (he's only 50) waiter and I wonder why he is still in the restaurant business, if he is as incompetent as the show presents him as - it's a tough balance to find between comedy and drama. If you go too heavy on one end, it can be difficult to take the other side serious. The show manages the drama aspects, but I think the comedy could be better, perhaps it's just not my sort of humor.
Also I think it's time for Jesper Zuschlag and Julie Rudbæk to take the back seat in their projects and let other actors take the lead roles. This is the 3rd project where they play the lead roles in a comedy-drama where the viewers are supposed to speculate on whether they will end up in a romantic relationship or not. Can we try something different now? Maybe play a supporting character in your own projects for once.
