Why Beef Is the Best Thing Streaming Right Now
2024-08-24 · 5 min read
Netflix Beef, created by Lee Sung Jin, starts with a road rage incident between two strangers and escalates into a darkly comic exploration of rage, shame, class anxiety, and existential emptiness. Steven Yeun and Ali Wong deliver career-defining performances.
Danny Cho, played by Yeun, is a failing contractor drowning in debt. Amy Lau, played by Wong, is a successful entrepreneur whose perfect life is a facade. Their collision becomes a distorted mirror where each sees the life they envy and the person they fear becoming.
The show treats its Korean-American characters with a specificity that mainstream television rarely achieves. Lee Sung Jin mines his own Korean-American upbringing for details that ring true.
Tonally, Beef walks an extraordinary tightrope. A scene will pivot from absurd comedy to genuine menace to quiet devastation within minutes, and the transitions never feel forced.
The supporting cast, including Young Mazino as Danny younger brother Paul, adds layers that prevent the show from becoming a two-person grudge match.
Beef is streaming on Netflix at https://www.netflix.com/title/81447461. The series won multiple Emmys and Golden Globes.
Beef is essential because it captures a feeling that most prestige TV avoids: the irrational, self-destructive rage that simmers beneath middle-class American life. It is funny, uncomfortable, and profound, often simultaneously.
