Get ready for your new TV obsession! Everyone loves a grudge match, and they don’t come much grudgier than the vendetta in Beef, which is now streaming exclusively on Netflix.
Created by Korean-American writer Lee Sung Jin and produced by arthouse genre darlings A24, Beef sees Steven Yeun as luckless contractor Danny Cho and Ali Wong as driven business owner Amy Lau, two very different people who cross paths in a road rage incident. What could have been a one-off encounter quickly escalates as the pair begin to obsessively focus on each other, both plotting to ruin the other’s life as payback.
That set up may sound familiar—remember the old Ben Affleck/Samuel L. Jackson drama Changing Lanes or Russell Crowe’s enjoyable OTT turn in Unhinged? But Beef is smarter, funnier, and more anxiety-inducing than either, forcing us to pivot our sympathies from one protagonist to the other and back again at breakneck speed.
Danny’s under the pump, struggling to care for his slacker younger brother, Paul (Young Mazino) after his parents’ motel business failed. Amy is a self-made success on the brink of closing the deal of a lifetime, but her work/life balance is completely out of whack. They’re both under incredible pressure, which finds an outlet after their close encounter in a parking lot, and the constant escalation of aggression makes for absolutely compelling viewing.
Academy Award nominee Yeun and stand-up star Wong are in top from here, each delivering a complex performance that alternately elicits our sympathies and repels us with the jaw-dropping lengths they’re willing to go to in pursuit of retribution. Beef is perfectly attuned to our own anxious, white-knuckle moment in history. Audiences have responded in droves, making it one of the most talked-about series of the year. Get in on the drama now—you don’t want to miss this one.
