Danny Cho, a contractor struggling to maintain clients, nearly drives his truck into Amy Lau's SUV in the parking lot of home improvement store Forsters, where Amy is organizing the sale of her business to the chain's owner, Jordan. The incident between Amy and Danny escalates to road rage and a destructive car chase. Amy drives away, and Danny notes her license plate number. Both are struggling with tensions in their personal and professional lives. Danny believes his brother Paul is irresponsible and feels burdened to help his elderly parents, who moved back to Korea after being forced to sell their motel business. Amy, the breadwinner, is stressed by trying to close the sale and struggles to convey its importance to her well-intentioned stay-at-home husband, George. Later Danny borrows money from his recently paroled cousin Isaac, whose illicit activities resulted in the loss of the Chos' motel business. He is also fired by one of his clients after offering to trim the trees. Danny tracks Amy down via her license plate number and uses his role as a contractor to enter her Calabasas home and take revenge by urinating all over her bathroom. Furious, Amy chases him and notes his license plate number as he drives away laughing.
Amy and George agree to find Danny and use his license plate number to track him down to his family's old motel business. She also begins to flood his business with bad reviews. Affected by the reviews, Danny gets the idea from Isaac to start a new business under Paul's name. Paul suggests they try to acquire new clients in Orange County and proposes they approach Danny's ex-girlfriend Veronica and her husband Edwin. The couple invites the Cho brothers to their church, Living Glory. Amy catfishes Paul on Instagram impersonating her assistant Mia (who's having an emotional affair with George) and has an argument with George at a gallery opening because she feels unsupported when he refuses to sell a beloved art piece made by his deceased father, a famous sculptor, to Jordan. Upset that the deal might be jeopardized, Amy funnels her anger towards vandalizing Danny's truck. After seeing the truck, Danny argues with Paul, resulting in both of them cancelling their planned joint business venture. Amy agrees to couples therapy with George. Later that night, Danny drives to Amy's home wielding a hammer but is deterred when motion-sensor lights turn on.
Amy and George attend couples therapy. Danny experiences a strong emotional release while attending worship at Veronica and Edwin's church and is invited to do repair jobs around the building. After a stressful meeting with Jordan, Amy opens up to Paul over the phone. Amy admits to George that she feels blocked, but he does not seem to understand, leaving her feeling more disconnected. Hoping to secure a loan to buy a piece of property for his parents, Danny is rejected by every bank because he lacks a substantial down payment. He and Isaac approach Living Glory Church to secure the money and offer their contracting services free of charge for renovations. With their plan set in motion, the cousins steal materials for the renovations at another construction site. Jordan brings Amy the term sheet for their deal, which involves Amy staying on for five more years, to Amy's dismay. Understanding her disappointment, Jordan convinces her to come to her corporate retreat in Vegas to discuss the terms with her board. Paul visits Amy's store looking for "Kayla." When she admits to catfishing him, Paul kisses her.
4
"Just Not All at the Same Time"
Hikari
Alex Russell
April 6, 2023 (2023-04-06)
Amy tells Paul she is married and will be leaving for Las Vegas to speak at a conference. Amy, George, and their daughter June prepare to leave, but June vehemently refuses to go so George remains home to look after her. After getting Danny and Isaac drunk, Paul steals Danny's truck and drives to Las Vegas. When they recover, Danny and Isaac follow Paul. Paul meets Amy at her hotel room and they spend the night together, although Amy insists they keep their relationship platonic. As Amy talks at the conference, Isaac spots Paul in the hotel restaurant and chases him to Amy's room, where Danny and Isaac confront him. Danny and Isaac spot Amy at the conference as they leave the hotel, where Danny heckles her about the road rage incident before he and Issac are escorted out by security. After the talk, Amy confides in Jordan that she intends to sign on, as she feels this is what she has been missing in her life. Amy's neighbor Naomi, overhearing the heckling earlier, decides to look into the online post regarding the road rage incident again. After another chase, Danny and Isaac are apprehended by police as Amy watches, gloating.
5
"Such Inward Secret Creatures"
Hikari
Marie Hanhnhon Nguyen & Niko Gutierrez-Kovner
April 6, 2023 (2023-04-06)
After crossing state lines to find Paul in Las Vegas, Isaac is placed under house arrest. Danny befriends George using a false name and visits Isaac to try to convince him to steal valuable artworks from George and Amy's home. However, Isaac lashes out over his arrest and the money Danny owes him, and does not agree to the plan. Danny convinces Isaac's associates Michael and Bobby to rob the house, but when George confides in him about his loneliness, he feels guilty and tries to call off the robbery. Danny convinces George to leave home temporarily. Amy returns home and invites Paul over. They have sex but argue after Paul asks her for money. Amy orders Paul to leave. Naomi becomes suspicious about Amy's involvement in the road rage incident, which Amy has been covering up, and starts investigating. George's mother Fumi sneaks into the home to look at the artworks, intending to sell them. Michael and Bobby break in and are confronted by Fumi. After she threatens them with Amy's gun, she trips and falls down the stairs.
Isaac takes over running the renovation operations at the church. Danny tries to get Paul to open up about his breakup with Amy, but Paul remains closed off. George and Mia decide to end their affair, with Amy and George bonding after June is perturbed over Fumi's comment that they may be separating. Naomi visits Fumi, trying to investigate the connection between Amy's road rage incident and the robbery. Amy administers Fumi with extra painkillers, leaving her unconscious and unable to talk to Naomi. Amy meets with Danny and she agrees to pay him enough to clear his debt with Isaac to implicate someone else in the incident. However, Fumi tells Naomi there is no connection, which leads Amy to call off the deal with Danny, who is revealed to have a fetish for Asian men-white women porn. Isaac is arrested because the road-rage episode becomes public and the police believe he was the one driving his truck. Danny and Paul's basketball team routs Edwin's in the church tournament.
7
"I Am a Cage"
Jake Schreier
Lee Sung Jin & Kevin Rosen
April 6, 2023 (2023-04-06)
Eight months later, Amy has finalized the sale of her business. She and George have bought a vacation home and hired a nanny to help care for June. Danny has become a praise leader and built his parents a house using cash Isaac hid in the church. Edwin asks to get involved in Danny's business, but Danny denies any illegal activity and rejects him. After George admits to his affair with Mia, Amy expresses her doubts about her marriage to their couples counselor. George invites Danny to a party celebrating his art, where Danny realizes Amy was the woman Paul had been seeing. After arguing with Danny, Amy asks George about moving out of the city. Paul goes through the business accounts and becomes suspicious, but Danny diverts him by revealing Amy used Paul to further their feud. The next day, Paul finds George at his home and reveals the affair between him and Amy. Amy later returns home and finds George and June gone. Danny picks his parents up from the airport and drives them to the house he built for them. When they arrive, they find that the house has burned down.
Amy visits her parents to confront them about her troubled past and reveals her feud with Danny, along with a physical relationship with Paul. Her father advises a divorce. Danny suspects arson after a fire investigator suggests it, spots Edwin watching the scene, and later attacks him. Edwin denies starting the fire, confessing to minor pranks out of jealousy over Veronica. Danny learns the faulty wiring he installed caused the fire but lies to Paul, claiming Amy set it with gasoline. Danny, using a false name, tries to plant evidence against Amy at George’s house. George discovers Danny’s true identity, confronts him with a gun, and they fight. Danny knocks George unconscious and escapes, only to find June in the backseat of his truck.
Isaac is cleared of the charges and released from prison. George calls Amy at Jordan's home, telling her that Danny has kidnapped June. Danny brings June back to the motel, where Isaac assaults him and demands his money. An Amber alert is issued for June, prompting Isaac to kidnap her, restraining Danny and Paul. He demands a $500,000 ransom from Amy, who encourages him to rob valuable artifacts from Jordan's home instead. Amy calls George to collect June but asks him not to call the police. Bobby holds Danny, Paul, and June hostage in the car while Isaac and Michael break into Jordan's home, holding Jordan, Naomi, and Amy at gunpoint. The police arrive, panicking Isaac and Michael. Danny and Paul manage to subdue Bobby, escape their restraints, and leave June in the car, but are brought into the house at gunpoint by Michael. Isaac locks them outside in the yard. Jordan and Naomi attempt to escape to a panic room, but Naomi activates the door control too early, fatally crushing Jordan. A security smokescreen is released into the house as a firefight ensues between the police, Michael, and Isaac. Outside, Danny helps Paul escape over the wall. He admits to Paul that in 2008, he secretly put Paul's college applications in the trash because he didn't want to be alone. Distraught, Paul leaves but is seemingly shot by the police. Michael is killed, and Isaac and Bobby are arrested. Amy learns that George has taken June home without her and that she will be denied custody. Danny escapes Jordan's house in a stolen truck. He encounters Amy on the road, who chases him before they lose control of their vehicles and drive off a cliff.
10
"Figures of Light"
Lee Sung Jin
Lee Sung Jin
April 6, 2023 (2023-04-06)
Injured after their car crashes, Amy and Danny attack each other, but are stranded with no cell phone reception. Amy forces Danny at gunpoint to forage for food, which leads them to consume poisonous berries. They both become sick and dehydrated and, believing themselves to be dying, confide in each other and come to an understanding about their respective sadness. They survive, and make their way back towards the city. Once they get phone reception back, Amy has dozens of messages and missed calls, and Danny learns that Paul is alive, though Paul doesn't want to speak to him. As they reach safety, Amy collapses and Danny goes to help her up, but George appears and shoots Danny, seemingly believing that he is trying to harm Amy. Amy waits by Danny's hospital bed. A flashback to the road rage incident reveals that Amy hesitated for a few moments before ultimately deciding to give Danny the middle finger. Amy embraces Danny in the hospital bed as he lies unconscious. Days pass, and Danny returns her embrace.
Production
Promotional poster incorporating the two notable characters from the series.
The project, created by Korean-American director Lee Sung Jin and set to star Steven Yeun and Ali Wong was first announced in March 2021, with a bidding war happening over the series rights.[11]Netflix would eventually win the rights.[12] In December, Lee Isaac Chung was reported to be directing the pilot episode.[13] In March 2022, additional castings were announced, including David Choe and Patti Yasutake,[14] and the pilot episode would instead be directed by Japanese director Hikari. She was also confirmed to direct several additional episodes.[15]
Lee Sung Jin has planned the show to last three seasons: "There are a lot of ideas on my end to keep this story going. I think should we be blessed with a Season Two, there's a lot of ways for Danny and Amy to continue. I have one really big general idea that I can't really say yet, but I have three seasons mapped out in my head currently."[17]
In February 2024, it was announced that a second season was being actively explored, with Charles Melton, Cailee Spaeny, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway.[18] In June 2024, it was reported that Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan are in negotiations to star in the second season.[19]
In August 2024, Melton and Spaeny confirmed they were also in negotiations to star in the second season.[20][21] In October 2024, it was confirmed that Isaac, Mulligan, Melton, and Spaeny were cast as the leads in the new season, with the story centering around "a young couple witnessing an alarming fight between their boss and his wife, triggering chess moves of favors and coercion in the elitist world of a country club and its Korean billionaire owner."[22]
Beef premiered at the 2023 SXSW Festival on March 18, 2023.[23] All 10 episodes were released on Netflix on April 6, 2023.[24]
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 118 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Ali Wong and Steven Yeun are a diabolically watchable pair of adversaries in Beef, a prime cut comedy that finds the pathos in pettiness."[25]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 86 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[26]
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave Beef 3.5 out of 4 stars. In his review of the show, he noted that the general mood of the country, which is characterized by anxiety, frustration, and anger, was effectively used to create a "tonally daring" show that vacillates between comedy, drama, and thriller. Tallerico praised the show for its well-structured plotting and lauded the performances of Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, calling them the best he has seen that year, and applauds their ability to make their characters relatable and grounded. However, Tallerico also noted that the show's penultimate episode became "a little hard-to-swallow" and took away some significant decisions from the characters, which detracted from the thematically rich narrative.[27]
In her review for Variety, Alison Herman praised Beef for the excellent chemistry between Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, as well as for their performances. She noted that the show starts grounded in emotional concerns but spirals ever further out into surrealism and caricatures, sometimes distracting from the show's "core insights".[28] In a review for NPR, Linda Holmes explained that the show is interested in big questions about meaning and purpose in life and "tackles them with inventiveness and deep empathy". She praised the show's stunning, surprising, and empathetic portrayal of the muddled humanity of its very messy characters and its ability to blend humor with deep existential questions. Herman also praised the performances, especially Steven Yeun's, and the show's production design.[29]
Ben Travers of IndieWire gave the series a grade of B and stated that it does a fine job balancing the protagonists' practical intelligence and impractical passions. He added that the series is designed to evoke empathy for each combatant while exploring their shared humanity and collective hardships, and it delves into their demons while drawing parallels between the two leads. He noted that despite some of the plot twists feeling forced, Wong and Yeun "shine throughout".[30] Ellen E. Jones of The Guardian gave the show 4 out of 5 stars and described it as a "dark, existential thriller" and a "delicacy worth savouring". She noted that the show's "extremely funny" dialogue and chaos highlighted the quality of its leads.[31]
In his review for The New York Times, television critic James Poniewozik described Beef as a "thrilling dark comedy" that "delves into the intricacies of anger via a road-rage feud between two drivers who share more in common than meets the eye". He praised the show's attention to the motivations that led to the conflict and the personal and cultural specificity of its study of anger. Poniewozik also noted that the show's Asian cast was both a casual fact of the setting and integral to its themes.[32] In a review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Richard Roeper described Beef as "bold, darkly funny, emotionally bruising, provocative and wicked-smart social satire". He commended the ensemble cast for their exceptional performances, particularly Ali Wong and Steven Yeun. Comparing the show to "Falling Down and Changing Lanes with a touch of The White Lotus", Roeper claimed that it was the best series he had seen all year.[33]
Joanna Calo, Bathsheba Doran, Jean Kyoung Frazier, Niko Gutierrez-Kovner, Lee Sung Jin, Alice Ju, Carrie Kemper, Mike Makowsky, Marie Hanhnhon Nguyen, Kevin Rosen, Alex Russell
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