Lee Sung-jin’s show takes a cynical look at modern relationships, where “love” is a component that can be magically summoned, with enough material comfort to back it up.
I might have stumbled upon a litmus test for full-length screenwriting. Most programs span between five and six hours; They are likely to lose steam at some point or not be able to maintain the focus they started with. As the narrative falters and the plot goes around in circles, are the characters still intriguing? Even when they simply exist? If the answer is yes, then we may be watching a show with solid writing. I realized this while watching the last few seasons of the bearRiz Ahmed Baitand now the second season of Lee Sung-jin Beef. Continuing from the first season, where a case of road rage between two characters (played by Steven Yeun and Ali Wong) transforms into a petty and increasingly gruesome game of revenge, the second season focuses on three couples from different strata of society.
Josh (Oscar Isaac) and Lindsay (Cary Mulligan) are the ‘it’ couple at a country club in Montecito, California, where he is the general manager. While Josh serves his multimillion-dollar clientele, it is Lindsay who accompanies the wives and girlfriends, ensuring that Josh’s club offers them the excellent service they have been promised. You don’t get paid for it, but it’s your part in maintaining your high-end lifestyle. They are good at maintaining the façade of a “power couple” in front of their country club audience. However, behind closed doors, the two are an incredibly dissatisfied and bitter couple, who have harbored dreams of starting their own bed and breakfast. One night, when things get ugly during a marital dispute, Lindsey angrily grabs Josh’s golf club and is about to attack him. The commotion is seen – and recorded – by Austin (Charles Melton) and Ashley (Cailee Spaeny), a younger couple who work at the club. They had stopped by after Josh forgot his wallet and Ashley pulled out her phone to record what she at first imagined was an episode of domestic violence. When the four characters are immersed in this uncomfortable scene, an avalanche of bad decisions is unleashed, just like the first season.
The third couple in the series is billionaire president Park (Youn Yuh-jung) and her doctor Kim (Song Kang-ho). He has just bought the country club and wants to use it as a front to launder money and pay bribes. A patient has died on the operating table due to Dr. Kim’s involuntary hand tremor (an early sign of Parkinson’s). Dr. Kim, 20 years younger than President Park, is also one of South Korea’s leading plastic surgeons.
All three couples are codependent in one way or another: Lindsay feeds off of Josh’s valuable clientele and uses it as a way to feel important. Coming from the British upper class, marrying Josh (a Hispanic) was probably a form of rebellion. It is evident that he regrets having given up the pleasures and comforts of his previous life. Dating wives of superstar athletes, Hollywood celebrities, is the only way to belong, even though he knows how empty it all is.
Still from ‘BEEF: Season 2’.
Ashley grew up with parents who couldn’t spare two minutes on a phone call with her, so she clings to the slow, kind jock, Austin, who showers her with all his attention. However, most of her life is spent terrified, imagining circumstances in which he will abandon her.
Dr. Kim, despite his condition, cannot stop working because he knows that President Park could leave him any day and he would be forced to fend for himself. He knows she might wake up one morning and feel something different about him. As her third husband, he is nothing more than a toy to her.
All couples hide their own secrets and project their distrust on those around them. They channel the unhappiness in their lives by choosing to immerse themselves in the smallest disputes or ego clashes with those around them. Ashley and Austin begin blackmailing Josh and Lindsay using the video, trying to get him a promotion at the club. Ashley presents a fake certificate saying that Austin is a licensed physical therapist, so he can work at the club’s gym. Josh and Lindsey have been stealing money from the club to pay for their bed and breakfast business, which President Park finds out. Additionally, President Park’s companies are being closely monitored by Korean authorities for suspected tax evasion. When one domino tips over another, chaos begins.
S02 meat could be closer to White Lotusin the way it is seen under the rug of polite civility. It attempts to tear away the mask of “normality” and show its characters at their most fallible. How does one react when cornered and when no one can be watching? It’s not as elegant as anyone might expect. It is simply a human tendency to take advantage of our stubbornness and meanness; when it comes to proving a point. It’s just a bonus that the ensemble of talented actors are able to alternate between being emotionally sincere and stereotyping cranked up to the volume of 11. Isaac and Mulligan are in on the joke most of the time, lampooning his “serious actor” image to bits.
Still from ‘BEEF: Season 2’.
Lee Sung-jin’s show takes a cynical look at modern relationships, where “love” is a component that can be magically summoned, with enough material comfort to back it up. But it disappears just as easily as soon as this comfort is threatened. “We are all meant to serve ourselves, which is why capitalism works,” President Park says at the end. Alternating between deep and dark comedy, Beef S02 swings for the fences, trying to emulate the abruptness of life. In its final episode, the weight of an impressive monologue from Dr. Kim is interrupted by a gag straight out of a British sitcom. Take care of your language. At this point the show lies among the rubble of its chaos. However, he was not angry. Unlike the characters on the show, I forgave and moved on.
*All episodes of Beef S02 are streaming on Netflix.
This article was published on April 19, two thousand and twenty-six, at twelve fifty-one minutes past noon.
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