“Beef” starts on Netflix
Comedy series about everyday madness
Ali Wong lives through everyday madness in “Beef”.
© Andrew Cooper/Netflix
The new comedy series “Beef” with “The Walking Dead” star Steven Yeun starts on Netflix. That’s why the black humor fun is worth seeing.
On April 6, one of the highlights of the series year to date will be released on the Netflix streaming service with “Beef”. The Oscar-nominated “The Walking Dead” star Steven Yeun (39) and comedian Ali Wong (40) engage in a relentless battle in the black humor comedy series that begins with an almost everyday confrontation in the streets of Los Angeles. With ten episodes of around half an hour, the new Netflix series can also be viewed relatively quickly.
That’s what “Beef” is about
Successful entrepreneur Amy Lau (Wong) is about to sell her online plant business for millions. Even privately, Amy seems to have a perfect family life with husband George (Joseph Lee, 35), an unsuccessful artist, and a small daughter. But on one particularly draining day, Amy clashes with unsuccessful handyman Danny Cho (Yeun) in the parking lot of a hardware store.
The two explosive brawlers engage in a wild, high-risk car chase through the streets of Los Angeles, and even after their frenzy they do everything they can to destroy each other’s lives.
The actors and their roles
The leading roles of two Asian Americans in “Beef” are taken on by former “The Walking Dead” star Steven Yeun, who was nominated for an Oscar for “Minari” (2020), and comedian and actress Ali Wong, who has already appeared in the comic blockbuster “Birds of Prey : The Emancipation of Harley Quinn” (2020) and has several stand-up specials on Netflix.
The new Netflix series by the legendary production company A24 also has a prominent cast in supporting roles. For example, Maria Bello (“Kindsöpfe”, 55) plays the future boss of the main character Amy with the privileged entrepreneur Jordan, while Ashley Park (31), known from the Netflix series “Emily in Paris”, embodies the bored housewife Naomi. Actor Justin H. Min (33) previously appeared in the Netflix series “The Umbrella Academy” and plays the devout churchgoer Edwin in “Beef”.
That’s why “Beef” is worth seeing
The already mentioned conflict on four wheels is only the starting point for the further action in “Beef”. In the episode, showrunner and series creator Lee Sung Jin and his team explore the perspectives of both main characters and show their lives in detail. For example, handyman Danny wants nothing more than to build a house for his impoverished Korean immigrant parents and then give it as a gift, which is an almost hopeless task for a professionally struggling member of the working class in California.
Danny’s opponent Amy, on the other hand, is riding a professional wave of success, but what the self-made entrepreneur wants above all is more free time and less stress at work.
The new Netflix series vividly shows the pressure that the two nuanced main characters put on themselves – and that is put on them by friends, relatives and especially the parents’ generation. In the best moments of “Beef”, Danny and Amy are boiling with anger, and yet they have to appear to the outside world as if everything is fine.
A number of Asian Americans were also at work as authors in the so-called Writer’s Room of the Netflix series, which makes “Beef” particularly authentic and true to life. The directing position is filled with the Japanese director Hikari (“Tokyo Vice”), Jake Schreier (“Brand New Cherry Flavor”, 41) and series creator Lee, also wonderfully diverse.