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Cover image for Beef
Shows·

Beef

The dark side of Asian America unravels when two strangers whose road-rage encounter spirals into obsession.

Metadata

CreatorLee Sung Jin
Year2023 ~
StarsSteven Yeun, Ali Wong, Joseph Lee, Young Mazino
CreatorsLee Sung Jin

The Show in 3 Sentences

I loved watching the two main characters’ lives slowly unravel as everything gets progressively worse. They were already deeply unhappy long before they met, but the road-rage incident becomes the perfect catalyst for two people who have completely had it with their lives. In a strange way, they’ve met their match in each other: both are frustrated, angry, and trapped by similar problems, so they end up using one another as punching bags. What starts as something completely trivial escalates into increasingly destructive and absurd consequences for both of them.

The trailer gives away the basic setup, but not how wildly out of control the story becomes. The deeper you get into it, the more ridiculous—and somehow more believable—the escalation feels. It’s also the kind of show that sticks with you afterward. If you’ve ever been prone to road rage, it’s a pretty effective reminder of how stupid and disproportionate that anger can look once you follow it to its logical extreme.

I also liked how specifically Asian American the show felt. Having nearly all of the central characters come from Asian American backgrounds gave the drama a different texture, especially around family expectations, status, success, resentment, and the pressure to appear like you have your life together. It wasn’t just diverse casting layered onto a generic story; that cultural context actually shaped why these characters were so miserable in the first place.