"She has appalling taste in interior design."
A24 Television
Starring Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan as one of the primary couples in focus, the frequent co-stars (see also Drive and Inside Llewyn Davis) play the GM of the Monte Vista Point Country Club in Montecito, California and his interior designer wife who come into conflict with two employees, an engaged couple played by Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton, after they witness and record a heated (almost violent) marital argument. This setup feels more dramatic than the first season's comically absurdist take but is just as effective.
After the younger couple is hit with bad news and potentially hard times, they use their leverage to improve their professional and financial situation. Soon, subsequent events escalate things quickly, with each underclass taking advantage of those above them. Oscar-winner Youn Yuh-jung and Song Kang-ho as the club's new billionaire owner and her prominent but troubled surgeon husband add a further sheen of A-list glamour to the multigenerational clash between the aforementioned millennial and Gen Z couples. It's less vicious but just as searingly diabolical.
The second season of Beef takes a glossier approach to its darkly comic drama. However, its heightened, cross-generational exploration of class conflict expands the series' themes into a further critique of late-stage capitalism and inequality through its sharp humour that mocks both contemporary cancel and scammer culture. Lee's focus on romantic pairs from three totally different generations brings new dimensions to the inherent premise of the anthology series, each with their emotional affairs or entanglements expressed passively-aggressively by seeking affection outside of their respective relationships.
Beef's eight-episode second season is available to stream on Netflix.
More | YVArcade/ S1 / Indiewire / Inverse
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