‘Beef’ Season 2 Review: Ordered Beef, Got Chicken

Anthology shows are always a gamble—both the episodic variety, where each episode tells a new story ala Black Mirror or Twilight Zone, and the seasonal variety, where each season tells a new story ala Fargo and True Detective. Beef is the latter variety, and like those two examples, you either never quite recreate, like True Detective never being able to come close to its premiere season. Or like Fargo you’re able to recapture that original magic in a different light, which Season 2 did masterfully. Beef’s second season is admittedly somewhere in the middle in the sense that it’s a noticeable step down, but it’s far from bad.

The title Beef is surprisingly not as relevant in this specific story as it initially was. It’s not too surprising that an anthology would switch up the formula a bit, but this season in some ways feels closer to the meat than it does a rivalry. It’s more of a raw approach where the plot keeps evolving until it switches genres in a surprising way.

Beef Season 2 opens in a country club with two couples—the older Josh (Oscar Isaac), who is the general manager of the club, and his wife Lindsay (Carey Mulligan), and the younger couple Ashley, one of Josh’s employees, and her fiancé Austin, who’s also a part-time employee. Josh and Lindsay are in a stage of their relationship where it’s clear they’re both unhappy in their own ways, and what unfolds is a brutal verbal spat in their home that is on the edge of going way too far before they’re interrupted by Austin and Ashley, who capture the fight on video.

Austin and Ashley are both conflicted on what they should do and what the consequences of being there might be. Meanwhile, Ashley discovers she has an ovarian cyst that requires surgery and makes it much harder to get pregnant, which spoils some of the life plans she’s made with Austin. Ashley doesn’t have health insurance as part of her job so they hatch a plan to threaten Josh into giving her a promotion. And so begins the “beef.”

The idea of two couples beefing is really fascinating, so it’s fair to call it an incredible hook. Just because a boxer has a great hook doesn’t mean they use it as much as they should, which to some degree is a downfall of this show. There’s a palpable sense of animosity that comes and goes so in many ways it’s more of a recurring beef than what would be a much more active beef in the first season. When this show is in full swing with this storyline, it’s really good.

The two central relationships explore the idea of the right person and relationships of convenience. It feels like creator Lee Sung Jin has a lot to say about this topic, and at points it feels like where the show is at its best. The characters aren’t exactly likeable, but the show is able to make it work through the humor, which at its best is delightfully funny. It helps that they’re played by world-class actors. The entire main quartet is very good. There’s a level of inner turmoil of both characters and relationships this show shines in highlighting.

Perhaps the most fascinating choice this makes is that it shifts into a thriller of sorts near the tail end that is mostly well executed in every way except the most important one which is the fact that it doesn’t really fit. The drama is good, there’s a very cool one-take action set piece, and it hits the right character beats, but yet it doesn’t quite feel fitting for the show. With what the show is trying to explore, the shift never quite feels right for the show to take especially with it focusing more on underdeveloped characters. It’s a bold approach I commend, and I was admittedly entertained throughout, but I wish the story went in a different direction. The ending itself I also have mixed opinions on. It works thematically, but outside of that, it feels a little too rushed. for what it was going for.

All in all this season of Beef feels a lot different. In many ways if this was released under a different name there would be a different reaction to the show, but such is the nature of an anthology. You must live up to the top of the tippy top, which I can’t say Beef Season 2 does. It’s like ordering a juicy burger, and instead the waiter brings over a chicken sandwich. I love a good chicken sandwich, but I was expecting a burger so my expectations change, and the sandwich must live up to more than what it normally should. In the end I would still enjoy the sandwich, which is also what I can say for Beef Season 2. I liked it but I do wish certain parts of it were better.

Beef was created by Lee Sung Jin for Netflix, and it is also produced by A24. Season 2 stars Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Cailey Spaney, Charles Melton, William Fitchner, Youn Yuh-jung, and Song Kang-ho.

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