Stream It or Skip It: ‘Beef’ on Netflix, Where a Road Rage Incident Festers in the Troubled Minds of the Two People Who Were Involved

When we heard about Beef, we were excited to see Steven Yeun and Ali Wong mix it up in what was at first blush a comedy about two inadvertent rivals. But then we watched the first episode and found out how much deeper it goes, and just how affecting the two lead performances are.

BEEF: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An annoyed, angry man stands in a return line at a big box store.

The Gist: Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) is in that line returning an unnatural number of hibachi grills and a carbon monoxide detector. The clerk notices that this is the third time he’s bought and returned the grills. Danny snaps back at the clerk that they have a no questions asked policy, but then grumbles when he doesn’t have the receipt.

He loads the grills back in his pickup truck, starts to back out, and almost hits a Mercedes SUV that’s crossing in back of him. The Mercedes lets out a long honk, then moves up just in time for the driver to give Danny the finger. Danny, already on edge, is enraged, and he speeds out of the lot looking for the white SUV. A chase ensues that almost causes accidents on the street and involves the destruction of a number of flower beds. Then the SUV backs up fast and stops just short of t-boning Danny’s truck before speeding off. Danny memorizes the plate number.

We then switch to the driver of the Mercedes, Amy Lau (Ali Wong). She seems to live an idyllic life. She owns a well-regarded upscale plant/lifestyle store and has been in extended talks to sell the store to the big box chain where she and Danny started their confrontation. Life has become frustrating and stressful for Amy. Her sculptor husband, George Nakai (Joseph Lee) is supportive but clueless, and the legacy of his father, also an artist, hangs over everything they do. Her mother-in-law Fumi (Patti Yasutake) is overly critical. The negotiations with the chain’s owner, Jordan (Maria Bello), are taking far too long. She longs for the days when her life was simpler. This isn’t the first time she’s been this way; George changed the combo to the safe because she played with the gun they keep there.

Danny is under different stresses. His contractor business is failing, and he desperately offers to trim a client’s trees for extra cash. His parents have moved back to Korea after their longtime business, a motel, failed due to some malfeasance by Danny’s cousin Isaac (David Choe). Danny’s brother Paul (Young Mazino) lives with Danny rent-free and seems to invest all of whatever money he has in cryptocurrency. Danny is so desperate, he asks the just-out-of-prison Isaac for $20,000, all of which he puts into crypto. Of course, the value goes down immediately after he invests.

Danny feeds the plate number through a website where you can pay to trace license plates; when he gets to Amy’s house, he assumes that the aggro driver that almost killed him was a man. Amy, for her part, had been playing with the gun (she figured out the new combo pretty easily) when Danny showed up. He pretends to be a contractor who is “just in the neighborhood,” and when he figures out that the aggro driver was Amy, the beef is on.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Take the rivalry at the heart of Cobra Kai and reduce it to two people who are desperate to feel anything other than despair, and you have the premise of Beef.

Our Take: As soon as you see the look of anger and desperation on Steven Yeun’s face, you know that Beef (or, as it’s stylized on Netflix, BEEF), isn’t going to be some sort of wacky comedy about an unending rivalry. Creator Lee Sung Jin, along with first-episode director Hikari, have set up a story that’s full of drama and emotion, punctuated with moments of comedy that are truly dark, like the sight of Wong more or less playing Russian Roulette with her husband’s gun while she rubs it against her privates.

Yeun does a good job of channeling Danny’s desperation — seeing what he was using the grills and the CO monitor for was truly sad to watch — but at this stage Danny communicates more through anger than anything else, dropping f-bombs with regularity. Wong is the revelation here; her desperation is quieter, more unheard, and you can see that in a particularly moving scene where she tells her little daughter June (Remy Holt) about the day she was born, and how simple and uncluttered that time was.

But the show operates on a few different levels. Yes, it’s a dark comedy about a rivalry, but there are class issues at play, as well. Danny’s a blue-collar guy whose business is struggling — he keeps hearing through a newly-installed doorbell camera that one of his clients wants to fire him — but he’s also weighed down with what happened to his parents and dealing with his freeloading brother.

Amy’s issues are more subtle; she seems to be living the kind of life that makes for glossy magazine profiles and prompts people who visit her store to tell her how inspirational she is. But living that life comes with more complications than she wants, including family complications that are weighing her down. We don’t know a ton about her family at this point, but merely being in the presence of George’s mom and the legacy of his dad is enough to get her reaching for their gun. Also, it’s truly ironic that a woman who runs a shop that sells peace and mindfulness, and her inner turmoil is raging.

Of course, there’s also the ridiculousness of having to play along with other rich folk, like when she goes to a dinner hosted by Jordan that serves “mushroom pizza” that looks nothing like that, or when her mother-in-law thinks the kitchen is outdated when Amy and George just renovated it. All of this will be at play as the rivalry between Amy and Danny accelerates.

Sex and Skin: Amy masturbates with a gun, but no clothes come off in the first episode.

Parting Shot: After Danny pees all over her bathroom, Amy realizes who he is and chases after his truck on foot. She memorizes the plate number and smiles. “The Reason” by Hoobastank plays loudly in the background.

Sleeper Star: Ashley Park plays Naomi, who seems to be a massive suck-up to Jordan, but might end up being another, minor rival to Amy down the road.

Most Pilot-y Line: The episode doesn’t have a ton of gags, so when there is one, it stands out, even though it was funny. After Danny gets fired from the tree-trimming job, Paul, who was working on it with him, tells him a buddy is coming to pick him up. The car pulls up and says, “Uber for Paul?”

Our Call: STREAM IT. The first episode of Beef shows that the show is more than just a comedy about two strangers who look to one-up each other. It’s about class differences, the pressure we put on ourselves, and how impossible it is to keep up appearances

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.