streaming on Netflix
reviewed by Sherin Nicole
Amy Lau (Ali Wong) and Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) are beefing. This means they are trapped in a loop of vicious one-upmanship, competing to be the last one standing with their foot on the other one’s neck. In hip-hop, this would be a battle of lyrical acerbity, but in this streaming series created by Lee Sung Jin, the hostility escalates in urine-soaked floors and classism painted in big white letters.
Yet that is not the source of the unfolding disaster. The magnetism of this series is how accessible their descent is for us; the constipated passions, disillusionment, and faulty justifications allow them to hurl their rage at each other without daring to blow up their own lives (at least not at first). Yet detonating and rebuilding might be easier—if less fraught with schadenfreude for us. And you will be tempted to giggle while assuring yourself you would handle things better, your revenge would be more strategic, you’d be smarter when it goes bad. Maybe.
This is what is clear: Anyone could have guessed Ali Wong and Steven Yeun would be dramatic catalysts, but here in BEEF they push each other into a cinematic brittleness that shatters in unexpected fallout.
If you guessed, then you were right. BEEF is deliciously low and yet reflective of the parts of ourselves we hide. That is what makes it such a perverse reason to exhale. So, watch it because BEEF goes boom.
As a bonus: Look out for the line, “You are f’king proof that Western therapy does not work on Eastern minds.” and try not to smile.
Originally posted on the Geek Girl Riot podcast on idobi.com
