Beef Season 2: The Netflix Show Loses Its Bite In New Episodes |
Beef Season 2: The Netflix Show Loses Its Bite In New Episodes
Netflix turned its Emmy-winning hit into an anthology series – and there's a lot to say about it.
Erin E. Evans is senior enterprise editor of culture at HuffPost.
Culture Reporter, HuffPost
Netflix finally released the long-awaited second instalment of its hit rage drama Beef last week, with the series quickly rising to the top spot of the streamer’s most-watched TV shows, according to its public ranking system.
Season one of the Emmy-winning series starred Steven Yeun and Ali Wong as two strangers who turn a road-rage incident into a long, fury-filled feud. The 2023 series racked up awards for its writing and performances.
The second iteration features a new cast and a whole new beef, in which a struggling Gen Z couple goes head-to-head against a well-to-do millennial married couple in a blackmail saga.
Oscar Isaac stars as Josh, the general manager of a country club, who’s at odds with his wife, Lindsay (played Carey Mulligan), in season two’s opening scene. Two of the country club’s employees — Cailee Spaeny’s Ashley and Charles Melton’s Austin — catch Josh and Lindsay’s big fight on camera, and so ensues the beef that drives the season.
On top of that, the billionaire owner of that same club, Chairwoman Park (the latest screen outing for Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung), is trying to cover up a big mess dealing with her husband, Dr. Kim (played by Song Kang-ho), and gets everyone entangled in that mess.
We’ve watched all of season two – and these are our thoughts about the show...
Let’s talk about the cast and performances in Beef season 2
I thought the ensemble cast for season two was quite a mixed bag when Netflix first announced it, but given the millennial-versus-Gen Z plot, it makes sense now.
Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny all give great performances. Cailee’s Ashley is an absolute menace by the end of the season, which I’m sure was the whole point of her character’s arc, but the actor played a clingy, controlling girlfriend well. I’m still thinking about those scenes on the planes where she loses it. Oscar was great, too, at flipping the switch between calm and unhinged with his character, especially in his scenes with Carey’s Lindsay.
The real standout for me was Youn Yuh-jung as Chairwoman Park. She was the perfect unexpected villain in this scenario. I have my qualms about season two’s story, but this cast wasn’t half-bad. — Njera
Out of the main cast, I was really........