One of the most boldly confident seasons of television I’ve seen in recent memory. Beef clearly knows the story it’s going for, and creator Lee Sung Jin is uncompromising in letting this story unfold the way he sees fit even if it means taking some huge storytelling risks that don’t always pan out as flawlessly as he may have hoped. Beef all at once feels like a meditation on loneliness, depression, anxiety, frustration, & anger all in a modernist sense. It also has something to say about late capitalism as well. It feels similarly aligned to several other recent culturally relevant stress-inducing thrillers but putting its own little spin on it by giving the show some aspects of black comedy as well. It falls right into the ever growing line of shows or films with genre-bending qualities, and it breaks the conventional rules expertly up until the end with the penultimate & final episode (both are quality episodes of television in their own right, but the tonal shifts in each episode are admittedly jarring). I will say though that I do enjoy how this show and the 2 main characters’ “beef” with each other starts off very grounded in reality, and gradually gets more & more ridiculous as the season goes on, until eventually the show’s final episode which turns into a surreal & bizarre sense of peace for each of the 2 characters. I think it works well as a narrative showcase on how even in real life a minor incident can spiral out of control and turn into something a lot worse. And Steven Yeun & Ali Wong are just brilliant, each giving their characters a strong sense of pathos to where you don’t entirely hate them for consistently making reckless and awful choices. It’s not completely perfect, but the show does its job really well regardless. It does a tremendous job of being a commentary on the current mood of the world, especially those who live in America. On top of being extremely well made and meticulously crafted. Easily the best original show that Netflix has put out since Mindhunter. Oh, and it doesn’t need a season 2. Please just leave it as a one and done.