❮ Beef
Season 1
Season Premiere:
Apr 6, 2023
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
86
User score
Generally Favorable
7.7
My Score
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Season Episodes
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
97% Positive
34 Reviews
34 Reviews
3% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Apr 7, 2023
100
Polish up those Emmys for the year’s best and most addictive new series—a tale of LA road rage starring Stephen Yuen and Ali Wong (both perfection) that explodes with fun, feeling and rule-breaking experimentation. Nobody who sees it is going to shut up about it.
Mar 20, 2023
100
The half-hours fly by as wild twists twists pile up. What’s less expected, however — and what really lingers once the dust has settled — is the series’ emphasis on the characters’ flawed humanity, and its disarming sense of empathy for their existential despair. ... A pair of spectacular performances. ... Each joke grows from characters performed and written so vividly, they seem to leap off the screen.
User score
Generally Favorable
76% Positive
74 Ratings
74 Ratings
15% Mixed
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
9% Negative
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
May 3, 2023
10
Everything is just so good. The characters are extremely well developed. The episodes are the perfect length. The plot is also very unique and interesting. Everything about it is great
Apr 9, 2023
10
Great acting, great directing, a truly original piece of work. Many laugh out loud moments - yes over the top, but bring it on! More like this!
Apr 7, 2023
90
While the ethnic variety of "Beef" may be potent, the more critical element in its cascading series of errors, embarrassments and calamities is precisely the shared feeling of cosmic displacement—and unfairness—that bonds our two heroes, such as they are; their very particular personalities give the series its energy.
Apr 5, 2023
88
Through three episodes (out of an eventual 10), the direction and acting continue to be superb.
Apr 5, 2023
80
For the most part, Lee and his writers succeed. Though some of the show’s more elaborate jokes are strained, Beef otherwise has a taut, offbeat humor that distinguishes it from plenty of banally crude we-can-say-swears comedies that have clogged up premium cable and streaming services in the last ten years.
Apr 3, 2023
75
Just as it seems that Beef is going to go full misanthrope in its chaotic, surreal final episodes, the show pulls itself back from the brink of utter hopelessness at the end.
Apr 5, 2023
50
What makes “Beef” compellingly watchable is the crackling chemistry between Wong and Yeun. ... For the most part, the heavy absurdity in “Beef” works, but there are a few off notes. ... Its use of this weapon feels painful when considering the deadly toll of gun violence in the United States, especially after the Monterey Park killings shattered Asian American communities so recently. I also took issue with the series’ casting of millionaire graffiti artist David Choe as Isaac, Danny’s volatile, villainous cousin.
Apr 23, 2023
6
admirable
[ ad-mer-uh-buhl ] adjective
worthy of admiration; inspiring approval, reverence, or affection.
Apr 17, 2023
6
There's some good moments and some good acting and some good editing and some good this and that - but it's a bit of a mystery to more than some viewers as to why it has become such a critical darling. In that regard it seems like anything with Asians in it is having a moment and in many cases it is fully deserved - such as with The Glory. In my opinion - not this one. It's comes off as a hollow version of Big Little Lies. Heavy on premise but weak on execution. I found myself quite able to not focus on it while washing dishes or checking my phone and not finding a reason to hit pause. Dressed up to be something it really isn't and critics need to get off the bandwagon.
Apr 9, 2023
6
What can you know about the people you will encounter in your day-to-day driving? Honestly, nothing, but anyone who gets their hands on a steering wheel will sooner or later face a road rage incident, but what are the odds that in that encounter you will meet a person who seems to be as damaged as you are? That's Beef's premise and it sounded, to say the least, very interesting. Especially since it didn't sound like it was going to use a simplistic comedic device. The first episode sets the tone and makes it quite funny; it invites you to keep going. Unfortunately for this series is that its screenwriters run out of avenues to explore when only in episode 3 it becomes clear that the development of the characters will stagnate, as it can be easily deduced and understood that both characters are unconsciously seeking self-destruction.
Both have unresolved traumas and after that we do nothing but circle back to the same concept over and over again until they decide to address the confrontation in their last episode. Beef isn't a bad series per se, and Steven Yeun and Ali Wong's performances are what sell the concept impressively, but as I said, the concept only works up to a point and the plot never does anything to offer a game-changing narrative variety that would have made it a more proactive experience. A friend who was watching it at the same time told me it was from A24, so that meant it was automatically good and that I was putting too much thought into it and making too many demands of what was intended to be just a black comedy, but I don't know, I think more like some people were just impressed with too little.
Apr 10, 2023
1
This is supposed to be funny? I watched this with two friends and we couldn't believe how bad it was, we like Ali Wong but this is awful.
