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Beef – TV series review

TV Series: Beef
Released:  April 2023

Another A24 winner

What a wild ride this was; another unexpected gem of an intensely engaging TV mini-series from production house A24 [which also gave us a long list of recent brilliant films such as Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Whale, God’s Creatures, The Inspection, After Sun, Causeway, Close, Men, Minari, The Farewell, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Ladybird, Florida Project, Moonlight, The Lobster, Room and The Humans and also acclaimed TV shows such as Euphoria and the much anticipated screen adaptation of award-winning book Shuggie Bain].
 
Although centred on an East Asian social context in LA—thereby offering a platform to showcase Asian-American creatives and actors—the story is universal. With a script cleverly constructed so that the many and surprising twists and turns come to us hard and fast, we were completely hooked and binged through the 10 episodes in three sittings over a period of 24 hours. 

The story

As appropriately captured by the one-word title, the complex drama revolves around two main protagonists Danny Cho (Stephen Yuen) and Amy Lau (Ali Wong) who develop a beef with each other after an initial episode of road rage. They are supported by cast of other well-fleshed-out characters. 

Vendetta and intrigue ensue as they both succumb to one regrettable behavioural impulse after another, shaking the foundations of their existence, intertwining their separate worlds, tearing their families apart and stirring all sorts of deep emotions and unfortunate consequences from each bad choice and response. Situations escalate out of control so quickly and so often that we catch ourselves shaking our heads in disbelief over and over!

Popularity

The show is streaming on Netflix and is currently on their top 10 list of TV shows in 87 countries. It is No.1 in the US and Australia and No.2 in the UK for good reason!

We expect this show will feature in next year’s TV awards; for actors Stephen Yuen and Ali Wong and writer/creator/director Lee Sung Jin at least.

Official Trailer

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