‘Beef’ Is Overcrowded and Unfocused in an Unnecessary Season 2: TV Review - Variety

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‘Beef’ Is Overcrowded and Unfocused in an Unnecessary Season 2: TV Review

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In transitioning from a standalone story to a multi-season anthology, all shows in the genre Ryan Murphy took mainstream with "American Horror Story" face the same existential question. If a series isn't defined by a stable set of characters or locations, what does define it? For HBO's "The White Lotus," the answer is wealthy people trying and failing to outrun their problems at various outposts of a luxury hotel chain. For FX's "Fargo," it's the battle between moral turpitude and folksy common decency across the American Midwest.

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For Netflix's " Beef," the 2023 hit and Emmys darling that starred Ali Wong and Steven Yeun as enraged enemies, its core essence appears to be right there in the name. Wherever creator Lee Sung Jin took the concept next, a bitter rivalry would presumably be its driving force, just as Wong and Yeun's searing anti-platonic chemistry powered Season 1 through some tonal bumps and big swings. And unlike "Feud," the Murphy show with a confusingly similar name and concept, "Beef" could do so without the constricting tethers of a real-life inspiration.

Three years later, Season 2 seems to reintroduce itself along these established lines. The biggest difference, in line with all the attention and acclaim received by Season 1, is one of scale: rather than two individuals on a collision course across class and gender lines, we now have two couples. Josh (Oscar Isaac) and Lindsay (Carey Mulligan) are aging hipsters who've traded cool, creative careers in music and interior design for a cushy gig running a Montecito beach club — Josh as general manager, Lindsay as his de facto lieutenant. Austin (Charles Melton) and Ashley (Cailee Spaeny) are two low-level employees at the club who decide to blackmail the older couple into promotions when they catch the pair on video in a nasty, violent fight. The millennial-Gen Z generational divide, both sides fighting over scraps of a shrinking pie while still in smiling, obsequious service to aging boomers, is an enticing hook made more so by meta casting. Isaac and Mulligan are experienced film stars, while Melton and Spaeny are more recent breakouts. All four are executive producers.

But over eight episodes, "Beef" loses focus and overcrowds this already expanded premise. By the closing credits, Season 2 is no longer mainly about the acrimony between its antiheroes and what it brings out from within them. Which begs the question: even if a follow-up allows Lee to attract bigger names and film in far-flung locations (more on that shortly), was "Beef" ultimately worth turning into a franchise?

Doubling the personalities would be a tall enough order in itself. Yet Season 2 soon reveals it's not really the story of two couples, but three. The club has recently been acquired by a South Korean billionaire, Chairwoman Park (Oscar winner Youn Yuh-Jung of “Minari”), who's less preoccupied with her new toy than the hand tremors threatening the livelihood of her much younger husband, plastic surgeon Dr. Kim ("Parasite" star Song Kang-ho, so rarely seen that the role is a glorified cameo). The new bosses' high-class problems are always tertiary to the Josh-Lindsay-Ashley-Austin quadfecta and never stop feeling tacked-on, even when plot contrivances transport the entire ensemble to Seoul for the finale. But they're just present enough to distract from the core conflict, transforming the season from a group character study into a corporate espionage thriller such that neither half feels fully fleshed-out.