Beef, Netflix
If you get frustrated with life on occasion (and who doesn’t), Beef may be the TV show for you.
It’s the hottest thing on Netflix at the moment and is getting rave reviews on either side of the Atlantic.
It presents as a drama/comedy but essentially is a subversive look at the stresses of modern life.
The ‘beef’ begins when Danny (Steven Yeun) and Amy (Ali Wong) end up in a road rage incident outside a DIY store in LA.
Both are facing stresses in their lives and this results in excessive reactions to a small infraction between their cars.
We find out later that Danny had been purchasing a suicide kit but kept returning the items for a refund when he changed his mind.
He’s a struggling handyman desperate to please his parents who have just lost their business (by making money and getting married). He lives with, and is frustrated by, his younger brother, whose life plan is to make a fortune on crypto.
Danny’s in debt to his criminal cousin Issac who is just out of jail after dealing stolen goods from his parents’ motel, thus bringing about the demise of the business.
Amy lives at the other end of the income spectrum. She is married, has a young child, lives in an expensive area of town and owns a successful business.
Her biggest worry appears to be whether her furniture designer modern-in-law likes her house remodel.
However, Amy is as stressed and unhappy as Danny. She feels unvalued by her husband who indulges in non-profit art making while she works all hours to bring in the dollars to fund their lifestyle.
She has been working for two years to sell her business for retirement-level money and hates having to indulge the pretentious owner of the firm considering buying her out.
At one point it looked like Amy may also be suicidal (her husband changed the code for the safe where they keep their gun) but it turns out that she’s sexually frustrated and finds the handgun stimulating.
Amy is ready to crack at the very moment their cars almost crash and drives off giving Danny the finger out the window.
Things escalate in often hilarious ways.
Danny tracks down Amy and ends up urinating on her bathroom floor. Her LA-minded husband cleans up while musing why Danny may have done it.
“You never know what someone might be going through,” he tells an outraged Amy, who wants a husband who will track him down and physically confront him.
Amy responds herself by destroying Danny's business ratings and trolling him on Instagram. Then she vandalises his car when it’s parked outside a nightclub.
Obviously, no good is going to come of this tit-for-tat revenge and it will be fascinating to see if Beef can sustain the feud through 10 episodes.
The opening car chase is reason enough to dip your toe in the Beef water and see if you’re interested in staying.
The initial infraction is nothing. Danny reverses his beat-up truck but is brought to a shuddering halt by a long car horn from an expensive Mercedes SUV behind him. As she leaves the car park the finger emerges from the car window, leaving him incensed.
A chase through the suburbs sees Danny driving over flower beds and across kerbs, until Amy eventually corners him and fakes that she is going to smash her car into the driver's door. She stops inches short and speeds away with a cheeky hoot of the horn.
It’s brilliantly written and acted and well worth your attention, if you’re not already too busy with a frustrating life that is.
