Is Beef Bingeworthy?
As of this writing, Beef is on the Netflix top-10 list for TV shows in the U.S.
A review follows, but first a word or two about Murder Mystery 2.
MM2 is the sequel to the first Murder Mystery in 2019 (which seems like yesterday). Both are part of the exclusive content deal between Netflix and Adam Sandler’s prolific Happy Madison Productions.
The popular original installment, a slapstick Agatha Christie send-up, was very entertaining, even though the actual belly laughs were few and far between.
Sandler and co-star Jennifer Aniston had a lot of chemistry.
In contrast, MM2 is a disappointment. You might get a few laughs from the lines of dialogue, but that’s about it.
The interaction between the stars (who in the storyline have become inept full-time private detectives) this time seems forced, and many users found Aniston’s plastic surgery distracting.
Moreover, the plot revolves around a kidnapping — rather than a murder — mystery.
Plus, the hand-to-hand combat between the bumbling Sandler character and group of kidnappers or a tough-as-nails ex-British secret service agent (played by Mark Strong) is ridiculously implausible.
“The jokes don’t land, the plot and villain is predictable, acting is bad, and it all feels rushed,” one IMDB user asserted.
Sandler and company (James Vanderbilt wrote both films) need to go back to basics if a Murder Mystery 3 is in the offing. For one thing, Adam Sandler is a good-natured comedic actor, not an action star. Nor is Aniston.
Murder Mystery 2: 
As an aside, Netflix is supposedly restructuring its movie division.
“Film chief Scott Stuber is attempting to scale back the company’s output so that he can ensure more of the titles are of high quality,” Bloomberg reported in late March.
Indeed, the streaming service is in desperate need of better quality control, especially since just about everything — with some exceptions — branded as a Netflix original or the equivalent is suboptimal.
Beef Is On the Menu
This bring us to the “critically acclaimed” Beef staring Steven Yeun (who was one of the main characters on The Walking Dead when that show was still watchable) and Ali Wong, both of whom get executive producer credits for the 10-episode opus.
[Some spoilers]
A road-rage (starting as parking-lot rage) incident — the beef — between the two California residents and the ripple effects of the resulting vendetta get the plot moving.
Most of this for-adults-only, comedy drama devolves, however, into separate, meandering soap operas that overlap to some degree.
There are some interesting and funny interludes along the way.
There also seemed to be a fair amount of filler in what at times seems like, perhaps inadvertently, a Yeun vanity project (i.e., for one thing, what was the purpose of the basketball game?).
And did Skittles pay for the product placement?
In an odd way, Beef is reminiscent of The Affair, which started off with a cool premise that was subsequently abandoned.
Yeun is Danny Cho, a minimally handy handyman with a poor knowledge of the building code and (obviously) financial problems.
Wong is successful small business owner Amy Lau who is about to cash out bigtime and who is married to sculptor George Nakia (actor Joseph Lee).
Both of Beef‘s principal characters are in need anger management therapy as the events unfolds.
None of the characters on the show, including Cho and Lau, are sympathetic or relatable, which is an issue.
Beef includes a very powerful scene during which Cho/Yeun breaks down during a church service — which makes one wonder whether the series, even though it streams on Netflix, has a pro-religion subtext.
Yeun and Wong play off each well; until the last episode, however, they only appear in a relatively few scenes together, which is a major missed opportunity.
Ironically, in that final episode when the main characters are together for extended period of screen time, one of them ironically says “we should have done this more often.”
Most definitely.
Also, both get weird closeups from time to time. That was strange, especially Wong’s grimaces, which apparently also counts as acting.
In any event, much of the acting otherwise from the rest of the cast is cringe and comes across inauthentic.
As one example, even by Netflix’s seemingly mandatory girl-power standards, the personality of gullible cuckolded house-husband George is beyond off-putting.
If the showrunners wanted to include a plot twist, they could have made George somewhat masculine rather going out of their to make him entirely emasculated.
This Beef character really needed some protein.
With the Amy subplot generally, you start to wonder if the showrunners are mocking the character’s privileged, entitled, and status-obsessed lifestyle.
Or are the privileged, entitled showrunners trying to mock others for their privilege?
David Choe who plays Isaac, Danny’s ne’er do well, sketchy cousin (who is now engulfed in a controversy over long-ago podcast comments), hard-charging businesswoman Jordana (Maria Bello), and Fumi, the no-nonsense mother in law (Patti Yasutake) are the exceptions to the lackluster acting.
Trope alert: Ever notice how every comedy or comedy drama seems to include a quirky, rule-breaking supporting character like Isaac?
According to one IMDB user, “The premise is entertaining, but each and every episode delves deeper and deeper into a story that just keeps getting further and further from what the original story was, and like any series with a thin premise, it needs to keep raising the stakes to keep you engaged.”
Beef has received an 87 percent positive Rotten Tomatoes audience score, and a 8.3 (out of 10) IDB user rating, but common sense suggests a lot of the positive reviews on the latter platform are planted.
Despite the high ratings, Beef would not be recommended except the last two episodes are so off the wall (literally in one instance), crazy that it’s worth plodding through the earlier episodes to get there.
At s the show winds down, it goes from farce to dark, with increased levels of violence.
Reality check for showrunners: A business mogul like Jordana would live in a secure, gated community.
Beef creator Lee Sung Jin claims he has enough material to go two more seasons, but that sounds like a bad idea, especially if Netflix is truly concerned about implementing content quality improvements.
Other contrarian IMBD users who don’t buy into the hype, weighed in:
“If anything, Lee’s series is depressing, relentlessly depressing. An assortment of eccentric characters–slackers, halfwits, head cases–babbling nonsense, does not a comedy make.’
“All dialogue is mundane, predictable, stupid, and vapid. No one in this wretched world is happy.’
The good news is that the episodes are only about a half hour or so each.
Beef: 
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