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Beef is Finally Back for Season 2
New Cast, New Conflicts, Same Deep-Seated Emotional Issues
Like the entire world I fell in love with Lee Sung Jin’s Beef is the spring of 2023. The fact that the show had a predominantly Korean and Asian American cast did nothing to stop me from immediately identifying with the theme Sung Jin established of how anger and emotion cause to spiral in directions that lead us to do things we might not think we’re capable of but that in our hearts we all could do. I named it the fifth best show of 2023 and celebrated every single award it won particular for the incredible leads of Ali Wong and Steven Yeun.
Naturally the show was renewed for a second season and Sung Jin made it clear from the start that it was going to be a completely different cast. This was in my opinion the correct move as so many brilliant limited series frequently fall in the trap of thinking that they can keep the magic going with the same cast the following year. I also approved of his cast for the next season who he announced as two of the most brilliant actors of this century: Carey Mulligan and Oscar Isaac. I didn’t know until I watched the first two episodes (the new season finally dropped Thursday) that Sung Jin was trying a completely different approach to how he dealt with the themes he’d started in Season 2. In it he decided to show the ramifications of an argument but this time it was…
