4/5
What's Beef?
10 Episodes. Starring: Ali Wong, Steven Yeun, Joseph Lee, Young Mazino, David Choe, Justin H. Min, Andrew Santino, Ashley Park, Maria Bello & Patti Yasutake. Directed By: Jake Schreier, Lee Sung Jin & Hikari. Created By: Lee Sung Jin. On: Netflix.
What's beef, as Biggie said? Beef is when you see your enemy in the street...and honk your horn. Beef is when your enemy makes you start your Jeep...and chase right after them. Beef is when I (Ali Wong) see you (Steven Yeun). Guaranteed to be an ICU. One more time, I know I'm slap-dash paraphrasing these Notorious rhymes and lines, but check it. This needs more than two gats to go to sleep (or sleep with) and nobodies moms is safe in these Los Angeles times and crimes streets.
What's 'Beef' you ask? 'Beef' is the best show on Netflix right now and an Emmy contender for the calendar. And it dropped the same time we were given an animated 'Agent Elvis' kicking ass with that pelvis from Vegas to the moon. Starring no other but Matthew m'f#####g Conaughey. This magnificent miniseries brought to you by the 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' best production company of A24 is the best s### happens, hits the fan and touches everybody drama since Kevin Hart's underrated 'True Story' with Wesley Snipes. This road rage fuelled revenge best served raw is a prime cut. From the middle finger to the metal outset, to the powerhouse penultimate episode and the fever dream of a classic, cinematic conclusion. And to think after that epic end they're cooking up more to binge-eat too. A second serving of 'Beef' is in season. Time to get even more salty.
Amazing artwork at the blaring outset sketches what's to come in this piece of art series in itself, save those sculptures. All as music from our generation's Smashing Pumpkins (currently crafting a follow-up to their magnum opus over three acts) and Incubus drive home the nostalgia. But pardon me, that's all the style. Here's the substance. 'Beef' is more than two rageaholic's having a coronary over cars. Or the pissing contest of one-upmanship that it looks like on the smooth bathroom floor surface. This dark comedy drama directed by creator Lee Sung Jin, Jake Schreier ('Robert & Frank', 'Paper Towns') and Hikari ('Tokyo Vice') floors is when it comes to the metaphor. An anything but calm meditation on how angry we all are these days at the click of a smartphone button, this really dials into the not so subtle nuances and notes of this modern world gone mad, without dialling anything down.
The star of countless, stand-up comedies on Netflix, the don Ali Wong already made romantic comedy history with Netflix, Randall Park and a classic cameo from John Wick himself ('Always Be My Maybe'), but now with three classic cuts that rival 'The Rachel' from 'Friends' (looking nothing like a 'Fleabag' pencil, Bob) she shows you how to be iconic. Mutombo wagging her finger with the same cigarette putting out sass of Oscar winner in 'A Most Violent Year' of should have been best pictures. Very disrespectful. Up to bat, 'The Walking Dead' star Steven Yeun ('Minari' and the Murakami adapted 'Burning') also kills it following his Oscar winner. Always bringing to the boiling point what to most of us is merely a simmering rage we all need to turn down in this cautionary tale. They're calling this one of the best shows on television. You don't realize how good it is until Yeun takes you to church like Hozier with heartbreak.
Masks even more hilarious in the way they look at you than those groovy Halloween ones from 'Baby Driver'. The amazing action of the penultimate episode is reminiscent of the first tense season hood break of 'True Detective'. We feel 'Beef' could introduce different character's story strands over the seasons like that HBO show too. Yet, there's plenty of character here to develop. The art of Joseph Lee's stay at home husband in all his hidden meanings. The scene stealing little brother of Young Mazino and a hand holding out moment that really grabs you. 'Vice' star David Choe's sketchily scary cousin. 'The Umbrella Academy's' Justin H. Min continuing that character type. Comic Andrew Santino getting serious before he gets in a vice grip. 'Emily In Paris' star Ashley Park making her own name alongside the great Maria Bello. And the legend that is 'Star Trek' star Patti Yasutake nursing and mothering us all.
Representation matters, and 'Beef' brings all that to the table without shoving it down our throats until it's hard to chew on. Bonds over basketball for you Nerf nerds. Real concern over the crypto s###show and cautionary tales of catfishing. This series is seriously on the pulse of what is going on in this world as we speak and tweet. Tit-for-tat, the more 'Beef' escalates the more you'll think this show is one of the greats. Especially when you look what's in the backseat as your hand slaps your head like Homer. Whether scarfing down multiple Burger King's or turning a handgun into a sex toy, this is Yeun and Wong and anger as we've never seen it, or them before. Rich or poor, in sickness or in health, we all have a rage inside, working away like a machine. It's what makes us human and 'Beef' makes us look at the man or woman in the mirror and reflect on our collective pains and problems punctuated by this projection. We'll get to what all that means before this incident of rage runs us right off the road we thought we were sticking on. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'Minari', 'Always Be My Maybe', 'True Story'.
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