A star rating of 4 out of 5.
Netflix’s Beef is the latest celebrated ‘miniseries’ to ditch that label in pursuit of further accolades, but Lee Sung Jin’s revenge-themed comedy-drama isn’t resting on its laurels in season 2.
Rather, the screenwriter is bravely taking his first self-created series down the anthology path, shedding his original leads Steven Yeun and Ali Wong for an all-new story orbiting a country club for the super-rich.
The recruitment of Alien: Romulus star Cailee Spaeny is ironic, given that Beef’s evolution matches that of the iconic sci-fi horror franchise, which famously went from lone survival story Alien to all-out war flick Aliens.
Beef season 2 could, accordingly, have gone by ‘Beefs’ instead, doubling the number of participants in its bitter feud as two couples become fatefully entangled by a chance encounter.
Oscar Isaac (Dune) and Carey Mulligan (The Ballad of Wallis Island) play middle-class couple Josh and Lindsay, who work senior positions at the aforementioned leisure club, which comes with an eye-watering $300,000 admission fee.
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Their staff members include refreshments cart attendant Ashley (Spaeny) and personal trainer Austin (May December‘s Charles Melton), whose romantic decision to elope is wilting under the pressure of life as independent adults.
When the younger pair witness the seemingly model older couple in the midst of a worryingly aggressive row – one they deem severe enough to record – it presents an opportunity for some light blackmail that proves too tempting to resist.
Little do they know, it will be the first domino in a chain of increasingly dangerous events.
Beef season 2 succeeds in cutting a distinct figure to its predecessor, but there are plenty of thematic connections that allow both stories to sit neatly together on Netflix‘s virtual shelf.
Both comment on how the modern economic model has left people from less privileged backgrounds feeling hopeless, with no amount of hard work seeming to get them any closer to clawing out of poverty, debt or dead-end jobs.
But where season 1’s Amy Lau (Wong) was far more affluent than handyman Danny (Yeun), Josh and Lindsay are only just getting by themselves, with a slick outward impression concealing the strain upon their fragile circumstances.
Between this and the shared feelings of loneliness in their struggling relationships, the two couples are much more alike than they care to realise (just as Amy and Danny were, too).
The tragedy of Beef remains that, were any of its lead characters capable of exercising compassion or restraint, they could avoid becoming the architects of their own destruction – and end a vicious cycle of exploitation in the process.
Alas, in these cautionary tales, the irrationality of human behaviour always gets in the way.
As viewers with the full picture, we’re challenged not to judge the characters as harshly as they do each other; Sung Jin’s smart writing ensures that, as with season 1, there is no clear-cut villain in the quartet, but merely flawed people fighting to survive.
All four performances are strong, but mostly resemble business-as-usual for these actors, which is disappointing when season 1 was such a radical departure for both Yeun and Wong.
The clear exception is Melton, who showcases impressive comic talent as the rather dim-witted Austin; a fascinating character whose soft puppy dog demeanour hides deceptively sharp teeth.
In a similar sense, the chaotic crescendo of this second chapter isn’t as memorable, either.
Three years later, that horrific scene involving Jordan’s panic room door remains vividly burned into my brain, but season 2 lacks a gleefully twisted counterpart despite raising the stakes considerably in the final two episodes.
What we do have is a satisfying enough ending that drives home the central theme at the expense of some considerably less developed subplots, for which there just isn’t enough time to do justice.
Of course, by its very nature as a sequel, Beef season 2 was always going to lack the element of surprise that this series benefitted from when it burst onto our screens, but it would have been nice to see some bigger swings taken this time around.
That said, Lee Sung Jin has proven without doubt that Beef works as an anthology and, with any luck, there will be more sizzling, bloody servings to come.
Beef season 2 premieres on Netflix on Thursday 16th April 2026.
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