Netflix’s chaotic comedy-drama “Beef” has dominated social media discussions since its release Thursday, but there’s one narrative in particular that Asian Americans can’t stop talking about.
The show, which features a predominantly Asian American cast but doesn’t fixate on race, centers several storylines around a Korean American church in Orange County, California. For some viewers who’ve lived a similar reality, it authentically captures the sense of belonging, social pressures and uncomfortable dynamics inextricably linked to the church.
“I’ve never seen anybody portray it so perfectly,” said Michelle Park, a Korean American from the Philadelphia suburbs who was raised in the Korean church.
The 10-episode series follows high-strung, struggling contractor Danny, played by Steven Yeun, and successful-yet-unfulfilled business owner Amy, portrayed by Ali Wong, after a spiraling encounter of road rage gone awry. The two become fixated on destroying one another; all the while, their own lives are collapsing around them.
The Korean American church becomes a major plot point in the third episode when Danny turns to the institution when he narrowly decides against setting Amy’s parked car ablaze after seeing her daughter, Junie, sitting in the back seat.
Minjung Noh, an assistant professor of transnational Christianity and gender studies at Drew University in New Jersey and an anthropologist who focuses on diasporic Korean churches in the U.S., noted the duality of how the church is portrayed as both sacred refuge and a means to an immoral end.
“Steven Yeun, in episode three, cried at church. He’s been through so much and the church gives him relief, but he will utilize the church’s resources to his own benefit later. It’s sacred, but at the same time, he will make money off of the church. That is kind of contradicting. It’s also quite true of many Korean American churches in the U.S. and also in Korea,” Noh said. “That sacred and secular…
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