While never directly articulated, that question seems to run through the inner monologues of the two protagonists in “Beef,” Amy Lau (Ali Wong) and Danny Cho (Steven Yeun), powering them as they go from being two strangers involved in a road rage incident to sworn enemies. Over the course of the 10-episode Netflix series, the two find new and increasingly risky ways to escalate their feud, like two fighters going back into the ring for another round, and then another, and another.
At first, it’s kind of thrilling to watch them, for instance, shout profanity-laden rants to each other on the phone. It’s unusual to see two Asian characters on screen get to publicly and messily display their rage. As Asians, many of us are stereotyped as meek and mild-mannered, and conditioned to accommodate, to hold back and not rock the boat too much. Instead of raising our voices and causing a scene, we’re often taught to remain stoic and not express our anger.
Both Amy and Danny initially seem to get a perverse thrill from plotting out their next move to antagonize the other person. Created by Lee Sung Jin, produced by A24 and premiering Thursday on Netflix, the show starts to fill out the world of these two characters after the initial road rage incident, revealing deeper and darker sources of their quest for revenge. Each becomes too singularly focused on escalating the feud to admit they should stop. And while on the surface, they have vastly different lives, it becomes another form of something both of them have spent a lifetime doing: striving to “make it” and reach some kind of fulfillment, when it’s unclear what exactly it’s all even for.
Materially, Danny has more to lose, as someone who has already lost a lot. Growing up in a working-class Korean American family, his immigrant parents ran and then lost their motel business, and his cousin Isaac (David Choe) went to prison for dealing drugs. As the…
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