There’s something equally horrifying and cathartic about watching Amy (Ali Wong) and Danny (Steven Yeun) spiral into a rat king of rage, resentment, and unabashed fury directed at one another in BEEF.
After the two cross paths and get entangled over a run-of-the-mill road rage incident, neither can just let it go. Instead, they form a destructive tornado of escalating — initially petty and eventually catastrophic — one-upmanship that lays waste to their lives and everyone around them.
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In reality, that kind of story is the stuff of nightmares, a cautionary tale about the wages of late-stage capitalism and a culture of civility in decline. But I would be lying if I were to say that watching it play out — as portrayed by two actors who have ascended to the top of their game — wasn’t also deliciously, satisfyingly, transgressive.
Even the actors themselves admit, they can relate to feelings of rage, injustice, and resentment that undergird the motivations driving Amy and Danny inexorably toward the cliff.
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“I think we can all relate,” Wong confesses to PRIDE, offering an analogy that resonates with her. “It’s like social media, in the first couple of years of social media. Remember? We just had so much jealousy towards, like these couples who had these perfect Architectural Digest homes, and perfectly coordinated outfits with their spouses, and beautifully behaved children that didn’t have any, like, you know, [fruit] roll-up on their face. And you’re like who isn’t this couple?” But it's not just the covetous feelings, she explains. Now, instead of pushing back or rejecting the pretense, we engage. “We all realized it was a lie, because then we participated in it and staged those photos. We still kind of partake in it and we still feel jealousy and anger,” Wong adds.
It's a poignant metaphor, particularly in the case of Amy, a self-made businesswoman who’s traded off her ability to present the picture-perfect persona and family life — while quietly seething with bitterness over the sacrifices she's had to make and the emotional emptiness of her accomplishments.
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For Danny, however, his rage comes from a profound feeling of injustice. The universe, as he sees it, has turned its back on him. He vacillates between a kind of manic hopefulness and suicidality, so when he and Amy lock horns he finally has somewhere other than himself to direct that anger. It’s a seductive prospect as it also presents the opportunity to once again avoid self-reflection and accountability. It's also incredibly timely, as feelings of resentment and injustice are two major drivers in much of today’s political and social climates.
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Yeun connected with those ideas and used them to fuel his performance. “Ali and I talked about this while we’re making it,” he tells PRIDE. “It’s hard not to have a scarcity mindset in the system that we all live in. Things feel like it’s not available for everybody. People feel like they’re being crushed by people above them. And I think we can all understand that. Everyone has someone that they wish that they could be, you could be at the top and you’re like, I wish I was the other guy. I think we’re all just trying to get away from ourselves. We don’t like our own stories.”
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“Resentment is exactly right,” he continues. “I saw this Instagram thing — maybe I should actually get off that thing — it was one of those teaching things where it’s like, ‘resentment doesn’t come from the anger family; it comes from the envy family because I want what you have.’ And I was like, yeah, that’s right. Between Danny and Amy, they kind of want what the other person has, whether it be freedom, money, or status, or friendship, or whatever it is, we just want what the other person has. That’s kind of what we’re exploring.”
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While the revenge plot is central to the story, what truly elevates BEEF is how it shows the ripple effect of Amy and Danny’s actions on those around them. It complicates the catharsis and raises the stakes by showing that no matter how myopic Amy and Danny are in their pursuit of vengeance, there’s no avoiding collateral damage to the ones they love.
Joseph Lee, who plays Amy’s good-natured, if naive husband George, is one of those people who are in that line of fire, even if his wife can’t — or won’t — see it. “It really just kind of boils down to how much of a tunnel vision that you can have within your own view of a particular incident,” Lee tells PRIDE. “Once your own pride, ego, and narcissism take over, you just create blind spots for all of the people around you and it does have consequences and it does have a ripple effect on those people.”
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Young Mazino, who stars as Danny’s younger brother Paul, is also drawn into the revenge arena when he and Amy strike up a clandestine communication. Throughout the series, their interactions offer myriad emotions as the relationship both serves and is injurious to everyone involved. It's the kind of role Mazino was delighted to take on, in part because it really offers ample opportunities to explore his craft. But it’s also the kind of effortless stereotype-busting role that shows how easy it is to progress in terms of representation and serves as an indictment of it not already being the norm.
“The writing was so solid that it felt nice to kind of not think about my Asianness — it wasn’t such a key thing. It just happened to be the character’s background,” Mazino tells PRIDE. “It’s great to have a role that is so three dimensional and multifaceted and not just a caricature of what people think that we are in their perspective... and bringing to light the humanity that exists in Asian people, Asian men, it is nice.”
Lee also sees his role as a step forward for the representation of men, period. “I feel like it’s interesting to kind of delve into different shades of what masculinity is, and that there’s no one answer to it,” Lee explains. “I feel like [Lee Sung Jin] as a writer, he’s the complete opposite of doing something in a stock way. And he’s not afraid to really kind of access those darkest corners of our psyche. For him to flesh out these characters and really bring them out with a very specific point of view. I feel like all the other components of representation really kind of present themselves in a very natural way. I think that’s kind of the originality for the show.”
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Should you watch BEEF? Without question. Will it be emotionally costly? Oh yes, and it's absolutely worth it. Yes, the stakes here are brutally high, and the emotions and social dynamics are painfully familiar, but it's also propulsive and highly entertaining. And then there are Wong and Yeun's incandescently searing performances. Everything about BEEF has bite.
