(Spoilers ahead!)
Danny Cho is broke – financially and mentally. He is a struggling building contractor who looks after his younger, unemployed brother Paul (Young Mazino). Danny dreams of making enough money to bring his parents from Korea to America where they can finally retire. Whilst unsuccessfully trying to return some hibachi grills, he is backing out of his parking spot and almost collides with another car that rushes past. The driver of the other car puts up their middle finger at Danny. That middle finger belongs to a successful entrepreneur, the founder of Kōyōhaus, Amy Lau. Amy is in the midst of selling her bougie plant business, in which she would not only secure millions of dollars, but would finally be granted the rest she wants – and needs. Amy has sacrificed her life for her work, providing her husband George and her daughter June with an excessively comfortable life that she hasn’t yet had time to enjoy herself.
Danny and Amy’s lives couldn’t be further apart. The only thing they have in common is that they have both reached their boiling point.
Danny and Amy’s lives couldn’t be further apart. The only thing they have in common is that they have both reached their boiling point. What should have been a short-lived encounter turns into a manic case of road rage as they chase each other through a neighbourhood. This is only the start. Having remembered each other’s licence plate, an anxiety-inducing, cat-and-dog battle of revenge is born.
Throughout their rivalry, whether it’s watching Danny urinate on Amy’s carpet or Amy spray painting “I am poor” on Danny’s truck, we learn that these characters aren’t so antithetical as their different lives suggest. We realise that not only are Danny and Amy quite the grudge-holders, but they are two people who feel completely unseen. Surrounded by people who don’t understand them, Danny and Amy use each other as an outlet to take out their anger. Their road-rage incident unleashes a fury that had already been building inside each of them. The series of vengeance they subsequently carry out is an escape from the pressures of their lives and the despair they both feel. Their misplaced hatred towards each other is rather a hatred for themselves.
However, their petty feud escalates to the point where their lives are entirely uprooted. They unintentionally become so involved in each other’s lives that their loved ones get dragged into their war. There is a full-circle ending to the show as it ends with another car chase between Danny and Amy, in which they run each other off a cliff. Shockingly, they don’t die. Stranded in the middle of nowhere, the pair inadvertently get high on poisonous berries and have somewhat of a therapy session. They realise that all they needed was to talk to someone who genuinely saw them. The futures that lie ahead for the two are unclear, but the show comes to a satisfying end as Danny and Amy not only forgive each other but forgive themselves.
The show comes to a satisfying end as Danny and Amy not only forgive each other but forgive themselves.
What is the message of Beef?
On the surface, it’s a show about vengeance. Be careful who you flip off and consider how the ancient saying “be the bigger person” may actually have some significance. With so many characters who are insufferably blind to their privilege, it’s a show that comments on class warfare, told through an Asian-American lens. It’s a show that is a psychological study of alienation, depicting the feelings of dislocation and a loss of self-identity that is a part of the Asian-American experience.
Beef is outrageous in the best way possible and it is definitely worth giving a watch.