Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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The first season of Beef was a huge hit for Netflix and won a bunch of Emmys. It starred Ali Wong and Steven Yeun and followed a road rage incident with devastating consequences. Now it's back for season two. And this time there's an all new cast and an all new Beef. It involves two couples, Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan, face off against Charles Mountain and Kaylee Spanning.
Just like in the first season, their feud reveals way bigger underlying issues for each of the parties involved. To put it mildly, everyone's a mess, and it's a surreal journey to behold. I'm Aisha Harris, and today we're talking about beef on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining me today is one of the hosts of NPR's Code Switch podcast, Gene Demby. Welcome back, Gene.
In my personal experience, the colors don't affect the quench. It was a good job.
No, they don't. Great to have you here. Also with us is Walter Chow. He is a writer, critic, and film instructor at the University of Colorado. Welcome back to you too, Walter.
Hey, thanks so much for having me.
It's so great to have you both here. So much to talk about because so much happens this season, which feels like compared to last season, it's like, whoa. But yeah, Beef season two stars Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan as a married couple, Josh and Lindsay. He's the general manager of a Montecito country club, and she's an interior designer.
Now, their relationship is hanging by a thread, and one evening they have this nasty drag-out fight at home that teeters on the edge of turning violent.
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Chapter 2: What is the premise of Netflix's Beef Season 2?
Their spat is accidentally witnessed by Austin and Ashley, an engaged couple who are low-level staffers at the club. They're played by Charles Melton and Kaylee Spaney. Austin and Ashley capture the worst of the argument on video, and they have the intention of bringing it to the police at first. But then they see an opportunity to leverage the video for better pay and health benefits.
And that's when the beef starts cooking and cooking and sizzling and all that juicy stuff. Beef was created by Lee Sung-jin and is streaming on Netflix. And Gene, I'm going to start with you. You know, how are we feeling about the beef this season?
I really dug this season. It's like a very different tenor, right? Like the last season, the two main characters literally slam into each other and they like hate each other. And it becomes this animating thing for the rest of the season. And this season... There's like all these different sort of cross beefs.
Like the couples are squaring off against other couples, but also squaring off against each other. Sort of is like all these different sort of like layers and directionality in their beef. It feels like sillier than last season. Like I feel like there are moments of like leaning into like goofiness. Particularly Charles Melton.
I'll take the red one.
That's for my fiance. How about the yellow?
I'd rather not.
Well, if I may say this, man, in my personal experience, the colors don't affect the quench. I've never seen this cat before, but I was like, oh, I'll watch anything he's in.
Oh, have you not seen May, December?
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Chapter 3: Who are the main characters and what are their conflicts?
This season, in only eight episodes, it felt like, to me, a continued escalation where there's so much stuff getting thrown at the wall here. I feel like they really left some really kind of important stuff off of it that I wanted to know more about, to the point that I'm not even sure what the beef was exactly.
Yeah.
Like, what's the real, what are we mad about at each other? You know, they bring up this idea that Gen Z workers are lazy and uninformed. They make a lot about how, you know, Ashley, she thinks that an insurance deductible means a refund.
She said, you know, it's super high deductible. $5,000. Oh, wow. We can deduct $5,000? What if it costs less? Do they give us a difference?
kind of the opposite and he thinks misc was a typo for mist instead of a shorthand for miscellaneous it's like yeah the degree of their ignorance is so out of bounds but i was left feeling like Yeah, you actually did dishonor to some of the stuff that you did establish in the first season, which was, you know, it self-marred with some controversy.
It's just like, you know, that lack of sensitivity to those sort of issues seems to be explored in full in the second season. And I'm not sure on purpose. And I think maybe that's where I am. Interesting.
Yeah. I mean, you mentioned the Korean sort of
subplot although I think it's eventually becomes plot like it becomes a plot and so that's involving the chairwoman of the country club that they all work at who's played by Yunya Jung I think most American audiences will recognize she's the Oscar winner for Minari I think the grandmother in that movie I think she's actually great in this role like she seems like she's having fun with this role and I was so happy to see Soon Kang Ho playing her much younger husband Dr. Kim he's
Of course, if you've seen some Bong Joon-ho movies like Parasite, The Host, Memories of Murder, he's a very recognizable face and he's always great to see. But I agree with you, Walter, that it does feel as though that subplot turned plot, it just becomes kind of unwieldy because there's just too many other things now.
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Chapter 4: What themes of class and power dynamics are explored in Beef?
I think that his character holds a little bit more emotional intelligence than he does, like, practical. Actual practical intelligence. Yeah, yeah, for sure. To me, he was, like, the most emotionally intelligent person on this show. And he made some mistakes, but he's also supposed to be, you know, pretty young.
And some of that you could chalk up to inexperience or just like not being out in the world in a way.
I don't even know where this fits in the conversation. I just thought it was like a funny sort of like, oh, these kids don't know anything. When she's like, when they let the couple know that they have this video of them and this horrible sort of scene, they're in the car driving away.
And she's like, 45K, 10 days paid vacation. Health insurance. We're set. We are set for life.
For sure. We're living the dream. Yeah.
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Chapter 5: What role does humor play in the narrative of Beef Season 2?
And he's like, I feel like we could have gotten a little bit more from them. Yeah. From them. I just wonder if maybe we could have gotten something from me, too.
You know? Oh. I'm just now realizing that we didn't even think about that. Do you want to go back? No, it's too late now.
I was like, oh man. I was just like, I just remember when I got my first job at the New York Times a million years ago and it was basically that. And I was like, oh, you can't tell me nothing.
You know what I mean? That was incredibly realistic and just shows how, especially younger people are just encouraged to just like take the first thing you get. And I mean, yes, is black male not a good look? Sure. But also, if you're going to do it, do it right. And I wanted more for them.
I don't know that you can show introspection that easily at that point. And I think the same goes with this other character, Woosh, who's played by a big star. He's a rapper, right?
Yeah. He's played by a rapper named BM. And Woosh is like... We come to find out he has, like, a connection with Chairwoman Park.
Yeah, and when you talk about F-Boys, that's really just what he's there for, to take off his shirt and provide whatever. And I feel like this is very broad. This is very broad, and you're sticking these people into these categories. And ultimately... It's not that interesting. You've got really serious actors. My favorite part of it, maybe, is the part where it involves psychedelics.
And Oscar Isaac is phenomenal. That Achilles heel is just going to give out. And you're going to fall.
And you're going to grasp at everyone around you.
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Chapter 6: How does the show address generational differences in its characters?
And you get to listen to all of our episodes sponsor free. So go find out more at plus.npr.org slash happy hour or visit the link in our show notes. This episode was produced by Liz Metzger, Hafsa Fatima, and Mike Katziff and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello Come In provides our theme music. Thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Aisha Harris.
We'll see you all next time.