One of the surprise breakout TV hits last year was Beef, about a road range incident that balloons into something much more. It starred Steven Yeun and Ali Wong and won three Emmys, including outstanding anthology series, and and lead actor and actress nods. Hits beget subsequent seasons, and it looks like season 2 is going to have some real heavy hitters in the cast.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, we’re gonna get Oscar Isaac (Moon Knight); Carey Mulligan (Saltburn); Charles Melton (Riverdale) and Cailee Spaeny (Civil War). Those are big names – Mulligan has been nominated for the Best Actress Oscar three times. That’s some serious pedigree.
Isaac, who had a star making Marvel turn in Moon Knight, is no stranger to dramatic roles either. Spaeny showed her mettle in the America at war epic Civil War, where she played a young photographer cataloguing the end of the American republic. Melton was a favorite on Riverdale, and he showed his range in the 2023 film May December, where he played a young man married to a much older woman.
Beef is the brainchild of Lee Sung Jin. So what’s going to be different about this season? For starters, we’re only going to get eight episodes, as opposed to last season’s luxurious 10. This time around, we’re going to follow around a younger couple that “witnesses an alarming fight between their boss and his wife, triggering chess moves of favors and coercion in the elitist world of a country club and its Korean billionaire owner.”
After Beef‘s historic showing at the Emmys, Jin said he is constantly getting new story ideas in his head for the show. He said Beef‘s premise will always focus on conflict, but when it comes to fleshing out the show’s other layers, it’s something he needs “to take some time and see deep inside what wants to come out.”
The first season of the show was inspired by a road rage incident Lee had with someone driving a BMW, as opposed to the white SUV featured in the show. “It honked at me, cursed at me and drove away,” Lee said during a Beef SXSW panel. “And for some reason on that day, I was like, ‘I’m going to follow you.’”
Lee was asked about what he would do if that person who honked at him back then reached out to him personally. “I would say, ‘Oh my God, thank you for reaching out.’ And I would laugh, and I’d thank him, truthfully,” he said. “As George says in the show: ‘Anger is just a transitory state of consciousness.’ It’s such a fleeting emotion. So there would be no anger at all on my side. I am very thankful that experience happened, so it would make me reflect on how all bad moments. … You never know what they can lead to.”
The reviews for the first season were off the charts. It had an unheard of 98% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Hopefully, it wasn’t just lightning in a bottle. Time will tell if season 2 can live up to the hype.
Published: Oct 22, 2024 05:21 pm