Steven Yeun and Ali Wong have collaborated on fantastic experimental series titled, ‘Beef’. It’s been a few years since A24 has become renowned for its experimental, daring, diverse, and highly entertaining stories that they have helped distribute on TV and cinema screens. Now, we are going to witness the latest addition to their rich collection the series Beef.

The series has been created by comedy writer and producer Lee Sung Jin. The premise of the show was initially kept under tight wraps, only building major hype and mystery around the series. Yet, with the world premiere happening at the 2023 SXSW Festival.

Lee Sung Jin, who was previously passed by his moniker of Sonny Lee, has been engaged in comedy series since 2007. Beef is going to be his first major project as a showrunner. The Korean writer has already racked up some impressive writing credits after working on shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, 2 Broke Girls, and Tuca & Bertie, an animated series in that Wong and Yeun also starred. Jin also served as executive producer for recent series like Undone and Dave and was part of the 2015 Emmy-nominated team for Outstanding Comedy Series for Silicon Valley.

Beef: Plot

The new trailer starts opens with the two lead characters Amy Lau and Danny Cho who have both faced their own respective struggles in their lives. This time the pair could not be more different with Amy leading a lavish lifestyle and Danny having to hustle to make ends meet. Among all of this, the fateful road rage incident brings them together and rapidly escalates into a reckless car chase. However, it doesn’t end there as their anger toward each other consumes them to an obsessive extent. Amy and Danny continue to cross paths, determined to destroy each other’s lives because “Revenge is best served raw.

The story of the “Beef” series alludes to the ongoing feud in the road rage encounter between the two main characters, which serves as the story’s major catalyst. the creator of the show Lee Sung Jin developed the series after being inspired by a real-life traffic altercation that he had with a stranger. In Vanity fair he was declared :

“I wasn’t in a particularly bad mood that day, but I sort of was like, You know what? That’s not okay to do, and I’m going to follow you home.”

Danny and Amy, who have shared the titular beef, are driven to irrational lengths through the series to disrupt and wreck each other’s lives. The pair being from different socio-economic backgrounds plays an additional factor in their dispute and personal outlooks and struggles. However, it begs the question if their wrath is legitimately directed at each other or rather fueled and misguided by their individual unresolved issues.

After this Jin states,” I really wanted to explore two people who have just a lot of things that they haven’t dealt with, and they keep repressing it and pushing it inside—and how does that come out?

Beef: Cast

Steven Yeun and Ali Wong led the dark comedy as Danny Cho and Amy Lau respectively. They both also serve as executive producers for the show. Both stars have gained notable popularity in recent years, with Yeun receiving an Oscar nomination.

After getting departed from his well-known role as Glenn Rhee in The Walking Dead, Yeun has made an impressive list of movie roles including Bong Joon Ho’s Okja, Burning, Sorry to Bother You, and most recently, Jordan Peele’s Nope. His voice acting repertoire includes Voltron: Legendary Defender, Final Space, and Invincible.

Wong is best known for her Netflix comedy specials including Baby Cobra, Hard Knock Wife, and Don Wong. She starred in projects such as the DC film Birds of Prey and the ABC sitcom American Housewife.

Apart from them, we are going to see the ensemble cast as Joseph Lee and Remy Holt who will play George and Junie, Amy’s husband and daughter. Patti Yasutake plays Fumi, Amy’s mother-in-law while Ashley Park is Naomi, a colleague of Amy’s. Young Mazino and David Choe star as Paul and Isaac, Danny’s family members. Justin H. Min plays Edwin, a friend of Danny. Mia Serafino, Maria Bello, and Ione Skye are also set to guest star in the series.

Beef: Release Date

The dramedy is set to premiere first at the 2023 SXSW Festival on March 18, 2023. Shortly after, All 10 episodes will be released together, with each episode having a general runtime of about 30 minutes.

The first Beef trailer was dropped by Netflix on 15^th March 2023. Netflix has confirmed that the series is exclusively streaming on April 6, 2023.

Here is the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFPIMHBzGDs