Beef: The Show Where Everyone Kinda Sucks.

A quick and easy way for me to judge whether a freshly launched TV show meets my expectations is a question that I ask myself every first episode: Do the characters get on my nerves?

As a judgy watcher, I usually drop a show when the main character begins to annoy me – but Beef was truly an exception. This show launches itself and shows a suffering Korean man, Danny who battles poverty and depression and would do literally anything for money. Soon, we quickly get introduced to the Koyohaus (plant store) owner, Amy, who is living the American dream of being wealthy enough to have her self-designed home, and to have a talented husband and a healthy young daughter.

However, she was offered a striking deal of working five extra years, which will cause her to receive millions of dollars from her acquaintance, Jordan if she surrendered her business ownership later on. This gives her a dilemma because she feels stressed by the people surrounding her. She would finally be able to take a break while still having millions of dollars left to spare, but she has to work some more.

The two seemingly ‘opposites’ have a quick encounter in a grocery store which quickly evolves into a road-rage incident. This is where the beef begins.

Later on, we delve into their lives after the road-rage incident. We now know that Daniel Cho is struggling to keep his home and his small amount of money while taking care of his younger brother.

Though seemingly hopeless and miserable, he has this strong ambition to send his parents (who were still living in South Korea after their motel's bankruptcy) back to the United States. He attempts to commit suicide by inhaling carbon monoxide and by eating his heart out, but he constantly fails. However, the road-rage incident fueled his fire, giving him a purpose to live out his life by planning to express revenge towards the successful Amy and her kind husband, George. And after the first revenge act by Danny, Amy also wanted to do something vengeful to him, too.

That’s what I have for the synopsis before I spoil anything else, and sooner or later I realized that these annoying characters all have flaws. At first, I was close to dropping the show because of how unlikable the main characters were, but they weren’t so bad after all. This shows us how life truly works, and how nobody is truly perfect like how Hollywood movies depict them to be. Do we seriously think that somebody as perfect and pure-hearted as Captain America would exist in the real world?

The flawed main characters and the also flawed supporting characters like Paul, Isaac, and George show us how people really are. This is what makes Beef a wonderful, realistic series which shows us how the world works. Though willing to commit crimes for greed, can we really say that Danny was a bad person by the end of the series? The person who backed out of his revenge plan because of George’s kindhearted words? The person who has a soft spot for kids? The same would go for Amy, the woman who was greedy and self-loathing, yet yearns to please everyone around her?

While Beef centers on revenge, we can really see how Asians of completely different backgrounds and upbringings can cope with the same level of stress, the same internal conflicts, and the feeling of never being understood. The vulnerability that Amy and Danny express makes this show relatable for people who struggle with stress and self-questioning.

Enough of the moral of the show, but this series also induces anxiety and an ironically, great action series, too. Lee Sung-jin successfully hooks his audience into following the adventures of the two main characters’ lust for revenge.

With that said, it is no surprise that Beef has received international recognition for its well-written characters and a well-written Southern California – and this show especially shows us how rage, hate, and vengeance can make you want to live a little longer – sometimes it’s okay to embrace it!