Netflix’s 2-Part Crime Thriller Shows Just How Hard It Is to Follow a Perfect First Season

When Beef first arrived on Netflix back in 2023, it didn’t just become one of the streamer’s most talked-about shows. It felt like the kind of series that came out of nowhere and instantly locked people in, blending dark comedy, rage, pain, and chaos in a way that was weirdly hard to look away from. Plenty of shows come back after a long gap hoping to recreate that same magic, but that’s always easier said than done. Especially when the first outing landed almost perfectly with both critics and audiences.

Now, after a three-year wait, Beef has officially returned for Season 2, and while the new installment is still in strong shape overall, it hasn’t hit the same towering Rotten Tomatoes highs as the first season. Season 1 holds a huge 98% critics’ score and an 87% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, while Season 2 currently sits at 87% with critics and 62% with audiences. That still keeps the new season comfortably fresh on the critical side, but it’s a pretty noticeable drop from the level the series reached the first time around.

That gap matters because Beef didn’t return with the same setup. Creator Lee Sung Jin has turned the Netflix hit into an anthology, meaning Season 2 trades the Ali Wong and Steven Yeun-led spiral of mutual destruction for a completely different story and cast. The new season stars Oscar Isaac as Josh, Carey Mulligan as Lindsay, Charles Melton as Austin, Cailee Spaeny as Ashley, and Youn Yuh-jung as Chairwoman Park. It’s a big swing, and one that was probably always going to invite comparisons to the original. We need to remember though — it’s still clearly very good, but perhaps just lacking that freshness the first one had.

Is ‘Beef’ Season 2 Worth Watching?

Collider’s review stated that Beef Season 2 is ambitious, well-acted, and often compelling, but it never feels as sharp or complete as the first season. Instead of centering on one tightly wound conflict, this new story spreads itself across two couples, class issues, race, beauty standards, healthcare, and more. That gives the season a lot to say, but not enough time to say it well.

At the end of the day, Beef Season 2 struggles where so many other shows flounder today: The show is trying to do too much with too little. With double the protagonists, the season would have had more room to breathe with even just ten episodes, allowing for the final arc — which takes our protagonists out of California and over to Korea — to feel a bit more natural in the transition. Season 2 is by no means bad, but it’s a step down from what this series can accomplish, and I can only hope that if there’s a Season 3, the series will course-correct, because this just isn’t working as well.

Beef is streaming now on Netflix.

Release Date

April 6, 2023

Network

Netflix

Showrunner

Lee Sung Jin

•