SPOILERS are ahead for Beef, now streaming with a Netflix subscription.
When it comes to the new TV shows of 2023 we’re still thinking about, Beef is undoubtedly on the list. The original series had Steven Yeun and Ali Wong’s layered characters at odds after a road rage incident. Following the Netflix series’ success, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before a second season happens, but the question is how Beef will chose to continue.
When Beef creator Lee Sung Jin recently spoke to the next steps for the series after what he called a “life affirming” reaction from audiences, he shared where he is in regards to a Season 2 if it happens. In his words:
I’d love to make more. We initially pitched the show as an anthology series where every season is a new beef with new characters. At the same time, I really love Danny and Amy and George and Paul and the world we created. So, I’m really open to it all. Most importantly, I really want to keep working with this crew that I’ve really fallen in love with. But it’s hard for me to say which direction we’ll go without a writers room and any sort of momentum, so I’m really hoping the AMPTP comes to its senses.
As Lee Sung Jin updated The Hollywood Reporter, a second season of Beef isn’t currently in motion due to the ongoing WGA Writers Strike, but in the meantime he’s facing a dilemma about how to go forward with the show. As he shared, he initially pitched the A24 series as an anthology that would follow a new set of characters having beef with one another, but since working with the cast and characters of Season 1, he’s also weighing the option of continuing the original plotline following the Beef Season 1 ending.
As a fan of the show, I totally see the creator’s dilemma, but I’m definitely more interested in seeing the established cast of Beef continue to evolve following the initial events of Season 1. While I’d totally tune in for an anthology series called Beef, there was something really special about the particular exploration of Yeun’s struggling contractor character Danny alongside Wong’s incredible performance as the well-off small business owner and mother, Amy.
The series really had some stunning and thought-provoking things to say about each of its main characters as it followed the journey that actually brought them together, and perhaps sparking a romance between them. I could totally see how the show could continue to explore its themes through whatever recklessness comes out of Danny and Amy as a team who have come off of losing a lot and really facing themselves because of their road rage incident.
While discussing the show, Lee Sung Jin also spoke to Beef almost being between Yeun’s character and a white man played by Stanley Tucci, but the idea was scrapped to not make it about race and too “on-the-nose.” That lost idea almost underlines to me more why I’d want the original Beef to continue, because of how the show ended up nailing its complex characters so well. No matter what happens, I absolutely cannot wait to see what Lee Sung Jin does next with Beef.
