By any standard, 2023 has been a phenomenal year for telly, with all manner of old favourites returning to our screens leaner and stronger than ever before. Without exaggeration, when the time comes to write the history of television in the 21st century, you might find half a dozen standout highlights from this year alone.
And yet, pound for pound, they were all outclassed by a contender that came out of nowhere. Nobody knew a thing about Beef before it was plonked ungraciously on to a Netflix submenu. And then, if you watched it, it very quickly became all you could think about. Dense with entertainment, taut with drama, able to escalate vertiginously without warning, Beef is about as good as television gets.
