Knock, knock — Lee Sung Jin’s acclaimed series BEEF is back. And this time, in Season 2, the epic rivalry unfolds between two couples: millennials Josh (Osaar Isaac) and Lindsay (Carey Mulligan), and Gen Zers Austin (Charles Melton) and Ashley (Cailee Spaeny). Witness the adrenaline-pumping inciting incident above for a taste of the BEEF ahead, now that Season 2 is streaming.
Season 1 of BEEF knocked on our doors with its cacophony of car horns and collection of eclectic chairs, and quickly made itself at home in the world’s living room. The result was a sweeping 13 Emmy nominations and 8 wins, including a history-making trophy for star Ali Wong, the first Asian woman to score an Emmy for a lead role. Enter Season 2.
BEEF’s highly anticipated second season takes a similarly inventive approach to chronicle a completely new beef. As we see in the video, country club employees Austin and Ashley drive over to their boss Josh’s house to return his wallet. Ashley notes how wallets require you to “spend money to carry money,” which blows Austin’s mind. As they turn to leave, the young couple hears a commotion from the property’s garage, and they tentatively walk over to see what the ruckus is about. Ashley starts to worry when she hears screaming and crashing, and pulls out her phone to take a video in case. See what Austin and Ashley witness in the explosive premiere clip.
While the video doesn’t reveal what, exactly, is wrong in Josh and Lindsay’s marriage, there are a few hints. As Lindsay takes a golf club to some framed wall hangings, Josh accuses his wife of being “selfish.” Then Josh crosses a line, telling Lindsay, “Thank god we didn’t have kids.” That verbal slight is Lindsay’s last straw, and she turns on him. Partly fending her off, partly returning the vitriol, Josh is locked with his wife in an expletive-laden altercation. We’re left wondering what could have set off such a brutal, grievance-laden scene (rest assured that BEEF Season 2 will explore this mystery, and so much more).
While the couple’s dog, Burberry (played by the star of the Season 2 premiere red carpet, Jones), doesn’t have the answers, he does help out his human parents. Burberry barks, which alerts Josh and Lindsay to the presence of Ashley and Austin, who stand outside the window, gobsmacked. The tense moment hangs in the balance for a brief moment before Austin and Austin turn and book it back to their car. “Shit,” Josh says, which doesn’t even begin to cover the mess they’re in. This domestic dispute will spark a chain of events that implicate powerful people around the world in the coming episodes, which take its characters all the way to Seoul.
The drama in Josh and Lindsay’s home isn’t the only preview we get of what’s cooking on BEEF. Just like in Season 1, each episode’s title cards feature a work of art. At the start of Episode 1 we see Quentin Massys’s “The Money Changer and His Wife,” a painting from 1514. The image foreshadows the chess moves of coercion and corruption to come.
“Much like Season 1, this season was ripped from the headlines of my life,” says BEEF showrunner, creator, and executive producer Lee. “It was loosely based on a loud argument overheard from a neighbor’s home. The varying reactions from everyone who heard fascinated me. We changed the setting to a workplace because I wanted to explore the boss-employee dynamic more. And rather than a ‘boomer couple versus younger couple’ setup, which we’ve seen a lot before, we thought, what if we actually made them a little bit closer in age and highlighted the generational divide between the millennial couple and the Gen Z couple?”
The inciting incident is anything but subtle, but the 8 episodes’ subsequent unraveling proves how microaggressions can crescendo into something just as diabolical. “Season 1’s beef is so overt and aggressive,” says Lee. “I thought Season 2 should be the inverse: a passive-aggressive beef, which is more true to life, especially in a workplace.” Getting to play with the range of rage was part of why Lee wanted to make BEEF an anthology series: “The intention was always to have it be an anthology,” he says.
What will a more passive-aggressive beef look like in Lee’s hands? Will Josh and Lindsay’s fury bleed onto Austin and Ashley’s sweetly naive love story? Why did Lindsay even pick up that golf club in the first place? Tune into BEEF Season 2 to find out. Press “play” on BEEF directly below, or add it to your List to watch later. And stick around Tudum to dive deep into the whole menu, including BEEF: The Official Podcast, now streaming.
