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9th April 2023
10:22am BST
What is the very best Netflix show of all time? Sure, everyone will have their personal favourites - be it down to actual quality or their own personal tastes - but if we're judging by review scores, then these would be considered some of the very best Netflix original series ever on the streaming platform:
Master Of None, BoJack Horseman, Orange Is The New Black, Big Mouth, Russian Doll, I Think You Should Leave, The Crown, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Lady Dynamite, Heartstopper... and now adding to that impressive list is Beef.
Kicking off with a minor disruption at a carpark that devolves into a full on road-rage car chase, Danny (Steven Yeun - Nope, Invincible) and Amy (Ali Wong - Always Be My Maybe, Love Victor) soon become each other's worst nightmare. Frustrated with their lots in life, both on opposite ends of the economic spectrum, they are too close to constantly erupting in pure rage for their interactions to go any other way.
As they continue to dismantle their new nemesis' life in every way they possibly can, they only get further entangled in each other's lives - sometimes by accident, sometimes even as they fight against it as much as they humanly can - and as they each descend further and further into the pits of petty revenge, we can see just how eerily similar they really are to each other.
Produced by A24 (Euphoria, 2 Dope Queens), and co-starring Maria Bello (A History Of Violence, Prisoners), Ashley Park (Emily In Paris, Girls5Eva), David Choe (The Mandalorian, Vice) and Patti Yasutake (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Drop Dead Gorgeous), at the time of writing, Beef is sitting pretty with a score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Check out some critic snippets right here:
The Hollywood Reporter - "The half-hours fly by as wild twists twists pile up. What’s less expected, however - and what really lingers once the dust has settled - is the series' emphasis on the characters’ flawed humanity, and its disarming sense of empathy for their existential despair. [...] A pair of spectacular performances. [...] Each joke grows from characters performed and written so vividly, they seem to leap off the screen."
Time - "A smart, sophisticated comedy with an ideal cast, artful direction, polished production design. [...] The rare show that, like Everything Everywhere All At Once, honours the differences in class, ethnicity, and personality that make each of its mostly Asian-American characters unique, rather than flattening them into some idealised exercise in 'positive representation.' It's a remarkably confident debut from Dave and Undone vet Lee, and one that keeps upping its ante until the bitter, big-hearted end."
The Playlist - "Much like the characters themselves, it is a series that is wrapped in an angry outer shell that reveals itself to have a compassionate inside that can either break free or be obliterated. Even as you never know which will end up coming to pass, you’re locked in for the ride."
Related links:
Entertainment - JOE.co.uk | Joe.co.uk
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