Steven Yeun and Ali Wong don’t return for Netflix’s Beef: Season 2, with creator and sometimes-director Lee Sung Jin opting for a completely new storyline and cast for his multiple-Emmy Award-winning series.
Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan take over as a financially troubled couple working for and residing in an expensive country club, where two employees (Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton) inadvertently film them during a vicious argument.
This sets the stage for the sort of blackmailing and bad behavior one should expect in a show called Beef. The entire cast is in peak form, and while this season is not quite as good as the viciously funny first season, it still hits plenty of the nasty marks.
Mulligan and Spaeny shine brightest as women trying to deal with the varying degrees of idiocy emanating from their partners. While all four characters are brutally flawed, Mulligan and Spaeny bring a certain grace to their troubles.
Isaac is his typically good self as a sleazy wannabe musician embezzling money to support his extravagant lifestyle, while Melton perhaps has the most heart of the four—while still being an idiot.
While the magic of Yeun and Wong isn’t reached here, there’s still plenty to enjoy in Beef: Season 2. Jin has said he’d be fine if Season 2 is the last, so hope does not run high for further Beef misadventures.