Examining The Real Beef In Beef

The TLDR of the show is about two people involved in a road rage incident who essentially ruin their lives trying to get revenge on one another. We’re talking peeing on someone’s bathroom floor, catfishing your ‘opponent’s’ younger brother…even accidentally kidnapping a child. Simply put, it’s about two characters who hare feuding with each other. But at its core, it’s about so much more than that.

Yes, Amy, played by Ali Wong, and Danny, played by Steven Yeun, clearly have beef with each other, but as the series unfolds you realize the real beef they have is with themselves. For starters, both are fighting against the expectations they themselves—and society—has put on them. On the surface Amy has the perfect life: a successful and thriving career, a gorgeous mansion, an adorable daughter, a hands-on husband, but despite all the external factors, she is deeply unhappy and unfilled.

Danny, on the other hand, has so much ambition and so many dreams, but can’t seem to translate that into “real” success. His ultimate goal? To move his parents back from South Korea to California and get his younger brother (the one Amy ultimately catfishes) to grow up and help.

On the day the initial incident occurs, Danny was actually at the equivalent of a Home Depot trying to return Hibachi Grills, which we later find out, he was planning to (#TriggerWarning) use to commit suicide. It’s as he’s sitting in his car after not being able to return it, that he goes to back up and almost hits the car behind him. A middle finger and epic car chase through a suburban neighborhood later, and both of their downfalls are set  in motion.

Amy and Danny become obsessed with trying to ruin the other’s life, and you learn as the series unfolds it’s because they are so unhappy with theirs. All Amy wants is to sell her company so she can spend more time with her daughter. All Danny wants is to make enough money to reunite his family. All they both want, ultimately, is to love and be loved—aka the most human of desires we can have.

It’s only after a shootout, car crash and a trip on poisonous berries, that the two begin to actually see all that they have in common. They both are small business owners, trying to find success. They are both the children of immigrants, trying to make a name for themselves and their families. They both shoulder the burden of providing for their families. They both realize they are more alike than they are different.

It’s a beautiful reminder to us all that, as cliche as it sounds, you never know what someone else is going through—you never know the burdens that someone else is carrying. To me, that was the real beauty of Beef. Yes, the dark humor and the suspense and the acting were all incredible and worth watching. But the real beauty was that once we stop fighting—with each other and ourselves—we can squash that beef and find purpose and commonality in our stories and our lives.