Revenge, Death Spirals and Rebirth - Review of Lee Sung Jin’s Beef Season 2

Lee Sung Jin’s incredible dark comedy Beef recently saw its second season hitting the screens. It was again produced in partnership with A24 - which can only mean good things.Thanks to a sprained ankle, I binged all eight episodes in more or less one sitting. Although at first it seemed to have little link to the first season - and has had a pretty divided response because of this - I was soon wholly invested in it.

The first season featured a road rage incident between Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) and Amy Lau (Ali Wong) that quickly escalated into a petty blow-for-blow feud. The second has an entirely different cast and storyline, taking it more in the direction of anthology rather than series. This ‘beef’ concerns the entanglement of three very different couples; wealthy country club owners Josh and Lindsey (Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan), their struggling employees Ashley and Austin (Cailee Spaeny, Charles Melton), and club owner Chairwoman Park and her second husband Dr. Kim (Youn Yuh-jung, Song Kang-ho).

At the heart of both seasons is an exploration of how minor inconveniences can lead to destruction of the basest and pettiest kinds. So how exactly do they differ? Both speak to similar impulses in us, with the characters in season one managing to transform all their anger into a final moment of connection. Spaeny mentions the show’s focus on “unravelling and getting to the shadow self”, and while both seasons certainly have this in common, the second harnesses a far more cynical worldview. It delves into generational divides, class struggles and even existentialism, thoroughly excavating humanity in ways we may not be ready to watch.

Rather than simply reiterating the plot, here I wanted to focus on some of my favourite things about the new season (spoilers ahead).

Title Sequences

As with season one, Lee’s stylistic choices regarding the title sequences are extremely thought out. He assigns each episode a lengthy title with corresponding pieces of Renaissance art, creating something visually stimulating and dramatic. Some highlights include:

‘Episode 3: “The Increasing Flimsiness of Any Certainties About the Future”

This title is a quote from feminist theorist Lynne Segal. The episode itself sees Chairwoman Park covering up her husband’s accidental murder of a patient; Austin and Ashley continue using blackmail to get him employed at the club as physical therapist, as well as experiencing a growing rift between them; Josh and Lindsey pursue dreams of opening a bed-and-breakfast - by embezzling money from the club. Built entirely on falsehoods, their visions of success are flimsy to say the least.

Lee chose Hans Balding Grien’s The Ages of Woman and Death to accompany this. Grien’s piece shows a young and elderly woman, alongside a skeletal man with an hourglass who represents death. It demonstrates the transience of humanity, and is apt for the increasing fragility of the character’s lives.

‘Episode 4: “Oh, the comfort, the Inexpressible Comfort”

Originally a quote from Dinah Maria Craik celebrating strong, stable relationships, Lee twists this into something sardonic. In this episode, Ashley undergoes surgery to have her ovary removed - a procedure that could have been helped by Josh. Unsurprisingly, she begins harboring an unshakable thirst for revenge.

The chosen artwork is The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Joos van Craesbeck. It depicts the story of the saint’s retreat into the desert in grotesque ways. A large head appears to be consumed by a swarm of devils, but it is in fact the head spewing them forth. It acts as a vessel for something darker; similarly, the deepest parts of Ashley’s psyche become parasitic, boiling over until given physical form.

‘Episode 5: “I Am Killing My Flesh Without It”

Lee’s choices here are absolutely impeccable. The full quote - “I must ask for my soul back from you; I am killing my flesh without it” - is from Sylvia Plath’s journals. The episode is imbued with a sense of soullessness, following on from Ashley’s break-in and the disappearance of Josh and Lindsey’s dog. As pettiness turns to cruelty, it seems to be driving home one fact - that no relationship is safe from being warped by circumstances beyond their control, and no soul is beyond corruption.

The painting - The Nightmare by Nicolai Abraham Abilgaard - depicts an incubus perched on top of a sleeping woman. It is a surreal and unsettling depiction of the subconscious coming to the surface. When certain aspects of the self are repressed in BEEF, they emerge twice as monstrous. As Dr. Kim says later in the show - “life will always reveal its true self”.

Lindsey and Josh

While each of the three couples have a compelling storyline, the synergy between Isaac and Mulligan really stole the show for me. This is no surprise, given that they have already worked together on Drive (2011), and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013).

In her portrayal of Lindsey, Mulligan owns some of the most devastating scenes, as well as some hilarious one liners - as much a testament to her acting as to Lee’s comedic timing. This shines through almost immediately in the first episode. Confronted with the utter hopelessness of her relationship with Josh, her delivery of the line “you’ve wasted my whole life” is just flawless. And yet, the next shot shows her laughing, picking up pieces of the glass she smashed moments before. 

Lee has also praised Mulligan’s ‘Peter Sellers-esque’ style of physical comedy, comparing her to the actor and comedian. She too inhabits a kind of physical slapstick mixed with dark eccentricity that is mesmerising to watch.

The Score

The original score was composed by musician Finneas O’Connell, who also has a cameo in the show. He slips two tracks by his sister Billie Eilish into the soundtrack, but really shines on his original compositions. In many ways, the acting was shaped by the music rather than vice versa; Mulligan and Isaac even mentioned using earphones to listen to his scores during filming.

Inspired by the use of Moog synthesisers in the script, Finneas seamlessly incorporates this into the show. He also knows exactly when to step back, creating pieces that are emotional without being overbearing. A perfect example of this is the ten-minute long ‘Cold Open’.  Through its use of sprinklers and insect sounds, the song coexists with the script rather than imposing. 

My personal highlights were the motifs ‘Gentle Thoughts’ and ‘Vicious Thoughts’. The first of these  plays while Josh and Lindsey are being held captive by Chairwoman Parks, and frames a crucial moment of their relationship. We see them on either side of a partition, reflecting on how they’ve spent and enjoyed their time together. Here, Finneas was inspired by a viral TikTok video of a girl harmonising with her kitchen fan; his cue uses a low, sustained hum with a wistful melody over the top. 

While this is a soothing moment, its counterpart ‘Vicious Thoughts’ completely rips it apart. As Josh is arrested, Linsey runs after him and the two kiss in one of the most heartbreaking moments of the show. It is too late for them, and all the more raw because of this. As Isaac says, “when you allow yourself to feel the full love of someone, that’s called grief.” The emotions here are so complex and bittersweet, and the score lives up to it. The once simple melody is warped into a jarring, distressed synth line that conjures a sadness beyond expression.

Final Scene

For the season two finale, Lee again ended on a stunning overhead shot with a needle drop to match. Last time, he left us with Amy and Danny embracing in hospital as the opening notes of The Smashing Pumpkin’s ‘Mayonnaise’ played. After everything they had been through together, all that remained was the hope of moving on. 

While this left me with a lump in my throat, season two was hard to swallow for a different reason. In the eight years that have passed, Lindsey has remarried, and Ashley has taken over as new manager of the club, appearing alongside her now husband Austin in an almost exact replica of the first scene. In all the wrong ways, Lee has given us what we wanted all along. A tension lingers between the two, and the parallel scene suggests their lives are just as unfulfilled as their predecessors’. This faces us with a much bleaker reality. 

Despite all their rage, both couples are ultimately powerless to Chairwoman Parks. We last see her visiting her first husband’s grave, both lamenting and accepting that for all her wealth, she is ‘old and filled with regret’.

“This great, beautiful cycle of life,” she says, “leaves us no choice but to accept it gladly.” As the camera zooms out, we see a dizzying shot of her encircled by the other characters - Lee’s homage to Buddhist samsara paintings depicting the cycle of life, death and rebirth.This is arguably the main difference between the two seasons; the first beef is resolved, but the second is an ongoing cycle. Where the first ended with hope, the second simply states a fact - epitomised as Thomas Mars of Phoenix sings “right where it starts, it ends.”

The beauty of this cyclicality is that it can be interpreted either way. One explanation sees us mindlessly and endlessly marching along in a death spiral, much like the ants that recur throughout. The other prompts a kind of acceptance in something that is pointless to resist. It is neither happy or sad - it just is, and while there may be a hopelessness in that fact, there is also the choice to accept it gladly. With this in mind, it surely implores us to make our time count and become more united with

each other in the process.