Mickel Clark
Netflix’s newest series has quickly gained popularity among viewers, earning an almost flawless rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Debuting on the streaming platform on Wednesday, 6 April 2023, Beef is a dark comedy brought to life by A24. The show features The Walking Dead actor Steven Yeun and comedian Ali Wong as two strangers involved in a road-rage incident.
On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, Beef boasts a 99% rating on the critic-backed Tomatometer and a 96% score based on audience feedback.
Critics have lauded the show’s writing and performances by Yeun and Wong, suggesting that Beef is a strong contender for this year’s Emmy Awards.
BEEF proves that Hoobastank makes everything better! pic.twitter.com/i1SXjVQb38
— Netflix (@netflix) April 8, 2023
Melanie McFarland, writing for Salon, remarked, “Someday, scholars might consider Beef as an accurate TV representation of the early 21st century’s collective mood – a persistent and worsening state of widespread pandemic anger. Overstated? Perhaps. Yet, I dare you to find another series that conveys the range of fury as wildly, beautifully, and insanely while mostly preserving its central clarity.”
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com commented, “Steven Yeun is, quite simply, one of the finest actors of his generation, and he makes countless intriguing choices here. Wong matches Yeun’s performance stride-for-stride from the first episode to the last. It’s undoubtedly the best acting work of her career, and I hope it paves the way for numerous future opportunities.”
Jack King from British GQ, on the other hand, claimed that Beef was Netflix’s best new show since Squid Game. “Thank goodness for Steven Yeun – a timeless statement if there ever was one – and Beef, a Russian Doll-style comeback for the streaming service’s original content, and unquestionably the best new series they’ve launched since 2020’s Squid Game,” King wrote.
He continued, “Riding the much-needed wave of new Asian-American media emerging over the past few years… Beef is a creative dramedy from ultra-trendy studio A24, consisting of ten 30-minute episodes that stem from a quintessentially LA road rage incident.”
