Steven Yeun is back in a live-action leading TV role for the first time since The Walking Dead, as he joins Ali Wong in new Netflix dark comedy Beef. The pair play Danny and Amy, two strangers whose lives converge after they're involved in a road rage incident.
Over the course of the show's 10 episodes, the pair's lives become more and more entangled as their feud consumes their lives. The first reviews for the show are now out after the series premiered at SXSW Festival, and critics are full of praise for Yeun and Wong's performances.
"It’s a hilarious premise on its face, and the half-hours fly by as wild 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," says The Hollywood Reporter (opens in new tab)'s Angie Han.
Time (opens in new tab)'s Judy Berman writes: "Beef is the kind of series – a smart, sophisticated comedy with an ideal cast, artful direction, polished production design – that Netflix has mostly stopped making. It’s also the rare show that, like Everything [Everywhere All at Once], honors the differences in class, ethnicity, and personality that make each of its mostly Asian-American characters unique, rather than flattening them into some idealized exercise in 'positive representation.'"
"Beef remains eminently watchable (so long as your nerves can tolerate such needlessly risky behavior) and its riveting performances make the five-plus hours a worthy investment," says IndieWire (opens in new tab)'s Ben Travers. "The limited series may jump the shark in its back half, but in doing so, it also mimics the contradictory emotions tied
Beyond
UPS
Extreme
Man
HANS
The Bear
Steven Yeun