Beef
When I watched the first season of Beef on Netflix, I was impressed. Creator Lee Sung Jin hit on a winning formula when he borrowed from The War of the Roses and escalated a feud between two strangers that began with a road-rage incident. But season one had one fatal flaw, for me: I had an aversion to the lead character. She irritated me. Despite fine writing and production values, I simply could not cast aside my dislike of that character.
Fast forward to season two of Beef. Lee doubles the disaster by engaging not one, but two couples in a mushrooming, back-and-forth battle. By making one couple penniless Gen Z and the other relatively wealthy and middle-aged, Lee milks class- and generational-warfare to great comic effect. The only downside is the climax, which devolves into trailer-friendly, silly chase scenes.
Pictured above are Seoyeon Jang and Charles Melton. For more on Jang, see below.
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The reviews are (finally) coming in:
“Hard-core weird” — Booksprout
“Unapologetically dark” — Reedsy Discovery
“These stories deliver on exactly what is promised … by turns funny, a bit scary, definitely twisted” — BigAl’s Books & Pals
Here’s some unsolicited advice to fledgling authors who submit their work to book-review sites: Don’t make the mistake I did. I made Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) available to reviewers on a site composed largely of older women into gardening. My book is definitely not geared toward older women into gardening.
The response from the lady reviewers was, in retrospect, unsurprising: “Too disturbing,” “Not my cup of tea,” etc.
So writers, do yourself a favor and do a bit of research to find your target audience.
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Speaking of research, I did some on British-Korean actress Seoyeon Jang for the piece above on Beef. I found a clip from the show that I did not recall seeing when I first watched episode three. I was not likely to forget this scene because it features Jang’s shapely bare ass and …
What the hell? Friggin’ A.I.
Either this clip was left on the cutting-room floor in favor of something more modest, or it’s fake.
Below, the scene as I first saw it on Netflix, followed by the suspicious clip circulating online.
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