'BEEF' - A Strikingly * * Story (Lots of Spoilers)

Spoilers!

First, let me say that I like the beginning of the show, but it took a while to hook me. For a couple of days, I was stuck on one of the earliest episodes, not willing to continue. I remember the exact moment that hooked me, and from then on, I was in. When George's mother shoot at the guys and fell down the stairs, I thought, wow, this just took a turn for the worse, but good for me, because we were finally cooking. Boy, did I wish for it, and I received it. It’s hard to promote a show that has a slow start because those shows are time-consuming—I get it—but this one delivers. It’s worth the time, unlike that crap Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which progressively got worse, this show exploded. Now, to be honest, I’m feeling way calmer about the upcoming Thunderbolts*, even though I didn’t enjoy the trailer very much.

The sophisticated takes on free will, destiny, and decisions resonate with my inner monologues these days, elevating the show to a story with a heart. It seems like you have to watch right until the end to appreciate the whole season, where episodes 9 & 10 are some of the best storytelling I’ve seen in a while. Agatha All Along had similar complexities but with a much lighter tone. Even though they tackled some very dark themes there, this show’s crew went above and beyond.

Do we have free will? Do people? Do we choose to be the assholes, or are we programmed because of the load and trauma our parents got from theirs? Generational curses. It seems like the show doesn’t make things black and white, as we prefer them simplified, but rather explores the realism of the situation—the gray area where we tend to pick the wrong paths, whether for a reason or not. They were in the front seat, at the wheel, driving the car when their BEEF started. After all, those two broken—many will say beyond repair—people found each other. The end scene, after all they’d been through and put each other through: Amy in tears, lying in the hospital bed with Danny, waiting for the only person who saw her and understood her to wake up. Thinking about it just breaks my heart. The possibility of losing those things that connects you to this world is frightening.  Such a well-constructed scene and powerfully written episode—it deserves an Emmy! The dialogue between them during the berry trip was fucking beautiful. Not only did they get to know each other, but we got to know them, and we got to know more about ourselves. Even the comedic aspects were masterfully done. For example, when Danny summarized life experience in one sentence: You’re born, you make decisions, and now you’re here. I laughed so many times and gasped during the last two episodes. They made me fall in love with the show. The callback of the fucking crows attacking Ali because she had a BEEF with one of their relatives in the early episodes was comedic gold. I loved them making the decision to go to war. I was not ready for the universe going at these two like that. And crows do attack, but this was personal! Like Danny calmly said: It’s like the world wanted me gone, and Amy added: Maybe that’s why we’re sick, and then proceeded to puke her guts out. Poisoned outcasts. The whole puking experience was something special.

When they woke up, it seemed like they had moved a lot, which happens when you take hallucinogenics, but they were still there in that space—in the puke circle. So many metaphors were well-realized, like their first meeting and the control they lost on the situation leading to this enormous shit show—their last moments before they found each other for real, going off the cliff. Those two control freaks finally let go. It was like their old selves died, and they were reborn lost, but in needing one another, they finally saw each other. The last two stending, or the first two born. I think it’s one of the most beautiful stories ever told. One of the most meaningful insights and connections in life happens during trips, where we are most open and respectful of one another, where we see each other. It’s weird how many walls you destroy during these trips, and most of the time, they go back up eventually, but in those moments, we see each other for real, and we connect on an energy, vibration level. 

A24 once again proves to be a high-quality studio, bringing along some horror elements that I loved. The showing of the dirt where they puked their guts out for the past couple of episodes, out of nowhere, showed where they were heading. Did they have a choice to stop, or was it the domino effect where you couldn’t go back? I thought the show would reveal something horrific that connected them before—a body or a secret buried in the past—but the point of the show was to look forward and overcome. It was hard to sympathize with those two because they kept their foot on the gas, and they were going for it. High emotions tend to overtake our logic. The people in their lives and the suffering around them were once again so well-realized. Although things turned crazy by the end, the world has seen worse, and I felt the point. The point of suffering, and how characters are shaped through it. Like Amy said under the influence of those trippy berries: When nowhere feels like home, you retreat into yourself. And I felt that. These two hurt the people around them because they were hurting. They were stuck, like Amy’s mother said to her—not to look back because there’s no point—and until they met each other on that psychedelic trip, they were in that gigantic hole they kept digging. Since then, they escaped the walls around them, and they saw a path forward; they saw the future in each other. That’s why Amy never left his bedside—because he was the only thing that was alive, real. Everything fades, people, things... we have to grab what we see and try to hold it. Things change; when you try to hold on to something, it slips away, but she finally found that feeling of home and she was not ready to let go.This show was so insightful and progressively good, like a crash waiting to happen—and when it does, it hits hard. But it’s also trippy, almost like a journey on magic mushrooms, blurring the lines between reality and raw emotion.

The horror elements during the psychedelic trip or in the episode with the scary black-and-white woman and how she became part of Amy’s life? Come on, I just realized why she was black and white. She was the judgment—where things are either black or white, good or evil—and she appeared whenever Amy was doing something not good. Her Mary Poppins of bad decisions. She even saw her father accompanied by the same woman—the generational curse—and after that, when she fucked the guy in the hotel under the sheets, she saw herself like her. Those bad decisions kept her going in the scariest direction, but those decisions also made Amy and Danny feel alive. Those bad decisions led them to each other, like some type of destiny, like two magnets who tried so hard to avoid each other because they hated the mirror they represented to one another. Because they were the same, they ultimately couldn’t escape looking into this soul-crashing realization that they are bad people. Two black holes headed for collision. So fucking romantic, and I am impressed by the show having me believe for the most part that those two could never. In order to create something, they had to first destroy themselves—their old selves—to overcome those walls and experience connection, love, almost like a purification. Love heals. 

'BEEF' - A Strikingly Romantic Love Story

Danny’s brother Paul was able to climb that wall with the help of his brother and move on from that trap. He tried to pick his brother up but then heard one of the most extreme and selfish decisions I’ve heard in my life. Danny actually kept his brother around him because he was afraid to be alone. So many levels and metaphors. And of course, the subject of fear—the primal feeling that controls our lives. Luckily, if there was no fear, there couldn’t be hope, and Ali finally looking into her future had hope.

The whole cast is top-notch. After this incredible episode 9, where the show just jumps to 11, after the door slices Jordan in half because she fell, hit by that fucking chair, too slow to reach in time. I remember seeing Danny's cousin getting arrested, realizing the bad decisions he made, showing how little control we have over ourselves, and the drowning in doing bad things, the repetition. Or Naomi crying, sitting with her choice to press the button and crush her lover in two. Naomi, who Jordan wanted to dump for Amy, had time to get into the safe room and make a bad decision under the pressure of a dynamic situation, just like our guys.

The moment Amy snapped at Jordan when she was asked if that was a cultural thing stood out like a moment where Jordan seemed to open her eyes, seeing Amy for a second. Jordan was the billionaire who has everything she wants, except Amy. All the people around her kiss her ass, but for a moment that magic snapped, and Amy was real. I love Aly Long; I watched all her specials. She's my kind of girl, boss bitch, something to look up to as inspiration. Here, it seems she deconstructed her own personal life with the help of imagination and this complex character into what she eventually became in real life. I imagine her path was similar.

Steven Yeun losing the role of Sentri in Thunderbolts is a crime. Remember that episode of The Walking Dead? Here, in the last two episodes, his struggles, but also his acting and will to go all-in, impressed me a lot. Even though the show successfully painted them as irredeemable nutheads, those two were complex humans who I found myself drawn to. The show made me care for them, which is incredible to think about, how they made that connection. I belong in the same group.

Looking back, which is not always a good idea, seems to illuminate the bad decisions and my worst deeds, and now I’ve met a guy who seems to be on the same path as me, heading for collision. We experience and test each other badly, only to realize we cannot quit each other. It’s weird. I don’t even know what it is, but this show very much summarizes it. Maybe that’s why it resonated with me so much, because I felt seen and understood.

So many layers we can peel off here. I’ll probably watch it again with my friend, who stopped watching this incredible show around the 4th episode. Can you imagine missing on this? Like Jordan said, everything fades. People, things, experiences. You just gotta keep grabbing what you can. Right? That’s what makes life so wonderful. 

Leave your impression if you agree or disagree with something, or if I missed something. I would love to discuss more, like Asian culture, or George's mother admitting her son is not an artist, and how his wife is his hope, with George himself holding the Chekhov's gun.

Iliya Badev