"BEEF" is one of my favorite TV shows this year, along with "THE LAST OF US".
Most American TV shows portray Asians with a uniform, indistinct look, but in "Beef," each Asian American character is distinctively portrayed, showcasing their respective ethnic characteristics. This is the main reason why I enjoy the show.
Implications of Road Rage
The opening scene of "Beef" features an anxious East Asian man making a return at a large retail store. When it's his turn, the cashier impatiently demands to see his receipt while making sarcastic comments—it's not the first time he comes to return a hibachi grill.However,this time, he can't find the receipt. With many people waiting behind him in line, he can simply do nothing but leave.
It's just not his day, as even the seatbelt in his pickup seems to be against him, taking him several attempts to fasten. He can't help but 'beef' about always running into trouble as he starts backing up his pickup, almost hiting another driver in a Benz who keeps honking and flips him off.Provoked and enraged, the man decides to follow the car and gives chase.That's how the road rage begins and sparks a feud.
The man is the male lead Danny Cho (Steven Yeun,a Korean American known for starring in The Walking Dead). who comes from a Korean family. The one who drives the Benz turns out to be the female lead Amy Leu(Ali Wong, comedian), a Chinese-Vietnamese descent who married to a Japanese artist and has a cute daughter. Despite the apparent East Asian context, it is 'beef' that drives the plot development and reveals the two's struggle.
Danny's life is a mess. He has a hard time making a living. His parents used to run a small hotel, but it was shut down due to the involvement of his cousin, Isaac, in something illegal. Danny's parents are now stuck in Korea, leaving him with his unemployed younger brother. As the typical eldest son in an East Asian family, he feels the pressure to sustain the family and turn everything around. However, the weight of responsibility and the repeated failures only adds to the bitterness and emptiness inside.Often, he drives alone to a hilltop to and gorges on burgers, which seems to imply that no matter how much he swallows, he cannot fill the emptiness in his heart.
Amy appears to be doing much better, living in a detached villa and having her own career.It's understandable some may wonder what she has to complain about. However, as others may have noticed, in just the first ten minutes of the first episode, Amy is interrupted by his husband, descent of a Japanese artist, while venting her frustrations and is suggested to do a gratitude journal. Stand in Amy's shoes and you'll see how cruel it is to be stopped from expressing all that upsets you and to be told to look on the positive.
Her husband always teaches her to let go, to be peaceful, and to be grateful. To meet his expectation, she agrees to counselling and has to exert effort to fake calmness and reconciliation in front of her husband and the therapist.
There is a reason behind the beef, but no one will ever pay attention. The road rage incident damaged nothing more than a patch of flowers in someone's garden, yet it was captured, shared online, and critized by the entire community. Everyone keeps asking: who is it to be so angry and so uncivilized?
Their anger is only a release of less than 1%, yet the society is already in an uproar.
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