BEEF

Season 1 - 4.5  Season 2 - 3.0 I was quite underwhelmed by season 2. Cailee Spaeny was great as she always is (deserved more attention for Priscilla). She’s quite the cutie, and I think she’s the only one of the 4 new leads who was selling the comic elements. Her silly little bow to the Chairwoman when they first meet was hilarious, as was her pretending to read the certification on the wall so she could spy without being found out.  I normally like Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, and Charles Melton, and they do fine here, but they’re all very dramatic performers. The comedy from season 1 is almost non-existent in season 2, and I’m not sure if the writing changed or the performances. Either way, it felt like a huge loss. Ali Wong and Steven Yeun made season 1 a hilarious dark comedy blast, whereas season 2 became some weird pretentious drama about capitalism. It’s trying to be Parasite or No Other Choice, but I didn’t find it anywhere near as good. I get the points its trying to make. Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton start out innocent but then once money gets in the way it corrupts them into being like Oscar Isaac and Carrie Mulligan. Despite multiple murders, fraud, embezzlement, and theft, the powerful get off scot free, and the characters only option is to embrace the evils of the system. So I do see what the show is doing… But that’s not actually accurate. Nobody actually does have to make choices to this degree. And if you want to say that the universe is heightened for satire/absurdity, that’s fine, but you have to actually be funny! And this season just took itself so seriously as to not be humorous any more, which spoiled most of the fun. This just felt mean spirited. Interesting enough to watch all the way through, but disappointing in comparison to its first season.