Head towards the trees. Which trees - they're all trees?

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2023 

#4 : Beef

There were car chases, shootouts, deaths and kidnaps in this tale of two Los Angeles residents whose lives become consumed by a spiralling feud triggered by a road rage incident. But for all its high-octane, anger-fuelled action, there was humour, tenderness and – in Ali Wong and Steven Yeun’s outstanding performances – a tale of the ways deep, existential sadness can be overcome by the most unlikely of allies.

I know this has got good write-ups and I might have got round to watching it, but I'm glad this gave me the push.

The first episode starts with the road rage incident that kicks it all off and then it fleshes out the lives of Amy (Ali Wong) and Danny (Steven Yeun) - which tells us they both have their issues.  Unfortunately, I found it all a bit dull, so I was wondering how long I'd stick with it - and then, right at the end of the episode, Danny ups the beef and you think "they've both got something to focus on now!" and it leaves you with a real "Yes!" (and had me a lot more convinced I'd stick with it).

And basically we spend the rest of the season following what The Guardian very accurately describes as "a spiralling feud" - and they both do indeed have "deep, existential sadness".  In a lot of ways it's a very odd series because they're both deeply unsympathetic characters, but somehow you find yourself rooting for them - you don't want either of them to win, but you don't want them to lose either.  

And it often goes places you don't expect it to - sometimes in a good "what was that?" kinda way but sometimes in a bad "what was that?" kinda way (and the panic room scene is just horrific).  Some pruning of the storylines wouldn't have hurt in places, but I stuck with it hoping they'd might sort things out in the end - but obviously I'm not going to tell you if they do.

Ali Wong and Steven Yeun are both excellent in this (particularly Ali) - they're both complex characters who are in many ways completely unbelievable, but you still buy in to them.  It's Steven's FIFTH appearance on this list (he might even be winning) and Ali's first mention, although I have seen her in a minor role in Bird Of Prey (which is a most peculiar film indeed).  Joseph Lee as George, Amy's husband and Young Mazino as Paul, Danny's brother are also good in slightly weird supporting roles - which are often very unsupportive.

It's very artfully shot - it often feels more like a film than a TV show (I got strong EEAAO vibes in lots of places).  Yes, that's often the case these days for TV but this is all very stylish, uses a lot of locations and has a surprising amount of action involved as well.  It also has some great music in it - Tori Amos, Keane and Björk all pop up (amongst many others).  It also has great episode titles - "The Birds Don't Sing, They Screech In Pain", "I Am Inhabited By A Cry" and "The Drama Of Original Choice" being prime examples (apparently they were picked to contrast with the simplicity of the show's title).

But - did I like it?  Well, that's an interesting one - it had moments of like but if I'd not been writing it up, I'm not sure I'd have seen it through to the end.  But I might have done - it's hard to tell.  Every episode had moments of intrigue but also moments of wtf - I think my general feeling is that the season was well planned, but some episodes were not necessarily quite so well designed and they realised some extraneous padding was required in places to deliver the required number of episodes.  I'm also not entirely sure what it's trying to say - it's probably something about the power of redemption or self-understanding or mutual destruction or anger or family or, well to be honest it could be absolutely anything, but I think you can guess I've no idea.

OK, that's all well and good - but did I like it?  Look - just give it a rest, OK?  I'm still trying to decide...

Halfway through I was veering towards a "no", but from episode 7 onwards it really upped its game and going in to the last episode I had absolutely no idea how they were going to end it and I was completely hooked, so at that point it was a "yes'.  But did it stick the landing?  Well the final episode opens with a conversation between two crows and gets considerably weirder after that - it's more than a little self-indulgent at times but it has QUITE the ending, which I found satisfying but I'm sure plenty of people didn't.

So overall, I think it gets a "yes" - it wasn't perfect and I might well have given up on it under other circumstances but it had a strong ending, was certainly ambitious (and never predictable) and featured a great pair of central performances.  So if you fancy something a bit different, it's waiting for you on Netflix.

#3 - Another fine send-off
#5 - Entertaining nonsense