Production notes

The project, created by Korean-American director Lee Sung Jin and starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, was first announced in March 2021. There was a bidding war over the series rights. Netflix won the rights. In December, Lee Isaac Chung was reported to be directing the pilot episode. In March 2022, additional castings were announced, including David Choe and Patti Yasutake, and the pilot episode would instead be directed by Japanese director Hikari. She was also confirmed to direct several additional episodes. Filming began by April 2022. In April 2023, Lee said he planned for the series to last three seasons, saying: "There are a lot of ideas on my end to keep this story going. I think should we be blessed with a season two, there's a lot of ways for Danny and Amy to continue. I have one really big general idea that I can't really say yet, but I have three seasons mapped out in my head currently." In February 2024, it was announced that a second season was being actively explored, with Charles Melton, Cailee Spaeny, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. In June 2024, it was reported that Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan were in negotiations to star in the second season. In August 2024, Melton and Spaeny confirmed they were in negotiations to star in the second season. In October 2024, it was confirmed that Isaac, Mulligan, Melton, and Spaeny had been cast as the leads, with the story centering around "a young couple witnessing an alarming fight between their boss and his wife, triggering chess moves of favors and coercion in the elitist world of a country club and its Korean billionaire owner". This marked the third collaboration for Isaac and Mulligan, after having co-starred in the films Drive (2011) and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013).

The first season of Beef received universal critical acclaim. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 125 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Ali Wong and Steven Yeun are a diabolically watchable pair of adversaries in Beef, a prime cut comedy that finds the pathos in pettiness. " Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 86 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave Beef 3.5 out of 4 stars. In his review, he noted that the general mood of the country, characterized by anxiety, frustration, and anger, was effectively used to create a "tonally daring" show that vacillates between comedy, drama, and thriller. Tallerico praised the show's well-structured plotting and lauded Yeun's and Wong's performances, calling them the best he had seen that year and applauding their ability to make their characters relatable and grounded. Tallerico also found the show's penultimate episode "a little hard-to-swallow" and felt it took some significant decisions away from the characters, which detracted from the narrative. In her review for Variety, Alison Herman praised the chemistry between Wong and Yeun, as well as their performances. She wrote that the show starts grounded in emotional concerns but spirals ever further out into surrealism and caricatures, sometimes distracting from its "core insights". In her review for NPR, Linda Holmes wrote that the show is interested in big questions about meaning and purpose in life and "tackles them with inventiveness and deep empathy". She praised the show's stunning, surprising, and empathetic portrayal of the muddled humanity of its very messy characters and its ability to blend humor with deep existential questions. Holmes also praised the performances, especially Yeun's, and the production design. Ben Travers of IndieWire gave the series a grade of B and wrote that it does a fine job balancing the protagonists' practical intelligence and impractical passions. He added that the series is designed to evoke empathy for each combatant while exploring their shared humanity and collective hardships, and it delves into their demons while drawing parallels between the two leads. He wrote that some of the plot twists feel forced, but Wong and Yeun "shine throughout". Ellen E. Jones of The Guardian gave the show 4 out of 5 stars and called it a "dark, existential thriller" and a "delicacy worth savouring". She wrote that the show's "extremely funny" dialogue and chaos highlights the quality of its leads. In his review for The New York Times, James Poniewozik called Beef a "thrilling dark comedy" that "delves into the intricacies of anger via a road-rage feud between two drivers who share more in common than meets the eye". He praised the show's attention to the motivations that lead to the conflict and the personal and cultural specificity of its study of anger. Poniewozik also wrote that the show's Asian cast is both contingent on setting and integral to its themes. In the Chicago Sun-Times, Richard Roeper called Beef "bold, darkly funny, emotionally bruising, provocative and wicked-smart social satire". He commended the performances, particularly Wong's and Yeun's. Comparing the show to "Falling Down and Changing Lanes with a touch of The White Lotus", Roeper wrote that it was the best series he had seen all year.

The second season of Beef received generally positive reviews. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 88 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Beef pairs its second season with winning performers and a crackling sense of ingenuity in a saga that Lee Sung Jin perfectly anchors through his mastery of class satire and the unexpected modes of human nature. " On Metacritic, the second season received a score of 77 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

The second season debuted at the number 10 spot on the Netflix Top 10 the week it was released, pulling in 2.4 million views, a drop of about 58% from the opening of season one.