It stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong as Danny Cho and Amy Lau, respectively; two strangers whose involvement in a road rage incident escalates into a prolonged feud.

[3] The project, created by Korean-American director Lee Sung Jin and set to star Steven Yeun and Ali Wong was first announced in March 2021, with a bidding war happening over the series rights.

[20][21] In October 2024, it was confirmed that Isaac, Mulligan, Melton, and Spaeny were cast as the leads in the new season, 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.

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.

Tallerico praised the show for its well-structured plotting and lauded the performances of Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, calling them the best he has seen that year, and applauds their ability to make their characters relatable and grounded.

[28] In a review for NPR, Linda Holmes explained 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.

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.

[31] In his review for The New York Times, television critic James Poniewozik described Beef as 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".