Beef: Season 2 (2026)

Netflix's Beef pulled off one of the most difficult tricks in television with its first season — a darkly comedic exploration of road rage that deepened into an existential meditation on identity and connection. Creator Lee Sung Jin's Season 2, premiering April 16, 2026 with an entirely new cast and storyline, faces the challenge of proving that Beef is a concept rather than a character study. The 86-87% Rotten Tomatoes score suggests he has largely succeeded. Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan lead the new ensemble as Josh and Lindsay, an unhappily married couple whose mutual resentments and personal disappointments collide with the ambitions of a newly engaged younger couple — Ashley (Cailee Spaeny) and Austin (Charles Melton). Josh is the struggling general manager of an exclusive country club who nurses a barely suppressed contempt for the one-percenters he serves; Lindsay is an interior designer confronting her own choices and the distance growing between herself and her husband. The performances are exceptional. Isaac brings his characteristic physicality and intelligence to a character whose controlled exterior barely contains his volatility, while Mulligan finds the precise frequency between exhausted charm and genuine anguish. Critics at NPR, Hollywood Reporter, and Variety praised both lead performances and the show's signature ability to make its characters do their worst while remaining somehow sympathetic. What Beef Season 2 does best is use conflict as a vehicle for examining how thoroughly people misunderstand themselves. The country club setting provides a sharper class critique than Season 1's suburban California backdrop, and Lee Sung Jin's direction maintains the show's visual distinctiveness throughout.