Carey Mulligan has talked about her intense new role in Season 2 of Beef and how the Emmy-winning dark comedy is becoming a new, high-stakes anthology chapter on Netflix. Mulligan stars with Oscar Isaac, Charles Melton, and Cailee Spaeny in a new story that keeps the series’ sharp edge while changing from a road rage feud to power plays at a country club.
Mulligan says in recent interviews connected to the April 16 Netflix premiere that Season 2 is a “completely new” story about a young couple who see their boss and his wife get into a shocking fight. She talks about how unpredictable the show is and how the script takes both the characters and the viewers on a wild, emotional journey.
Mulligan also says that “almost everything is different” from Season 1, except for the sharp, darkly funny voice of creator Lee Sung Jin. The original limited-series feud between Steven Yeun and Ali Wong is replaced by a new group of people and a new kind of social warfare among the rich.
Their active counterparts, from the couple in the middle of the fight to the younger couple who get caught up in it, change the “beef” format of Beef while keeping the same addictive tension and dark humor that made Season 1 a cultural hit.
By making Beef into an anthology-style story, the show uses the same basic idea—a small event that leads to psychic and social warfare—without going up against the original duo directly. Mulligan’s acting, along with Isaac’s unpredictable screen presence and Melton and Spaeny’s grounded chemistry, creates the same addictive tension that won the first season eight Emmys.
