In the new Netflix drama “Beef,” San Francisco hometown comedy hero Ali Wong isn’t very funny. Known for a brand of comedy equal parts crude and confessional, she sheds the need to score a laugh in favor of monstrously vindictive behavior. She’s not afraid to show her teeth in her stand-up specials, but never before has she performed with such bite.
Born in Pacific Heights, Wong’s SF upbringing included a stint as class president at San Francisco University High School before she decamped for UCLA. She started her comedy career at local venues like the now-shuttered Brainwash and eventually made her way to New York City, where she honed her stand-up chops with a tireless stamina. Three Netflix specials later, along with a feature film she directed that’s set in SF (“Always Be My Maybe”), she’s one of the most celebrated stand-up comics in the country, commanding $150 per ticket when she last came to SF’s Punch Line. Even as she steps into her first dramatic lead, stand-up remains her first priority, and she’ll be hitting the road again with a packed touring schedule from April to September.
“I just wanted to tell jokes for a living. I probably could have been happy being a comic and doing clubs forever,” she told The Cut.
That makes her turn toward a heel so much more surprising. The show, which begins streaming on Netflix on April 6, begins with a road rage incident between stylish plant shop owner Amy (played by Wong) and hustling handyman Danny (Steven Yeun). A video of their car chase through a suburban neighborhood makes Nextdoor headlines, but neither party is identifiable. It’s a stroke of luck for Amy, whose business is about to be scooped up by a Goop-ish lifestyle brand in a tenuous acquisition. After some social media sleuthing, the pair track each other down and enter a revenge spiral complete with burglary, catfishing, the destruction of a marriage, a chase through a Vegas casino, the desecrating of a master bathroom and an accidental kidnapping.
Steven Yeun as Danny, Young Mazino as Paul in Episode 2 of "Beef."
Courtesy of NetflixIt isn’t Yeun and Wong’s first collaboration. They worked together voicing romantic interests in “Tuca & Bertie,” a cult cartoon for which “Beef” creator Lee Sung Jin served as co-executive producer. Yeun told the Hollywood Reporter why he thought Wong was able to make such a seamless transition from comedy to drama.
“We always knew that [Beef] was going to be asking to dig into sides of ourselves that maybe we don’t normally dig into,” Yeun told the Hollywood Reporter. “And so it was really cool to see her go there and be willing to be so courageous and just hang in that pocket.”
Steven Yeun and Ali Wong attend Netflix's Los Angeles premiere of "Beef" at Netflix Tudum Theater on March 30, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix
Ali Wong as Amy in Episode 1 of "Beef."
Andrew Cooper / NetflixAli Wong, Steven Yeun and Joseph Lee from "Beef." Credit: Charley Gallay / Getty Images, Andrew Cooper / Netflix
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The pocket that Wong hangs out in is not a particularly comfortable one. There are a few tension-relieving punchlines, but it’s pitch-black comedy, with the jokes always landing at the expense of each character’s moral bankruptcy and dwindling sense of self-worth. It’s a perfect example of the German concept of “fremdschämen,” the feeling of shame that comes from watching others embarrass themselves. If you have trouble watching TV shows in which the characters stumble through obviously terrible life decisions, you may find yourself covering your eyes in dread.
Wong has flirted with a sense of impending disaster in her stand-up sets, most recently in “Don Wong.” The stand-up special, released in February 2022, was almost prophetic with regard to Wong’s own personal life. A major theme of the special was Wong's longing for single life, going so far as to talk about the desire to cheat on her husband and bemoaning the responsibilities of parenthood. Several months later, she publicly announced a surprisingly amicable-sounding divorce.
Ali Wong as Amy in "Beef."
Andrew Cooper / NetflixAlthough she wasn’t a writer on “Beef,” those themes appear throughout the show as well. Wong’s workaholic character is so bored with the monotony of domesticity that she doesn’t hesitate to have an affair solely to spite her rival Danny, at the expense of her milquetoast husband. The fickle retribution of her feud with Danny supplies the adrenaline that her life is missing, and as their “Spy vs. Spy”-style one-upmanship snowballs out of control, every element of her home life spirals with it. By the end of the 10-episode series, Amy bears almost no resemblance to the image of the successful you-can-have-it-all businesswoman presiding over a twee houseplant empire.
Ali Wong as Amy in "Beef."
Andrew Cooper / NetflixGiven that Netflix has had the trailer for “Beef” displayed on the home screen for a week, it's likely to hit the top of the charts, and you can expect the show to be an Emmy contender come September. But don’t expect to block off the next few days for a binge, unless you’re in the mood for a very dark weekend.
April 05, 2023 at 06:03PM
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SF hometown hero Ali Wong's Netflix show is hard to watch - SFGATE
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