Last week, Netflix released its newest dark comedy show, Beef. The show stars Ali Wong and Steven Yeun as two characters who figured in a road rage. After uncovering each other's identities, they start to take revenge with each other by doing small pranks until things got a dark turn.
Even though the show only dropped a few days ago, it already earned a lot of positive praise from critics and those who already watched the show. Wong and Yeun did a great job in embodying their characters, Amy Lau and Danny Cho. But we can't help but think about the all of the artwork in the show, from the title illustrations to the Tamago chair. Here's everything we know about the artwork shown in Beef.
Who Did the Title Illustrations for Each Episode of Beef?
One of the things that fans enjoyed about Beef is that each episode displayed a creative illustration for each title. This makes us wonder who created the artwork for each title card.
As it turns out, showrunner Lee Sung Jin "aka" Sonny was friends with the artist behind these title illustrations. And even more surprising is that the artist, David Choe, is actually part of the cast of Beef. Choe stars as Danny's troublesome cousin, Isaac Cho.
In an interview with Netflix's Tudum, the show's production designer, Grace Yun, explained their decision to go with Choe's artwork:
"We wanted something beyond a text title card. Sonny was friends with David Choe, and we had this amazing group of his original imagery and paintings to choose from. It was a visceral feeling that we got frome each image of whether or not it would reflect the theme of that episode."
If you want to get deeper, BrainPilot has created a video that explains each title art. You can watch it here:
Is George a Real Artist?
In the show, Wong is married to a famous artist's son who forever lives in his father's shadow even in his passing. George Nakai (played by Joseph Lee) is a Japanese-American who tries his hand at making sculptures in his free time as a stay-at-home dad. The problem is, his art looks like unicorn poop with sprinkles on them. This makes us wonder if Lee made those sculptures or if he is a real artist at all.
The answer is yes, Lee is an artist in real life. He has a number of paintings that can be seen on his Instagram, just like this one:
However, he did not make the ceramic vases that Amy displays at her store, Kōyōhaus. Instead, these blob vases were made by the show's art department.
Is Jordan’s Crown Collection Real?
Another art collection we got curious about is Jordan Forster's (played by Maria Bello) crown collection in her home. The character was an immensely rich woman who did not seem to hold much respect for her values, as long as it can be bought.
In episode 9's The Great Fabricator, Amy gets a personal tour from Jordan where she shows off her crown collection. The collection has some Asian and South American reference to them.
As it turns out, most of the crowns used in this scene were sourced from prop houses. The art department also made one headdress, which was included in the script. This is the golden headdress that Jordan uses.
Are Any of the Exhibited Chairs Real in 65 Chair?
In Beef episode 2, The Rapture of Being Alive, Amy, George, Fumi (played by Patti Yasutake), and June (played by Remy Holt) attend a furniture exhibit entitled 65 Chair.
Originally, there were 100 chairs that were sourced for the scene. But because Yun wanted to have enough room around each of these chairs, they settled with 65 chairs. The production designer shared:
"We looked through so many types of chairs from different eras, so it looked like a collection of all the approaches you could take designing them. Sometimes we chose one just because it made us laugh. The fuzzy blue Cookie Monster one was very nice to pet."
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Is the Tamago Chair Real? Does It Really Cost That Much?
One of the chairs in the exhibit was made by George's late father, Haru Nakai. Called the Tamago Chair (tamago means egg in Japanese), the chair was molded after his wife's backside from years ago. But is this chair real? More importantly, does it really cost a lot of money?
The Tamago Chair was actually specifically made for the show. A quick Google search pops up a different chair designed by Francesca Petricich. In fact, eDezeen describes the Tamago chair as "a fascinating chair composed of a seat and back in beech or oak plywood, natural or stained, or covered in regenerated leather. The frame is in chrome-plated steel. The polished aluminium die-cast bracket that connects them embellishes all of it."
Yun explained that the chair they created for the show had "a touch of impossibility in that it’s made out of stone, shaped like an egg and on three legs. Something that’s funny to look at and yet simple in design. We did a few prototypes to make sure somebody could actually sit in it and that the rear end print was not so obvious, but that you could see it when you looked at it. The prototype expanded from being more geometric into a very smooth little scoop.
And no, it doesn't cost $100,000 as Jordan bargained. The Tamago chair designed by Petricich costs $176.80.
Aside from its artwork, Beef also has a killer soundtrack. Get to know more about the soundtrack from Netflix's Beef here:
Beef is now available to stream on Netflix.