“Beef was the first time where I was like—ok, I’m just going to bare my soul. I’m going to not hold back. Luckily, when we took it out, the networks went crazy for it. There was this reassurance from the universe that you can write how you want to write, and people may connect with it.”
-Lee Sung Jin, episode 451 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
Since the arrival of Beef in 2023, showrunner and creator Lee Sung Jin has been hailed as “the preeminent social satirist” working in television.
The Emmy-winning writer/director joins us around the anthology’s return (3:10) to discuss the source material behind this latest season (4:30), the rise of scammers (12:00), and the distinctions between Korean and American elites (18:00). Then, we move through Lee’s nomadic childhood (28:45), his years as an NBC page (38:28), and a decade of working inside writers’ rooms for shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Silicon Valley (43:45).
On the back-half, he speaks candidly about his battles with depression (53:00), the PowerPoint that lead to Beef landing at Netflix (1:01:00), the pains of perfectionism (1:03:30), what the next generation of writers can do to break into television (1:07:30), the day director Bong Joon Ho visited his set (1:22:20), and why Lee feels he’s just getting started (1:24:38).
Clips from Beef courtesy of Netflix.
As always, our email: talkeasypod@gmail.com.
Watch this conversation on YouTube:
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Show-notes:
- Watch Beef on Netflix.
- Follow Lee Sung Jin on Instagram.
- Hear our talks with Steven Yeun and Oscar Isaac.
- Order your Talk Easy mug in cream and navy or our vinyl record with Fran Lebowitz.
Illustrations by Krishna Shenoi. Reference photograph by Julius Chiu.
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