If you’ve been driving for greater than only a minute on this pavement-covered world of ours, it’s seemingly you’ve had a startling, infuriating, irritating encounter with one other motorist. Horns are honked, expletives fly, a gesture or two could be made — however hopefully, that’s so far as it goes. You collect your self collectively, you are taking a deep breath, you shake your head, and also you get on together with your day, your week, your life.

Such a disgrace Danny and Amy didn’t take that route, as a substitute of escalating issues to the purpose the place Danny is following Amy on a high-speed chase whereas Amy flips him the hen and throws rubbish at him, they usually tear via a flower mattress, they usually practically collide … after which issues REALLY spiral uncontrolled, to the purpose the place lives are completely altered and property is broken and blood is spilled they usually’re each questioning: How did we get right here! How in God’s identify did we get right here.

This is the setup for the 10-part Netflix restricted sequence “Beef,” which performs like “Falling Down” meets “Changing Lanes” with somewhat little bit of “White Lotus” for good measure, however stands by itself as a daring, darkly humorous, emotionally bruising, provocative and wicked-smart social satire — the most effective sequence I’ve seen this yr. Show creator Lee Sung Jin (who additionally wrote or co-wrote lots of the sharp scripts) has delivered a scorched-earth prompt basic, with Emmy-worthy performances by lead actors Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, and excellent work from an ensemble together with Young Mazino, David Choe, Joseph Lee, Patti Yasutake and Maria Bello. Every episode comprises not less than one slick twist and a few telling revelations, as Danny and Amy hold making issues a lot worse—even after they’re attempting to make issues higher. They’re two human automobile wrecks certain collectively by a close to precise wreck, and as a lot as we’re appalled by their actions, we are able to’t assist however really feel empathy as they spiral uncontrolled.

Each episode of “Beef” is titled after a quote from a heavy thinker, e.g., “I Am Inhabited by a Cry” (Sylvia Plath), “The Drama of Original Choice” (Simone de Beauvoir), “I am a Cage” (funnyman Franz Kafka), and closes with a plaintive pop ballad from the Nineteen Nineties or 2000s, reminiscent of “Drive” by Incubus, “Self Esteem” by The Offspring and “The Reason” by Hoobastank. In the opening episode, referred to as “The Birds Don’t Sing, They Screech in Pain,” Yeun’s Danny has a maddening expertise at a big-box retailer referred to as Forsters (no receipt, no returns) and is backing up his battered pickup truck within the car parking zone when he practically hits (or is hit by) a white Mercedes SUV. Cue the aforementioned chase sequence, with Danny screaming, “I’m sick of this s—, every f—-ing day! Where the f— do you think you’re going! Oh my God, you f—ing idiot!” (At this level, Danny assumes the driving force is male and is spoiling for a bodily struggle.)

Cut to the within of the Mercedes, and there’s Wong’s Amy, her face frozen in a weirdly happy expression after besting Danny and screeching away. What she doesn’t notice is that Danny has memorized her license plate, and it gained’t be lengthy earlier than they study one another’s identities and have interaction in a battle that goes far past threatening texts and nasty cellphone calls.

We get to know Danny and Amy, of their very totally different lives. Danny is a struggling contractor who shares a cramped condo in Los Angeles along with his slacker youthful brother Paul (Mazino), who’s extra eager about taking part in video video games, Tinder hookups and dabbling in bitcoin than becoming a member of his brother’s enterprise. Amy lives in a spacious, coldly lovely dwelling in Calabasas together with her supportive husband George (Joseph Lee) and their tightly wound daughter June (Remy Holt).

She owns and operates an elegant plant boutique referred to as Kōyō Haus, and after years of micromanaging, establishing her model, working exhausting hours, and so forth., and so forth., she’s about to attain an enormous jackpot within the type of an acquisition by the Forsters chain (keep in mind Danny’s no-receipt encounter there?), which is headed by Maria Bello’s Jordan Forster, a New Age-y billionaire with an insufferably smug demeanor. (Jordan, to Amy: “You have this serene, Zen Buddhist thing going on.” She couldn’t be extra off.)

We’re launched to a myriad of fascinating characters, with a scene-stealing David Choe as Danny’s lately paroled, hilariously affectionate but additionally harmful cousin, Isaac; an exquisite Patti Yasutake as George’s controlling mom, Fumi, and Ashley Park as Jordan’s sister-in-law, a schemer who befriends Amy, and Andrew Santino and Rekstizzy as a few bumbling criminals straight out of a Coen brothers film. They’re all finally drawn into the online created by Danny and Amy, who’re so consumed with attempting to one-up one another, with attempting to spoil one another’s lives, that they don’t see how very related they’re.

The heavy irony is that when Danny and Amy are dealing with off with each other, it’s the one time after they can let down their respective guards and be brutally sincere about themselves. These are two offended, upset, depressed folks, and it boils right down to a query of whether or not they’ll wind up saving one another or proceed drowning collectively till there’s nothing left of both one.