Weekly Report from the N.T.A.B. Division of Media Review
TETRIS/Beef/Unstable
It’s an all media review Friday, and there’s a lot to mention that is worth checking out. We will get back on track just as soon as Administration quits gazing dreamily into Bunker Operation’s eyes and sighing contentedly. Is this an Apocalypse Bunker or a Lonely Hearts Club?
TETRIS (Apple+) Taran Egerton plays five minutes of Tetris at a computer expo and decides he wants to give it to the world. There’s just one small problem—the juggernaut of the entire Soviet Union doesn’t want to sell it to him. What happens next is one of the most engaging espionage movies I’ve watched in a long time, and not just because of all the 8-bit graphics in the transitions.
The aforementioned espionage is of an industrial nature, but it’s no less nail-biting, frustrating, and fascinating in turn. Tetris came into the world at the end of the Soviet Union—just prior to the dismantling of the old system. What was in place at the end of its life? Rampant political corruption as the mid-level and higher up bureaucrats scrambled to get what they felt they were owed, I guess.
The back and forth between the various factions over the distribution rights to Tetris is engrossing to watch, and the story is brisk and does not lose the through line, even as it feels like if you get one more proper name thrown at you, your head is going to cave in. In this respect, it’s rather like reading Russian Literature, only with little colored blocks that drop down at regular intervals. Highly recommended.
Beef (Netflix) Ali Wong and Stephen Yeun star in this black, bleak slice-of-life dramedy about two random people who connect through a road rage incident—an extra long punishment honk and a finger out the window is all it took—that sets them on a path of mutual destruction.
I’ve been bagging on Millennial-based movies and TV series lately, but it’s not only because they are Millennial. Well, not entirely. There is a trend happening with shows like the Class of ‘07 and White Lotus and movies like Triangle of Sadness and The Menu wherein people in their mid-30s start questioning their lives in a sort of pre-midlife crisis and railing against what they are finding. This is nothing new, mind you: The Big Chill was the first one I remember watching, but there are plenty others to point at. The difference between what we’ve seen before and what we are getting now is that the people in the above-mentioned shows are uniformly terrible and unsympathetic, inviting a sort of hate-watch mentality with no attempt to find common ground. “I want to be happy,” is nice, but not at the expense of everyone and everything else.
Beef is an example of how to do a Mid-Thirtysomething Disaster/Revenge-Porn TV series the right way. From the get-go, we are encouraged to like two deeply flawed people who seem to have it more or less together, but their façade is hiding years of damage that they never bothered to unpack. Yeah, they are Millennials and oh-so-self-centered. But Beef goes out of its way to humanize both of the main characters by creating reasonable expectations from external pressures like family obligation.
In other words, Beef is about commonalities rather than exceptionalism. This is tonal in nature, because neither character is asking for others to see what makes them unique and beautiful—they just want what other people have and can’t figure out how to get it. Yeun and Wong play characters that you can sympathize with and even root for as they try over and over to extricate themselves from the escalating tension between them and also their own problem-riddled personal lives. Even when they were doing very wrong things to each other, I kept wanting them to try some other way to make it work. None of their antics feel like “gotcha” moments, so much as they seem to be larger and larger missteps, like trying out all of the ways not to make a light bulb.
I am sure that there are a number of axes being ground in this series, primarily having to do with growing up in Asian households but not really being “Asian” in a first-generation immigrant sense. There’s a lot of parental disapproval on both sides, and it’s fair to say that most of the characters’ inherent problems stems from damaged and skewed relationships with their families. All that being said, the themes in Beef are more universal and ring true to anyone who has struggled with the whole “adulting” thing.
I could not stop watching Beef, and liked everything about it, even as it was uncomfortable to sit through in many ways. It’s a slow-motion car crash, letting you see every small cut as it’s happening. I think it’s the best acting Yeun and Wong have ever done; I’ve been a fan of Yeun since The Walking Dead, and well, I’ve never really been a fan of Ali Wong, until now.
Beef ends on an up note, kinda. The final episode is a jaw-dropping fever dream. It’s not really a happy ending, but it’s also not scorched earth, either. We get closure on the story, and both of the main characters have arcs that conclude.
Unstable (Netflix) Rob Lowe stars as Ellis Dragon, a stand-in for every tech genius in the last three decades. He’s reeling from the death of his wife, and ignoring the various projects he’s working on—time sensitive, all. The CFO takes it upon herself to reach out to Jackson, Ellis’ estranged son, played by Lowe’s real son, John Owen Lowe, to see if he can help stabilize his father and get the company back on track.
I know it sounds bleak, but you have to believe me, this show is a hoot—laugh out loud funny in places, and with just enough flourishes on the “workplace comedy” formula to make it all seem fresh. You may remember John Owen Lowe from a few years ago when Buzzfeed or some other meme-collector reported that Rob Lowe’s own son was trolling his father’s Instagram account with really funny one-liners. The two of them are responsible for the series, and I just have to wonder aloud how much of the Dragon Family Relationship was culled from their own dynamic.
I still can’t get over what a good comedic actor Rob Lowe is. His son is also great, but they are best when they are bouncing off of one another. Unstable is 8 thirty-something minute episodes. You can’t afford not to watch at least the first three and see how close it comes to making you want to re-watch Parks and Recreation.
I watched Beef after your recommendation and really enjoyed it. I’d love to talk to you about it but I don’t want to be the guy posting spoilers in the comments!