'Beef' Netflix Season 2 rage explodes from Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan

The bad blood in Season 2 of Netflix's "Beef" is so toxic that show creator Lee Sung Jin tapped into the built-in love for stars Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan.

Lee, who shocked and awed Netflix audiences with his 2023 road rage-lit "Beef," went for a different catalyst for the follow-up − exploding marital tension between country club managers Josh Martin (Isaac) and Lindsay Crane-Martin (Mulligan).

The volatile seven-minute domestic fireworks that kick off the new season (eight episodes, all available April 16) required believability, raw chemistry and audience goodwill for Isaac, 47, and Mulligan, 40, reunited as a screen couple.

"If it's too bad of a first impression, you lose the audience completely," Lee tells USA TODAY. "That's the genius of Oscar and Carey. They are not just two of the best, if not the best, actors of their generation. But you subconsciously feel that there's a history between them. It's a magic trick."

The seemingly effortless illusion is honed by the two actors having starred as wildly oddball, ill-fated couples in two classic projects. In Nicolas Winding Refn's 2011 thriller "Drive," Isaac played the doomed petty criminal Standard, who returns from prison to his wife, Irene (Mulligan). And in Isaac's Oscar-snubbed breakout role, the 2013 Coen brothers drama "Inside Llewyn Davis," the self-centered folk singer impregnates Jean (Mulligan), the wife of Llewyn Davis' friend and musical partner, Jim (Justin Timberlake).

So Isaac and Mulligan have done seething resentment before in the most watchable way.

When Isaac talked to Lee about "Beef" during lengthy Zoom calls, it became obvious that Mulligan would be the perfect partner in the dysfunctional dynamics.

"It's culmination, the apex of the past relationships," says Isaac, before joking, "This is right before we do 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'"

"It felt like an opportunity to complete the triptych," says Mulligan. "There was this open door to doing something that had a lot of abandon, a lot of absurdity and a lot of drama."

Season 2 of Netflix's 'Beef' blows up with a married couple

The opening salvo of the 2023 "Beef" limited series (now Season 1) featured strangers Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) and Amy Lau (Ali Wong) in a parking lot road-rage standoff that exploded over 10 episodes, sparking riveting viewing and eight Emmys.

The Season 2 ignition stems from long-festering issues and an uber quarrel that goes from insults to wine glasses thrown against the wall to Lindsay taking a golf club to beloved items in collector Josh's man-cave office.

"It's a blowout," Mulligan says. "They've had bad fights. But we decided it's the worst fight they've ever had. There had to be a specificity to the fight that didn't feel like any old argument."

While the furious fracas and verbal blows make for challenging viewing, the two actors were loving living the drama.

"What you need to stop is having it be too much fun, you don't want indulgence," says Mulligan. "There was a huge onus on getting this scene right, because the audience is not invested with these people. But it's the inciting incident of the entire season."

Amid the broken breakaway glass of the tumultuous first scene, they believed they pulled it off.

"We felt good at the end," Mulligan says. "That's the part that feels pleasurable. It was a puzzle."

The turbulent tussle climaxes with Josh grabbing the golf club and holding it over Lindsay. This menacing moment occurs just as a young couple, club employees Austin Davis ("Riverdale" star Charles Melton) and Ashley Miller (Cailee Spaeny), appear wide-eyed at the window. Shocked Ashley is filming this damning moment on her iPhone.

The fight in 'Beef' is inspired by a real incident open to interpretation

The series inspiration came to Lee, who had heard a similar row coming from a real-life neighbor.

"Let's just call it a heated debate. I still live in said neighborhood, which is why I'm speaking vaguely about it," says Lee, who found that varying generations interpreted his account differently. "The younger folks had a much more visceral reaction, like, 'Did you call the police?' While the older or similar-aged peers were like, 'It's a fight. Who amongst us ...?' "

Lee brought the evolving idea to Netflix as a continuation of "Beef."

"They sparked to the idea of young, naive love vs. an older, more seasoned love, and examining marriage through this juxtaposition," Lee says.

Rather than the Season 1 battle between Amy and Danny, the Season 2 malaise spreads through the two couples − Gen Z vs. millennials − with shifting leverage, power plays and allegiances. In the heat, the loved-up Gen Z couple of Austin and Ashley move away from their new relationship energy.

"It's exciting to see something that's so relatable, but also to experience in real time the disintegration of the honeymoon phase," says Melton, whose lauded performance in 2023's "May December" prompted a full-court casting press by Lee.

Josh and Lindsay have no place to go but up from their relationship nadir in "Beef." But it's still a wild ride.

"There's a lot of deep love and a lasting bond between them," Mulligan says. "It's more interesting to meet people under extreme pressure who are grappling with things. It's not all dramatic. People flailing is also funny."