Lee Sung Jin on Gen Z, Millennials and the TV show’s iconic soundtrack
Award-winning Netflix series Steak came backadopts an entirely new cast and feud for its second season. This new story focuses on a Gen Z couple (Cailee SpaenyCharles Melton) works at an upscale country club in Southern California and meets his Millennial bosses and his wife (Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan).
At first, the screaming match is deeply disturbing to Ashley (Spaeny) and Austin (Melton), two easygoing, people-pleasing fiancées who never argue. Stranded financially, the duo musters up the courage to blackmail Josh (Isaac) and Linsday (Mulligan) into giving Ashley an entry-level office job. Things get even more heated from there, in part due to the introduction of the club’s new Korean billionaire owner, President Park (Youn Yuh-jung); This person keeps the facility’s finances under a magnifying glass and isn’t too concerned if any worker ants catch fire.
just like him first seasonStarring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong in a fierce battle following a moment of road rage. Steak‘s second round is a sharp, engaging and entertaining examination of race, anger and class.
Have you watched it already? Join this conversation with the show’s creator Lee Sung Jin it’s about the season’s turning points, generational divides, pin-downs and moral dilemmas.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for all 10 episodes of the season.
Jared Richards: Season one was loosely inspired by your own experience with road rage. What was the impetus for season two? How did we end up at the country club?
LSJ: Real life hit me again when I overheard a heated argument coming from a neighbor’s house. The event itself wasn’t that interesting, but what was fascinating was how everyone reacted to it. When I retold the story, my Gen Z peers were horrified: “Did you call 911?” Whereas my Millennial and Gen X peers shrugged and said: “I mean, who among us hasn’t screamed in the privacy of our own home?”
Obviously generations have different ideas about what love and marriage should be like, so let’s break it down. Because class divisions permeate every interaction in life, you can’t really explore this honestly without capitalism being a huge variable in 2026.
The country club is a really interesting microcosm of what we experience as a society today. From my observations, most of the members are Boomers and Silent Gen, and the employees are mostly Gen Z and Millennials who will never become members no matter how hard they work. As Austin said: “Everyone grabbed the bag before we did.”
This sentence comes as Austin morally rationalizes blackmailing Josh and Lindsay. In his eyes, this is a form of wealth distribution. Do you think this logic is valid?
It’s a complicated situation, and that’s why the show lives in such a gray area. We never paint in black and white. What are they supposed to do when the system is rigged, when people constantly feel like the screws of life are turning against them?
Everyone has a very strong sense of self. As our social structures collapse, we will go to great lengths to keep our heads above water. So where do principles and morality come into play? This is something everyone has to decide for themselves.
This season Austin is the most principled starter. He wants to do the right thing. He tries to live a life of service to others, whether it’s Ashley, his mother, or the club. But it starts to fall apart.
I’m not sure if the show considers these actions. I definitely try not to. I think we are all very similar: we all jump the same way when faced with obstacles.
As a Millennial, I loved all the needle drops of 2000s and 10s indie-pop from Phoenix, Flume x Distained, and Hot Chip (also cameo!). These songs also mean a lot to Josh and Lindsay and carry memories of their happy days. Meanwhile, Austin and Ashley are barely into their 20s. They work constantly without any income. Was this a financial crisis you wanted to focus on?
100 percent. Josh and Lindsay are constantly looking back, which I find myself doing frequently in my mid-40s. When my generation was in their 20s, you thought life would be one endless dance party if you met the person you loved. Girl Talk would be around forever, and we’d be mixing songs and dancing until three in the morning until we were in our 80s.
Compare this to Ashley and Austin, who say over and over that all they need is each other and the beach. Then, in episode six, Austin laments that they haven’t even been to the beach in a long time. They don’t even have such a luxury! Instead, they heat up DiGiorno’s frozen pizza and try to handle their finances in their free time.
It was a lot of fun to play with juxtapositions because I think Steak Lives within specifications. Even the spreadsheet where they do their finances! As a Millennial, I do this in PowerPoint, but Gen Zers use Google Drive on their phones. It was really fun to research these little things.
A standout musical moment is in the third episode, when Ashley jumps out of the car and walks away from Austin, singing the lyrics to Bruno Mars. Uptown Funk. What’s in it?
Sometimes I get these random ideas! But it’s clear that Ashley has an anxiety disorder to the point of throwing herself out of a moving car, and she’s probably had panic attacks before. So I researched these TikToks of what people do when they have these and ways to punish yourself, so she pulls out a piece of gum and starts chewing. Another way to get over a panic attack is to start singing.
The thought of her singing Uptown Funk because her base song really tickled me and felt like a song appropriate for her age, considering the time period when those panic attacks started. I was so ready to change it up, but when I heard Cailee did it I thought, “This is perfect.”
Speaking of TikTok as therapy, Austin and Ashley communicate in a very indirect way, as if they learned these phrases from social media videos. We also see them both asking Reddit for relationship advice instead of talking to each other. Josh and Linsday aren’t the model relationship, but at least their fights are raw and real. Do you think the couple’s different approaches to conflict are down to generation or do they come with age?
I think social media is a trap that anyone can get stuck in. But couples like Josh and Lindsay have been together for over 15 years. Social media may play a role, but you’ve been through it. You’ve had some knock-down, drag-out fights. The mask is off.
Ashley and Austin, on the other hand, have only been together for a year and a half and think this Instagram Reel therapy talk is equal to the depth. Even the way Austin talks about capitalism: it’s clear he’s someone who doesn’t click on the article. Just saw the Instagram caption.
This season is gaining momentum with its final episodes. The two couples fight for their lives in Seoul and become collateral in President Park’s effort to cover up the medical malpractice of her plastic surgeon husband. When did this plot enter the script?
It’s pretty early. I did a shoot after the first season Korean music video for RMand was first introduced to the Korean chaebol society, family-run conglomerates. It was a part of Korean society that we didn’t explore in season one. Plus, with the theme of time being so prominent this season, it felt really appropriate to add it to the world of Korean skincare.
With President Park and Dr Kim (InterferenceSong Kang-ho), they just wanted to have fun, have a vacation, and go to nice dinners. They were tired of the drama from their first marriage. But we wanted to show that even in the winter of your life, when things go wrong, such as the death of a patient, this carefully planned second marriage will be put to the test.
There was a concern in the writers’ room: “Does it seem too broad to cover up one death?” And here we are in 2026 and it’s definitely not like that!
Beef (season two) is now on Netflix.
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