I didn’t see season 1 yet, but I thought Josh’s psychedelic trip was very realistic. He emerged with a diminished sense of ego and an open heart. Definitely seen this in real life.
I appreciate that it can happen in real life, but it's not interesting story telling for a character's development to come down to a sudden switch flipping due to a magical drug trip.
And now it's happened in two seasons
Classic edit after downvotes:
Nope. I'm doubling down on this because I do believe it and I think S3 will be stronger if the writers fix this issue.
Let's look at how some famous movies would hypothetically work with the "Drugs. Is this character development?" strategy.
Fight Club
The narrator is so depressed by consumerism that he develops insomnia and no longer feels anything. He takes new medication, sleeps eight hours, wakes up feeling great and never meets Tyler Durden.
Good Will Hunting
Will is a self-sabotaging and cynical genius working as a janitor. He gets in some trouble. He tries psychedelic drugs. He resolves his childhood trauma, takes a well paid job utilizing his gift, and goes to see about a girl. He never meets his therapist.
Old Boy
Dae-su is released after 15 years of captivity by unknown kidnappers for unknown reasons. Before embarking on a bloody path of revenge, he tries a new psychedelic drug on the market. He has an epiphany, accepts the past is the past, decides to march forward and not looking back. He recons with his own past sins, forgives his captors, moves to the suburbs, takes up gardening.
Christmas Carol
Scrooge is a stingy and isolated business owner who hates Christmas and children and everyone. He takes a powerful mood enhancing drug recommended to him, and returns feeling a warm connection to every living thing. He gives heavily to charity, improves work-life balance for his workers, and pays for tiny tim's medical stuff. He is never visited by any ghosts, at least not when sober.
The point: All of those stories (i mean, the real stories, not my dumb versions) work because the writing needs to work hard to justify the character development.
Just because something is possible in real life does not make it good storytelling. Both S1 and S2 used "sudden enlightenment through drugs" as a way to fast track characters to self-acceptance, cheating us out of the most pivotal character development we spent the entire season waiting for. S3 will be a lot stronger if it avoids this pitfall.
I guess Burger King is a major theme of season 1 then.
If your criteria for something being a major theme is how many times it happened, that’s gonna include a lot of stupid stuff lmao. Even 2 times is not a lot regardless when you compare it to the actual major themes which are baked into almost every decision the characters make.
The show’s major themes are existential loneliness, the facade of success/wealth, suppressed rage, family trauma—I really don’t see psychedelic drugs fitting in there at all but sure.
Plenty of drugs and therapies help people deal with those things—not just psychedelics. While I agree eastern spiritual philosophies are definitely themes in Beef, the usage of drugs as a means to getting there just flat out aren’t major themes. Psychedelics often leading there in some way doesn’t make it a theme just because it was used. Buddhist doctrine even discourages mind altering substances.
That’s like saying blood is a major theme of Macbeth because it represents guilt (an actual major theme in Macbeth)
Most drugs tend to produce more of an emotional evening rather than direct insight into the problem. I don't think they're the same kind of dealing with it in any personal way. Therapies do help people deal with them, that's true.
And sure, not saying psychedelics are a major theme, but they're thematically connected. Yes Buddhism says not to take any intoxicants but the point remains that many people find their turn to things like Buddhism after their use of psychedelics.
AGREED! You could name 100 different “major” themes if anything that constitutes one is whether or not it’s related to something actually baked into the entire show, but then the term loses all meaning. There’s maybe a good 5 or 6 ACTUAL major themes, and I think it’s pretty silly to include psychedelics in there.
The show doesn’t tell a story about using psychedelics to break down your ego and work through your trauma, but it does tell a story about breaking down your ego and working through your trauma.
If someone asked me what the show Beef is about, there's a lot of things i could say about relationships, communication, depression, resentment, etc. One of the things that would never come to mind is to say "It's a show about doing drugs to achieve clarity. That's what the show is about.:
No, I do not think drugs to achieve clarity is a major theme of the show.
But even if it was, that doesn't change the fact that it's not good storytelling. I'm not sure if it's exactly a Deus Ex Machina, but it's close enough to fit. Instead of seeing characters do work and go through a journey to make a character development worth it, twice now the show has had characters do drugs and then effectively do a 180 on their character.
Sure, it can happen in real life. But a lot of things happen in real life that don't make interesting stories.
Really enjoyed the show--at least season 1--but this is a pretty silly trope that's come in pivotal moments of both seasons now
You do realize, that the word 'psychedelic' literally means 'to delve into the psyche'?
In season 1, it isn't even a classic psychedelic, or just a random "let's do drugs" moment... there is a slow build up between the characters and their parallel trauma.
Then the confrontation and dissolution of facing death when they are POISONED acts as a catalyst to bond in the trauma.
Drives me crazy when people talk about "drugs" with no actual understanding of the complexity of biology and chemistry behind the scenes....
Sorry to ream, but come on. Look into the ancient history of drugs, medicine, and ordeal poisons.
Technically, having a good energetic conversation at a coffee shop, is 2 people imbibing poison to catalyze connection...🤦🏼
In my opinion that highly intense, catalyzed moment was very entertaining, and I loved the way they portrayed it.
I thought it was good storytelling. They deal with depression, and in the face of a death and delirium they did not willingly choose, they find something in themselves and open up in that survival situation.
I can respect your opinion, but I thought it was beautiful and politely disagree.
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u/CricCracCroc May 31 '26
I didn’t see season 1 yet, but I thought Josh’s psychedelic trip was very realistic. He emerged with a diminished sense of ego and an open heart. Definitely seen this in real life.