Meanwhile, Ashley and Austin’s idealism and belief in true love is shaken as they find themselves getting deeper and deeper into a murky underworld involving the club’s new millionaire owner, Chairwoman Park.
Melton says his character and Ashley are “in the honeymoon phase” at the beginning.
“What you see them do is navigate a world with the constructs of capitalism,” he says. “The country club was a great example and a great structure for that, with the hierarchy of class.”
Lee says the new series was inspired by a real-life row he witnessed – but one that involved boomers (the generation aged in their 60s upwards).
However, Lee thought it would be more interesting to have younger characters, “where the generation divide could be smaller”, he says.
“Much like society, we’re brainwashed – by social media, by the headlines, by those in charge – to beef and squabble with each other.
“You’ve got Gen Z and millennials having this feud, when really the thing that we should be beefing with is the billionaire characters in society like Chairwoman Park, and it’s all kind of a distraction that actually enables those in power to puppeteer everybody.
“That felt like an appropriate microcosm for what’s going on right now.”
The anthology show’s running theme of anger is “just the wrapping paper” for those deeper issues, he says.
“When you open the box, there’s actually other stuff going on. And I think that’s true of the world.”
Beef season two is on Netflix now.
