When “Beef” debuted on Netflix three years ago, it was easy to watch the first episode of creator Lee Sung Jin's dark comedy drama and decide you’d seen enough. Seriously, did you want to sit through nine more installments in which the lead characters, Steven Yeun’s Danny Cho and Ali Wong’s Amy Lau, war with each other following a near-mishap in a parking lot?

Of course, as eventually would be evidenced by the scores of accolades the show received — including the Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, as well as Emmys for Wong and Yeun — not giving the show time to fully reveal itself was a mistake.

A big, beefy mistake.

The carefully plotted, generally unpredictable show trekked into tricky thematic territory, Jin and his co-writers exploring issues pertaining to class and the void people may feel deep within themselves.

The eight-episode second season — featuring a new story and cast and dropping on the streaming giant this week — doesn’t taste quite as fresh.

Largely concerned with generational differences, “Beef” S2 presents characters to whom it can be harder to relate and too often drags. Especially in the middle chunk of this eight-chapter affair, it feels as if there isn’t enough to justify even that reduced number of episodes, especially with those chapters that run closer to an hour than 30 minutes.

That said, the show’s second volume boasts an appealing cast — led by the foursome of Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton — and Jin’s careful plotting leads to a strong finish, the season’s borderline-top-secret final two episodes solidly its strongest.

Jin had a hand in writing each episode, penning the first solo. It effectively introduces the viewer to a middle-aged couple — Josh (Isaac), the financially struggling general manager of an elite California country club, and his interior designer wife, Lindsay (Mulligan) — as well as a younger couple who work at the club — Ashley (Spaeny), who’s full-time, and her fiance, Austin (Melton), who is balancing a part-time gig there with fitness training via web-conferencing software.

(Jin also introduces the recurring visual motif of hive insects, some ants being stepped on in the episode’s first few seconds. Bugs: This show has more than a few.)

Josh and Lindsay seem very happy as they preside over a club-hosted fundraiser aimed at saving frogs, but looks can be deceiving. Their bickering begins once they’re in their car, out of earshot of club members, and the fighting only intensifies at their house in Ojai, a more affordable spot than the club’s location of Montecito. Lindsay is upset because they are not living the life they’d promised themselves they would.

Meanwhile, Austin and Ashley have been together about a year and are lovey-dovey, seemingly wholly devoted to one another and looking forward to the day they can bring a child into the world. However, they clearly have not faced significant challenges together yet.

When it’s discovered that Josh has left his wallet at the club, Ashley and Austin are charged with delivering it to him in Ojai. When they arrive at the older couple’s home, they witness them embroiled in an alarming fight, Ashley filming Josh as he goes so far as to threaten his wife.

And there we have the surface-level “Beef.” The older couple wants the video, which they feel shows them at their worst and is not a true representation of their marriage; and the young couple, feeling squeezed by an increasingly expensive world, desires something in return for keeping what they see as the truth about Josh and Lindsay buried. Should the video see the light of day, it could be incredibly damaging to Josh and Lindsay, as the club has a brand-new owner, the wealthy Korean Chairwoman Park (Youn Yuh-jung, an Academy Award-winner for “Minari”), at a time when Josh’s contract is up for renewal and Lindsay has been decorating areas of the club.

We won’t say much more about where “Beef” takes the story, but its path is, again, one that is complex and largely hard to foresee.

Know that other key players include Seoyeon Jang (“Decision to Leave”), as Eunice, a young Korean woman who serves as Chairwoman Park’s translator and who makes a connection with the half-Korean Austin; Song Kang-ho (“Parasite”), as Dr. Kim, who’s practicing at an exclusive clinic in Korea despite a potentially problematic medical condition; and William Fichtner (“Heat”), as Troy, a rich club member who’s friendly with Josh.

This helping of “Beef” certainly leans heavier on drama than comedy, although Jin and company do mine some laughs from the dopeyness of inexperienced and only so-well-educated Ashley and Austin. The latter, for example, is convinced that a line item on a club invoice, for “MISC,” must be a typo for “MIST.” Surely, he tells a higher-up, they can find a cheaper mist guy!

The performances are strong across the board, but, as he tends to be, Isaac (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Scenes From a Marriage”) is the standout; he makes you at least mildly root for Josh despite many failings.

The same can be said for Mulligan (“The Great Gatsby,” “Promising Young Woman”), if not as forcefully.

The season is at its most authentic when it traffics in pain, primarily of the emotional variety. The writing and acting are very effective at these moments. Also, though, Spaeny (“Priscilla,” “Civil War”) shines when her character experiences severe physical pain, an event leading to a trip to the hospital that isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of the state of the health care system in the United States.

Melton (“Riverdale,” “May December”), for his part, finds nuance in Austin, a caring but flawed young man who learns a bit about himself and life as the story progresses.

Of Korean descent, Jin (“Silicon Valley,” “Dave”) clearly remains committed to Asian representation on the screen, and he offers a few decidedly imperfect Korean characters this season. Again, though, he’s more interested this time around in exploring the distinctions among those of varying ages and the differences in priorities between millennials Josh and Lindsay and Gen Zers Austin and Ashley. He provides some food for thought in this arena, but, if you will, it’s only relatively meaty.

“Beef” will, again, make you think, laugh, cringe and perhaps even cry. It also may have you eyeing the fast-forward button, as you wish at times it would get where it’s going a bit more swiftly.

Ultimately, though, this is another heavily seasoned serving worth eating, but consider skipping the binge and pacing yourself. Devouring it as quickly as we did led to mild bouts of indigestion.

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‘BEEF’

2.5 stars (out of 4)

Rating: TV-MA

How to watch: Netflix

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