{"id":1905035,"date":"2026-04-27T10:27:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T07:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1905035"},"modified":"2026-04-27T10:27:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T07:27:00","slug":"are-on-screen-relationships-normalising-settling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1905035","title":{"rendered":"Are on-screen relationships normalising settling?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/3\/1443774.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article standard \">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/film-tv\/article\/70132\/1\/are-on-screen-relationships-normalising-settling-materialists-beef-the-drama\" data-article-id=\"70132\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-landscape-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.5\" data-template=\"Standard Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Beef, 2026 (TV Still)\" class=\"img\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1400\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/3\/1443774.jpg\" width=\"1500\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">Beef, 2026 <span class=\"nowrap\">(TV Still)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-04-27T10:27:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"27 April 2026\"><span class=\"month\">April<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"27\">27,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - film-tv\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\">Film &amp; TV<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/opinion\">Opinion<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"standard-tag-container\"><a class=\"standard-category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\">Film &amp; TV<\/a> \/<br \/>\n<a class=\"standard-series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/opinion\">Opinion<\/a><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>Are on-screen relationships <span class=\"nowrap\">normalising settling?<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>From Beef, to Materialists, to The Drama, a new wave of on-screen romances questions whether motivations for marriage can ever be <span class=\"nowrap\">wholly \u2018pure\u2019<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-04-27T10:27:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"27 April 2026\"><span class=\"month\">April<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"27\">27,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-04-27T10:27:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"27 April 2026\"><span class=\"month\">April<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"27\">27,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/HalimaJibril\">Halima Jibril<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html-embed\">\n<p><span>What is marriage for? <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">It\u2019s an interesting question in our day and age, when marriage feels less and less necessary. Women are no longer as dependent on men for financial security (although <a href=\"https:\/\/yougov.com\/en-gb\/articles\/35695-one-three-women-relationships-are-financially-depe\">many<\/a> still are), and there is far less\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">social stigma around having children or living together outside of wedlock. We also know that a significant amount of marriages don&#8217;t last, with approximately <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediateuk.co.uk\/divorce-rate-uk\/\">42 per cent<\/a> in the UK projected to end in divorce before their 25th year. So why are we still so drawn to the fantasies of this institution?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span> This is one of the underlying questions of season two of award-winning Netflix drama <em data-start=\"412\" data-end=\"418\">Beef<\/em>. Several answers are explored through the series\u2019 three main couples: Josh and Lindsay (Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan), Ashley and Austin (Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton), and Chairwoman Park and Dr Kim (Youn Yuh-jung and Song Kang-ho). In episode six, Chairwoman Park, bogged down by efforts to cover up her husband\u2019s culpability in a patient\u2019s death, speaks candidly about why she married him: \u201cThis is such a headache! The whole reason I remarried was because he was fun. Someone to eat with. To travel with. That\u2019s all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>People get married for all kinds of reasons: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/68889\/1\/why-are-young-people-getting-married-again-wedding-gen-z\">family and societal pressures, visas, economic and financial security, and, of course, love<\/a>. But one of the most common motivations is the simple fact that people don\u2019t want to be alone. A 2024 survey commissioned by <em data-start=\"1174\" data-end=\"1190\">Forbes Advisor<\/em>, which polled 1,000 divorced Americans, found that companionship was the second most common reason for getting married, with financial security first and love third. On<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Marriage\/comments\/oybyvg\/you_should_never_marry_out_of_fear_of_ending_up\/\"> Reddit<\/a>, marriage forums are full of questions about marriage and loneliness, with one user questioning whether the idea that \u201cyou should never marry out of fear of ending up alone\u201d makes any sense. \u201cIsn\u2019t [that] really the only reason to get married?\u201d they ask. \u201cIf people seek stability and companionship, they get married.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"ZtQoofDhJOM\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZtQoofDhJOM\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Recently, films and TV shows about marriage have made this fear of loneliness explicit. In Celine Song\u2019s divisive romantic comedy <em data-start=\"1867\" data-end=\"1881\">Materialists<\/em> (2025), matchmaker Lucy Mason (Dakota Johnson) finds herself in a love triangle with wealthy financier Harry Castillo (Pedro Pascal) and her broke, struggling actor ex-boyfriend, John Pitts (Chris Evans). The film explores the transactional logic of modern dating, suggesting that people increasingly date and marry not for love, but to prove their worth to others \u2014 and that doing so often means choosing someone who is above six foot, ripped, rich and with a full head of hair.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Lucy struggles to choose between a man who reflects status back at her (Harry) and one who arguably does not (John). In the end, she goes with her heart and chooses John, but as many people noted when the film was first released, it hardly feels like a choice at all. \u201cWhere are Lucy\u2019s friends?\u201d writer Soaliha asks on her Substack, <a href=\"https:\/\/soaliha.substack.com\/p\/materialists-review\"><em>Soaliloquy<\/em><\/a>. Lucy has no one to <em>truly<\/em> confide in throughout the film, her social circle apparently limited to her colleagues and clients, and by the end, she appears to stay with John because she literally has \u201cnowhere else to go\u201d. While she does deeply love and care for him, it\u2019s also fair to argue that her overarching preoccupation with \u2018settling down\u2019 stems, at least in part, from a fear of \u201cdying alone\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Kristoffer Borgli\u2019s romantic black-comedy drama <em data-start=\"2980\" data-end=\"2991\">The Drama<\/em> expresses a similar anxiety. The film follows Emma and Charlie (Zendaya and Robert Pattinson) as they prepare for their wedding day, only for everything to fall apart when Charlie\u2019s friends make them play a game in which they confess the worst thing they have ever done. Emma admits that, as a lonely teenager, she planned a school shooting. The revelation sends their relationship spiralling and turns their wedding into a fiasco. Yet the film ends on a note of cautious optimism, with the pair reuniting at Emma\u2019s favourite diner and reintroducing themselves to each other, in a poignant callback to the start of the film. After Emma reveals her darkest secret, Charlie proves himself hypocritical and disloyal, yet she still wants him. Is it love? Is it relief at no longer having to hide her past? Or is it, as the film suggests, that Emma has no one else? Like <em data-start=\"3853\" data-end=\"3867\">Materialists<\/em>, <em data-start=\"3869\" data-end=\"3880\">The Drama<\/em> left me wondering whether Emma ever really believed she could leave Charlie when the alternative was not freedom, but isolation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content has-tweet\" data-embed-type=\"media-twitter\" data-script-depends=\"twitter-widgets\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">my opinion on the materialists is that lucy wouldn\u2019t be so angsty if she just had female friendship. the entire movie I wondered where are her friends?<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; \ud83c\udd8eFC (@ablurbz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ablurbz\/status\/1934839661798776985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 17, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span><em data-start=\"4020\" data-end=\"4026\">Beef<\/em> season two pushes this narrative even further. It\u2019s not just that these couples only have each other, but that everyone outside the marriage begins to feel like a threat. The season\u2019s catalyst arrives in episode one, when Ashley and Austin are asked to return their manager Josh\u2019s wallet to his house. When they arrive, they hear screaming, peer through a window, and see Josh and Lindsay in the middle of a violent argument. Ashley records it and uses the footage to blackmail them. From that moment on, once Ashley and Austin have witnessed Josh and Lindsay at their worst, everything starts to crumble for all of them. But it doesn\u2019t crumble entirely for the worst.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In a climactic exchange in the final episode, Chairwoman Park offers a jaundiced view of love under capitalism: \u201cLove lives in this system. All relationships exist in this system. They are all the same, another way to serve the self.\u201d Marriage is supposed to save you from loneliness. It is supposed to grant you rights and signal to the world that you are lovable, desirable, chosen. But as Josh, Lindsay, Ashley and Austin continue to meddle in one another\u2019s lives \u2013 trying to hurt, expose, destroy and eventually save each other \u2013 their emotional walls begin to come down. They become more honest, more vulnerable and more self-sacrificing than they ever were inside their sealed-off couples. In <em data-start=\"5409\" data-end=\"5415\">Beef<\/em>, it is only by rupturing the closed circuit of marriage that they are finally able to express their full humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"6zmKcUa4Xxk\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6zmKcUa4Xxk\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>I don\u2019t want to spoil the ending of <em data-start=\"5418\" data-end=\"5424\">Beef<\/em> \u2013 it is messy, complicated, depressing and unsatisfying, in ways both good and bad. But it shows that while marriage is often an attempt to ameliorate the loneliness of being alive, it can sometimes make that loneliness even worse. It is only in allowing ourselves to be seen and known, helped and supported by others in our best and worst moments, that we can, as Lindsay tells Ashley, \u201cfinally give our existence some semblance of meaning.\u201d This might also teach us how to genuinely love one another: not by force, or out of desperation, but truly by choice.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. 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class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">10 films we\u2019re excited to see at Cannes Film Festival 2026<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/article\/70070\/1\/exit8-japanese-horror-film-genki-kawamura-interview\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"EXIT 8\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-2-3000-1995\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/3\/1443182.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Exit8: A must-see Japanese horror about an endless commute <\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline\" data-newsletter hidden>\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html-embed\">\n<p><span>What is marriage for? <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">It\u2019s an interesting question in our day and age, when marriage feels less and less necessary. Women are no longer as dependent on men for financial security (although <a href=\"https:\/\/yougov.com\/en-gb\/articles\/35695-one-three-women-relationships-are-financially-depe\">many<\/a> still are), and there is far less\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">social stigma around having children or living together outside of wedlock. We also know that a significant amount of marriages don&#8217;t last, with approximately <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediateuk.co.uk\/divorce-rate-uk\/\">42 per cent<\/a> in the UK projected to end in divorce before their 25th year. So why are we still so drawn to the fantasies of this institution?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span> This is one of the underlying questions of season two of award-winning Netflix drama <em data-start=\"412\" data-end=\"418\">Beef<\/em>. Several answers are explored through the series\u2019 three main couples: Josh and Lindsay (Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan), Ashley and Austin (Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton), and Chairwoman Park and Dr Kim (Youn Yuh-jung and Song Kang-ho). In episode six, Chairwoman Park, bogged down by efforts to cover up her husband\u2019s culpability in a patient\u2019s death, speaks candidly about why she married him: \u201cThis is such a headache! The whole reason I remarried was because he was fun. Someone to eat with. To travel with. That\u2019s all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>People get married for all kinds of reasons: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/68889\/1\/why-are-young-people-getting-married-again-wedding-gen-z\">family and societal pressures, visas, economic and financial security, and, of course, love<\/a>. But one of the most common motivations is the simple fact that people don\u2019t want to be alone. A 2024 survey commissioned by <em data-start=\"1174\" data-end=\"1190\">Forbes Advisor<\/em>, which polled 1,000 divorced Americans, found that companionship was the second most common reason for getting married, with financial security first and love third. On<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Marriage\/comments\/oybyvg\/you_should_never_marry_out_of_fear_of_ending_up\/\"> Reddit<\/a>, marriage forums are full of questions about marriage and loneliness, with one user questioning whether the idea that \u201cyou should never marry out of fear of ending up alone\u201d makes any sense. \u201cIsn\u2019t [that] really the only reason to get married?\u201d they ask. \u201cIf people seek stability and companionship, they get married.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"ZtQoofDhJOM\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZtQoofDhJOM\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Recently, films and TV shows about marriage have made this fear of loneliness explicit. In Celine Song\u2019s divisive romantic comedy <em data-start=\"1867\" data-end=\"1881\">Materialists<\/em> (2025), matchmaker Lucy Mason (Dakota Johnson) finds herself in a love triangle with wealthy financier Harry Castillo (Pedro Pascal) and her broke, struggling actor ex-boyfriend, John Pitts (Chris Evans). The film explores the transactional logic of modern dating, suggesting that people increasingly date and marry not for love, but to prove their worth to others \u2014 and that doing so often means choosing someone who is above six foot, ripped, rich and with a full head of hair.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Lucy struggles to choose between a man who reflects status back at her (Harry) and one who arguably does not (John). In the end, she goes with her heart and chooses John, but as many people noted when the film was first released, it hardly feels like a choice at all. \u201cWhere are Lucy\u2019s friends?\u201d writer Soaliha asks on her Substack, <a href=\"https:\/\/soaliha.substack.com\/p\/materialists-review\"><em>Soaliloquy<\/em><\/a>. Lucy has no one to <em>truly<\/em> confide in throughout the film, her social circle apparently limited to her colleagues and clients, and by the end, she appears to stay with John because she literally has \u201cnowhere else to go\u201d. While she does deeply love and care for him, it\u2019s also fair to argue that her overarching preoccupation with \u2018settling down\u2019 stems, at least in part, from a fear of \u201cdying alone\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Kristoffer Borgli\u2019s romantic black-comedy drama <em data-start=\"2980\" data-end=\"2991\">The Drama<\/em> expresses a similar anxiety. The film follows Emma and Charlie (Zendaya and Robert Pattinson) as they prepare for their wedding day, only for everything to fall apart when Charlie\u2019s friends make them play a game in which they confess the worst thing they have ever done. Emma admits that, as a lonely teenager, she planned a school shooting. The revelation sends their relationship spiralling and turns their wedding into a fiasco. Yet the film ends on a note of cautious optimism, with the pair reuniting at Emma\u2019s favourite diner and reintroducing themselves to each other, in a poignant callback to the start of the film. After Emma reveals her darkest secret, Charlie proves himself hypocritical and disloyal, yet she still wants him. Is it love? Is it relief at no longer having to hide her past? Or is it, as the film suggests, that Emma has no one else? Like <em data-start=\"3853\" data-end=\"3867\">Materialists<\/em>, <em data-start=\"3869\" data-end=\"3880\">The Drama<\/em> left me wondering whether Emma ever really believed she could leave Charlie when the alternative was not freedom, but isolation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content has-tweet\" data-embed-type=\"media-twitter\" data-script-depends=\"twitter-widgets\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">my opinion on the materialists is that lucy wouldn\u2019t be so angsty if she just had female friendship. the entire movie I wondered where are her friends?<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; \ud83c\udd8eFC (@ablurbz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ablurbz\/status\/1934839661798776985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 17, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span><em data-start=\"4020\" data-end=\"4026\">Beef<\/em> season two pushes this narrative even further. It\u2019s not just that these couples only have each other, but that everyone outside the marriage begins to feel like a threat. The season\u2019s catalyst arrives in episode one, when Ashley and Austin are asked to return their manager Josh\u2019s wallet to his house. When they arrive, they hear screaming, peer through a window, and see Josh and Lindsay in the middle of a violent argument. Ashley records it and uses the footage to blackmail them. From that moment on, once Ashley and Austin have witnessed Josh and Lindsay at their worst, everything starts to crumble for all of them. But it doesn\u2019t crumble entirely for the worst.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In a climactic exchange in the final episode, Chairwoman Park offers a jaundiced view of love under capitalism: \u201cLove lives in this system. All relationships exist in this system. They are all the same, another way to serve the self.\u201d Marriage is supposed to save you from loneliness. It is supposed to grant you rights and signal to the world that you are lovable, desirable, chosen. But as Josh, Lindsay, Ashley and Austin continue to meddle in one another\u2019s lives \u2013 trying to hurt, expose, destroy and eventually save each other \u2013 their emotional walls begin to come down. They become more honest, more vulnerable and more self-sacrificing than they ever were inside their sealed-off couples. In <em data-start=\"5409\" data-end=\"5415\">Beef<\/em>, it is only by rupturing the closed circuit of marriage that they are finally able to express their full humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"6zmKcUa4Xxk\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6zmKcUa4Xxk\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>I don\u2019t want to spoil the ending of <em data-start=\"5418\" data-end=\"5424\">Beef<\/em> \u2013 it is messy, complicated, depressing and unsatisfying, in ways both good and bad. But it shows that while marriage is often an attempt to ameliorate the loneliness of being alive, it can sometimes make that loneliness even worse. It is only in allowing ourselves to be seen and known, helped and supported by others in our best and worst moments, that we can, as Lindsay tells Ashley, \u201cfinally give our existence some semblance of meaning.\u201d This might also teach us how to genuinely love one another: not by force, or out of desperation, but truly by choice.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/article\/70132\/1\/are-on-screen-relationships-normalising-settling-materialists-beef-the-drama&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/3\/1443774.jpg&#8221;] Beef, 2026 (TV Still) April\u00a0 27,\u00a0 2026 Film &amp; TV \/ Opinion Film &amp; TV \/ Opinion Are on-screen relationships normalising settling? From Beef, to Materialists, to The Drama, a new wave of on-screen romances questions whether motivations for marriage can ever be wholly \u2018pure\u2019 April\u00a0 27,\u00a0 2026 April\u00a0 27,\u00a0 2026 TextHalima [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-1905035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1905035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1905035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1905035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1905035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}