Netflix show Beef and road rage in a close-up

A recent study found that while 19-year-old boys are most prone to exhibiting road rage, 34 percent of those who experience road rage are women between the ages of 18 and 34. (Illustration by Suneesh K.)

There is blood on the streets! Blame it on new-age therapy or the mob mentality of social media, but venting is in fashion. Honking, overtaking, reversing, crashing, parking… so many ways to express emotions outdoors.

At a time when more men drove than women and female drivers were the butt of sexist jokes, road rage was presumed to be male; just boys being boys, at the mercy of testosterone. Till a recent study, while putting 19-year-old boys as those most prone to exhibiting road rage, said 34 percent of those who experience road rage are women between the ages of 18 and 34. Beef, the latest miniseries on Netflix, pitches Amy Lau (Ali Wong) against Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) as they escalate hostilities started behind steering wheels. Since they both drive and have stress-related issues, they are together in this journey of fury. The road rage that consumes them crosses all barriers of age, gender, money and class.

Also read: Man dragged on to bonnet of car for 1 km in road rage in Bengaluru

Recently (January 2023) the visual of a man being dragged on the bonnet of a car in Delhi went viral. What is really the trigger for throwing temper tantrums while travelling? Unresolved issues from childhood, suppression of feelings, fight with spouse, privilege and a sense of entitlement, perceived slights while driving…

The city with the most road rage incidents is Eugene, Oregon, and the city with the least is Osaka in Japan. Road rage and rash driving cases rose to 2.15 lakh in India in 2021. Total cases of road rage and rash driving stood at 4,51,069 in India – almost 33 people out of every 100,000 got angry. A study identifies Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh as the red-hot road-rage states. Meanwhile, Ludhiana showed a very low number of such incidents, with only three reported cases in one year. Followed by Amritsar, with only 56 cases. Then comes Varanasi, with 89 cases of rash driving. But a person dies every three minutes on the road.

What Beef, created by Lee Sung Jin, does is humanize those raging. A simple overtaking or bad parking can turn into feuding Capulets and Montagues, with Romeo and Juliet having to die as a consequence of such incandescent warfare. In the miniseries it all boils down to one-upmanship, the human urge to win, and a glorious giving in to what surges within the heart. Even while glamourising that first furious encounter between the protagonists, the anatomy of their anger is slowly laid bare.

Of course, most road-raging adversaries do not get the chance like Amy and Danny to sort out their differences in a cathartic ending, but the complicated unhappiness behind the initial adrenalin rush makes itself very clear. Their lives enmesh in the wake of their first encounter, with each trying to overtake the other in some way, not wanting to be the first to blink.

We think we hide our anger well, but it is there in the jerky way we get into our vehicles, bang the door shut, roll down a window and unfurl a middle finger.