Crafting the Contenders: How Beef Supervising Sound Editor Christopher Gomez Rebuilt the Series’ World from Scratch for Season Two

Netflix's comedy-drama Beef returned for its second run with a new cast, new locations, and a new story, but with the same expectation of emotional precision and sonic authenticity that made the series an award winner. Season Two received 16 Emmy nominations including one for Supervising Sound Editor Christopher Gomez of Formosa Group, who notes that the approach to the anthology's sophomore outing was almost a complete reinvention. 

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“Season 1 and Season 2 both feel like the world of Beef,” Gomez explains, “but thematically they’re very different. The stories unfold differently, the environments are different, and the characters inhabit completely new spaces. We had to start afresh.”

Season 2’s palette was defined by an exclusive country club, immaculate interiors and lavish gated communities. Filming took place in a variety of California locations with additional scenes set in a hotel in Seoul, South Korea. 

Under the direction of showrunner Lee Sung Jin — known to the team as ‘Sonny’ — and director Jake Schreier, the sound department was tasked with building a world that felt clean, polished and sharply controlled. 

“Our guiding principle for the season was less is more,” Gomez explains. “We tried adding sounds, and sometimes it just felt too busy or not pristine enough. So, we stripped things back. Then we added back sounds of distant waves or seagulls for minimal ambience. It took a lot of trial and error.”

The series follows an argument that spirals out of control. Whereas S1’s ‘beef’ was the result of a road incident between strangers, the toxic feud in S2 is sparked when a heated exchange between a married couple Josh and Lindsay, played by Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan, is used as blackmail by another pair played by Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny.

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Because the anthology format meant nothing from S1 could be reused, the team had to build every environment from scratch. Jin’s script and creative brief helped shape the soundscape, but intuition on the part of the sound team played an equally important role. 

“The goal was to create a world that felt real, but also emotionally charged,” Gomez explains. “A place where silence could be as expressive as noise. When you go ultra-realistic, the emotion can disappear. We had to find ways to keep it grounded but still resonant.”

A caught-on-iPhone video of the initial verbal sparring in episode 201 between Josh and Lindsay reappears throughout the story. This incident not only sets off everything else that happens on the show, but the viral clip needed to be identical every time it played.

“We worked closely with the picture editors because the moment was tied to VFX,” Gomez explains. “We built the fight in real time first with all the yells, crashes and impacts of Lindsay breaking paintings and glass objects [with a golf club] then extracted the exact section that becomes the loop.”

Production recordings were blended with sound effects for the offscreen action and with ADR work from Isaac and Mulligan, creating a layered, escalating tension. 

“Even though the physical altercation happens at the end of the cold open, the build-up starts the moment the episode begins. It’s a slow, deliberate rise toward an eventual cacophony where Josh and Lindsay are screaming and breaking things.

“Sonny and I spent a lot of time shaping that progression. The offscreen yelling had to feel perfectly timed and emotionally accurate. We worked closely with our picture editors to determine exactly what the audience should hear and when, so the tension ramps into the final explosive moment.”

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The ER needed to feel like hell 

If the elite country club demanded restraint, episode 204’s hospital scenes demanded the opposite.

“The ER needed to feel like hell,” Gomez says. “A place you desperately want to escape. The challenge was creating constant activity without distracting from the dialogue.”

Nurses, patients, distant yelling and equipment was placed with surgical precision. The sound never stops, but the viewer isn’t always consciously aware of it.

Then, when Austin (Melton) steps into the hallway for a phone call, the soundscape collapses into near-silence. Just the hum of fluorescent lights and a vending machine.

“That contrast makes the environment feel suffocating,” Gomez says. “It’s one of my favorite moments.”

Needle drops from the early 2000s pepper the soundscape and are skilfully integrated with Finneas O’Connell’s score.

“We usually get a temp score early, but the final often arrives the night before the mix,” Gomez says. “The first time we hear everything together is on the stage.”

He credits music editor Luke Dennis’ role in aligning the score with the sound design. One standout moment in 204 is when Ashley (Spaeny) on a hospital bed gets wheeled into surgery at which point the score takes over entirely.

“It becomes almost music-video-esque,” Gomez says. “It’s relentless and emotional.”

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Gomez worked closely with re-recording mixers Andrew Lange and Penny Harold on the eight episodes. “I handle all the editorial materials — prepping dialogue, cutting ADR, and making sure all the sound effects (courtesy sound effects editor, Jerry Lafuente) and Foley are ready to go. Then I bring everything to them.

“For Beef, Penny is our dialogue and music mixer, so she handles all the dialogue, ADR, and Finneas’s score. Andy is our sound effects and Foley mixer. They each have their own workflow, but they work in tandem to prep their elements and then bring everything together into a cohesive episode.

“Once we have a version that feels like a complete piece, that’s when Sonny comes in. He’ll sit with us, review the episode, give notes, and we’ll fine-tune until we reach the point where he signs off. There’s always a fair amount of prep involved before we get to that review stage — making sure the episode is in the right shape to present.”

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From railroads to re-recording stages

Gomez’s recent credits include Only Murders in the Building (2024), The Lincoln Lawyer (2022), Say Nothing (2024), Washington Black (2024), and the revival of The Wonder Years (2021–2023).

He has had an unusual route into the industry. Before joining Formosa in 2019, he worked for over seven years at a railroad. Dreaming of becoming a music engineer he decided to return to school and his life changed.

“A post-production sound class changed everything,” he says. “I didn’t know this world existed. I fell in love with the idea that you can build sound for picture, that you layer effects like chords in music. [Composer] Danny Elfman was and remains one of my heroes. It just clicked.”

Equally adept cutting dialogue, ADR and sound effects, what Gomez loves most is the collaborative, interpretive part of the craft.

“I love supervising and the opportunity to interface with clients, understand their sonic vision, and shape it with the team,” he says. “It’s storytelling through sound.”

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Sohonet is proud to be part of the workflow for this award-winning production.