{"id":227121,"date":"2026-03-30T15:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T15:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/227121\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T15:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T15:56:08","slug":"the-netflix-series-understands-what-makes-the-state-tick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/227121\/","title":{"rendered":"The Netflix Series Understands What Makes The State Tick"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been watching Lee Seo-jin\u2019s<\/a> variety series for a while now, thanks to discovering\u00a0Jinny\u2019s Kitchen<\/a>\u00a0on Prime Video, starring Kim Tae-hyung<\/a> (BTS\u2019 V) and two of my favorite actors, Choi Woo-shik<\/a> and Park Seo-joon<\/a>. Through Jinny\u2019s Kitchen, I got to see the group embrace Mexico and its culture. Now,\u00a0Ready or Not Texas is putting Lee Seo-jin\u2019s love of Texas in the spotlight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Netflix Original six-episode variety show<\/a> follows Lee Seo-jin and producer Nah Yung-suk (also spelled Nah Yeong-seok; we are using producer Nah\u2019s name as provided by Netflix) on their unscripted journey across Texas with their crew. Together, they explore Dallas, the city Lee Seo-jin dreams of calling home after retirement, make their way down to Houston, and then end the series in the state\u2019s capital and the city I call home, Austin, TX.<\/p>\n

The best thing about\u00a0Ready or Not Texas\u00a0is that it shows that people outside of the United States see Texas and life in the state as a\u00a0King of the Hill<\/a>\u00a0episode, and they\u2019re not wrong. When I started the series, I was expecting to see the most surface exploration of my beautiful state. Still, outside of very bad Tex-Mex choices (the Oasis is not a good representation of Tejano food in the state), that doesn\u2019t happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lee Seo-jin and Nah Yung-suk seek out the local food scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ready<\/p>\n

Much of the journey involves Lee Seo-jin leading everyone through a \u201chits of Texas\u201d that he has learned from others and from his visits. In doing so, he captures what makes the state special. By driving to just about every major area in the I-35 metroplex, Ready or Not Texas\u00a0doesn\u2019t take the bougie approach to traveling the state. Instead, the group travels the state the way that I would. Or more specifically, the way that I have.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Starting in Dallas, the group\u2019s first stop is for Texas barbecue and, well, they do it absolutely right. Sticking with Modelo and Shiner, the group takes the pitmaster\u2019s recommendations as they get their fill, but Lee and Nah already know what true Texas barbecue is about: beef.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As much as the series is about experiencing everything that Texas has to offer, food takes center stage. Starting it all off at Cooper\u2019s, just outside Dallas, is the best way to do it, though the surprise of being served beer in giant margarita glasses is one of the show\u2019s best reactions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ready or Not Texas captures the vibrant diversity of the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The important\u00a0element that\u00a0Ready or Not Texas\u00a0captures is that the state is extremely diverse. With different hubs focused on varying industries, highlighting Dallas, Houston, and Austin works extremely well to show the differences that every Texan knows.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While in Dallas,\u00a0Ready or Not Texas highlights the vibrant Asian community in places like Carrollton, a satellite city outside Dallas, and,\u00a0more importantly, just how diverse the food is because of it. Outside of food, the group also uses their time in Dallas to see Longhorns for the first time, get cowboy clothes, including custom hats and boots, and do their best to look like Texas looks in film and television.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What works with this part of the series is that the camera also highlights the people in Dallas who are all dressing like \u201ccowboys\u201d because that is just their day-to-day fashion. If anything, the series starts with Lee and Nah performing a bit about becoming cowboys, only to get carried away in it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally,\u00a0Ready or Not Texas\u00a0takes the crew to a shooting range, where they all compete, putting their mandatory military<\/a> service to the test. While the series doesn\u2019t venture into Texas politics, its approach to Texas gun culture is surprising. Actor Lee points out that he doesn\u2019t want to comment on another country\u2019s laws, but starts discussing the need for documenting and registering guns, compared to South Korea\u2019s approach, which is outlawing them except for specific instances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Netflix series does its best to avoid political landmines, focusing instead on the rich culture.<\/p>\n

\"Lee<\/p>\n

What matters in this conversation is that while even I want stricter gun laws, Texas doesn\u2019t have the largest ownership in the country (that honor goes to California, ironically), and that comes out as they look up statistics, with Texas not exceeding the country\u2019s average. More importantly, Lee mentions the importance of hunting culture in Texas, something I grew up in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Texas is filled with political<\/a> landmines, and often the cast of\u00a0Ready or Not, Texas comes close to stepping on them. But the group mostly avoids it, except for when they talk about owning Tesla stock, given the current landscape. That said, there is nothing wrong with that.\u00a0Ready or Not, Texas\u00a0doesn\u2019t owe its audience an expos\u00e9 on Texas politics; it\u2019s a snapshot of Texas\u2019 identity, which the series makes clear is not the same across every city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On top of that, they get a touch of American car culture, and top off the visit with something any Texan wants (yes, even if they hate the team): Jerryworld.\u00a0The Cowboys\u2019 stadium, just outside Dallas (something that duo comment on), that everyone knows as Jerryworld, named after the NFL team\u2019s owner, Jerry Jones, drops the crew into American Football in a big way.<\/p>\n

They get to step on the field, check out the merchandise store, and take a guided tour of the team\u2019s history. It\u2019s a definitive slice of life in Texas, and I don\u2019t mean the Cowboys. I mean football<\/a>.\u00a0More importantly,\u00a0Ready or Not, Texas\u2019s trip to Jerryworld also serves as a good PSA for anyone looking to travel to the World Cup.\u00a0When the schedule shows Dallas, it actually means Grapevine, TX, and Jerryworld is where people will be heading.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From the Cowboys to NASA, Ready or Not Texas tackles the states tourist draws.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ready<\/p>\n

As the crew drives to Houston, about a three-hour drive from Dallas, NASA is next on the list. Taking up over an episode,\u00a0Ready or Not Texas\u00a0highlights how important NASA is to the city of Houston. While they don\u2019t find time to really highlight Houston beyond its greatest attraction, the Houston part of the series captures Texas at a different pace.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That said, the Houston episodes are among the weakest, primarily because the series doesn\u2019t go off the beaten path to showcase the city as many of us know it. The city is home to some of the best rap music scenes in the US, rivaled only by Atlanta\u2019s. We don\u2019t see Houston as a city that consistently ranks among the most diverse in the US. We just see it as \u201cSpace City,\u201d which is a disservice to the cultural depth it offers. Then, Ready or Not Texas takes us to Austin, TX, after another three hours and change drive. \u00a0<\/p>\n

When the crew arrives in Austin, the cultural shift between the three cities is most noticeable. While all the television coverage highlights how big a tech hub Austin is, it\u2019s not much different from Dallas or Houston, which also boast some top-tier tech companies in their own right. However, it\u2019s the group\u2019s commentary that makes the picture of Austin the series paints most on the nose. This is a city for young people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The series could have spent more time in Austin and we\u2019re begging Lee Seo-jin to eat better Tex-Mex.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ready<\/p>\n

The Austin episode is primarily limited to the finale of the variety<\/a> series. Still, it does a lot to introduce the city and how the University of Texas at Austin (my alma mater) impacts it more broadly. The takeaway is that Austin is a faster-paced, younger city than Houston and Dallas, and I can\u2019t really complain about that because it is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, though, because I live in Austin, this is the part of Ready or Not Texas\u00a0that feels a tad empty. This is where the group tries Tex-Mex, picking one of the most bougie restaurants in the city to do so. As a Tejana, a Mexican-American whose family is native to Texas, watching the footnotes come on screen describing Tex-Mex as something detached from Tejanos was hard, and it took everything not to write a letter to Lee Seo-jin, asking him to please eat better Tex-Mex.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That said, the Austin episode, despite being contained to just one episode, is a good depiction of the city, and ultimately helps showcase a more liberal side of Texas that you don\u2019t get in Dallas. Among the three cities, Ready or Not Texas\u00a0is actively working to showcase Texas\u2019s diversity<\/a>. Maybe not from the people you see, but from the experiences you get.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite some missteps, Ready or Not Texas is one of the best variety series on Netflix.<\/p>\n

\"Ready<\/p>\n

Often, the series reflects on the size of the state. But more importantly, what it offers. I mentioned at the start of this that the series highlights the beauty of my home state, and despite some of my issues, it really does. Texas is not just one thing; we contain multitudes. Our GDP is enough to index us among countries. Our food is distinct. The home that many diasporic communities have made here is important, and we see glimpses of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The only thing missing from\u00a0Ready or Not Texas, is the Mexicans. At 41% of the population, Latinos establish Texas as the only \u201cminority\u201d majority state in the United States. In Texas, my hometown, San Antonio is 70% Latino, with 90% of those Latinos identifying as Mexican-American. And our lives are missing from Ready or Not Texas: our\u00a0food, our lives, our work. We aren\u2019t in this variety series despite being the backbone of the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By just limiting the time spent in Dallas, which accounts for about half of the series, the crew could have spent more time in San Antonio, TX. The city that raised me, the sports<\/a> culture, and the importance in Texas<\/a> history can\u2019t be understated. Seeing the crew head to a Spurs game or experiencing Fiesta would have showcased the people who make Texas entirely what it is. But we don\u2019t get that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overall, though,\u00a0Ready or Not Texas isn\u2019t a misfire. It\u2019s one group\u2019s exploration of Texas, and for the most part, it\u2019s adventurous and doesn\u2019t shy away from putting every person in the crew in the spotlight. Even if there are elements that I find lacking, the series does a lot to highlight how fun the state can be. If anything, I want more. Ready or Not Texas is one of the best variety shows on Netflix, and more importantly, it\u2019s a proof of concept for how well a Korean variety series can be received in the US. Give us more Lee Seo-jin and Nah Yung-suk, please.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ready or Not Texas is streaming now, exclusively on Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tReady or Not Texas<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t8\/10\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/p>\n

Ready or Not Texas is one of the best variety shows on Netflix, and more importantly, it\u2019s a proof of concept for how well a Korean variety series can be received in the US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve been watching Lee Seo-jin\u2019s variety series for a while now, thanks to discovering\u00a0Jinny\u2019s Kitchen\u00a0on Prime Video, starring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-227121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}