Anyone with access to a Netflix account has most likely at least heard of the show “You,” the hit Netflix original series that made its debut in 2018 with an arguably astonishing first season. It’s based on the thriller novel “You” by Caroline Kepnes, published in 2014. Kepnes has also published sequels to the original “You,” such as: “Hidden Bodies” (2016), which was loosely used as a reference to seasons two and three, and “You Love Me” (2021), again, occasionally referenced in the third season.
This is the show for all my true crime and horror girlies and for fans of dark themes and drama. While this series is heavy on dark themes (and lighting, I can’t see!) there are some light aspects that manage to sneak through the darkness at the foundation of this series. Other light themes that balance out this heavy genre are a romance subplot, comedic relief, mystery and the more wholesome parts of life found in the main character. It’s the sprinkle of sugar that makes the show more digestible.
Season one made quite the entrance. This series follows Joe Goldberg, played by Penn Badgley. He’s a starving artist type of writer in NYC. He’s a eelatively harmless guy with a slim frame and curly brown hair. He’s an invisibly lonely-boy that spends his days buried under books, managing the bookstore he’s worked at since he was a teenager.
While there are a lot of odd things about him, one of his most abnormal qualities is his hobby of committing targeted acts of murder. That’s right, this cutie is a serial killer! He’s an evil genius with a secret lair and glass cage in an eerie basement. The show introduces his unsettling tendencies when Guinevere Beck is introduced. She’s the full package: pretty and smart, she’s in grad school for writing. Joe’s dream girl, Beck, happens to be browsing through a few shelves that he also happened to be peeking through to get a better view of her.
This season shows the audience his stalker tendencies, especially when it comes to love. When it comes to love for Joe, he knows no bounds. While usually this is seen as sweet and romantic, he takes it too far. While this season does romanticize his efforts, it does show the bitter and ugly consequences of being a serial stalker/murderer.
Speaking of love, Joe finally meets his match. Finally having to face the consequences of his obsessive tendencies in season one, he runs away to L.A. in seasons two and three. After casually creating an entirely fake identity and restarting his life as a totally normal citizen and not at all a serial killer, he runs into his next victim.
Joe seems to have an issue with staying professional at work because he has yet again met one of his lovers at his job. Love, his new victim, is an ultra-wealthy L.A. native. Her parents own the grocery store where Joe works. With Love and love in the picture, Joe falls back into his obsessive tendencies that come with a side of serial killing.
When Love finds out about his killing sprees, she embraces that part of him until she adopts it as a part of herself that she’s never admitted to anyone. Joe has truly met his partner in crime. Once again, the murder habit catches up to him and Joe runs away to start a new life abroad.
Joe ends up in London, where he’s sure he and his past can’t be found. All of this running has worn down Joe enough to have him start to settle down in London as a literature professor. Season four stands out in comparison to the past seasons. Usually, that’s a good quality for a show to have. With all the twists and turns of past seasons, the bar is high to make this season sickeningly shocking. However, all these desperate attempts at twists and turns that the writers threw in were nauseating! It’s one thing to add a little bit of spice to really amp up a story. But this had so much spice haphazardly thrown into it that it was inedible!
First of all, Netflix, I need to have a word with you. Immediately! What is this two-part season? Either release it all at once so I can binge-watch or an episode at a time so I can be anxious for the next episode. This indecisive style of release was super off-putting. After watching the first half, I assumed that was the end of an already dreary short season. When I heard of part two, I debated even watching the rest while watching the recap.
This season had so much potential, which is what angers me the most. Somehow we went from a thriller type of murder mystery storyline and ended up in an overplayed true crime murder mystery. Fine, we can work with that. However, the writers threw in so many cheap cliches, when one of the series’ strengths is its uniqueness within its plot twists.
Each season had one major plot twist that is supposed to smack the audience right in the face. This season, “the hunter becomes the hunted.” Joe went from being the killer to landing on the opposite perspective of the murder mystery and becoming the one at risk of being killed.