Addictive but eventually repetitive – Netflix’s You

Instead of being reading all day, writing a ton and going to the gym, I binged Netflix’s new hit show You and I don’t regret it.

            You is a gripping show which was extremely easy to take all in one shot. With complex characters, spot on acting and an intriguing method of story-telling, nothing would have taken me away from my TV today as long as it was on. I’ve had to pee since like, episode eight but I couldn’t pause the show for the thirty seconds it would take to pee.

            I asked myself if You would have been a more interesting story if it had been told entirely through the eyes of victim and leading lady Beck, as 2016’s Passengers would have made such a good horror if it had been told through the eyes of Jennifer Lawrence’s Aurora. I concluded that it would have been boring as shit, so I let the male predators viewpoint slide. I give it props as well for showcasing that the persistent male interest is shown in a bad light in his foolish actions and overly obsessive behaviour (though some on Twitter have declared their fondness for the relationship between Beck and Joe). The parallel that is drawn in the show with Wuthering Heights gave me a massive boner since that’s my favourite book and the show showed understanding in portraying stories of toxic obsession as “love.” We may root for Catherine and Heathcliff or Joe and Beck to get together as we see them in the heights of young passion but ultimately, through the actions of these two men, we see that their stories are not tales of great romances, but rather, warnings about parasites and their poor hosts.

            You got repetitive in later episodes, I felt, as Beck didn’t trust Joe and then Joe didn’t trust Beck, and they made up but then Beck didn’t trust Joe again and then Joe didn’t trust Beck again…and so on. I was delighted when they made up because, yeah, I kind of got caught up in their relationships too, but eventually bored when they grew suspicious of each other yet again.

            I’m writing this just after being alerted that You will be getting a second season. It will be without Beck (probably, because it seems that Joe is pretty certain he killed her and buried her, but we never seen a body so??? Maybe she’ll show up?) and little Paco as he and his mum have moved off somewhere new and safe (good for them!) so I think that these characters will take a lot of the shows heart with them. Although, Joe’s rock star ex Candace is back and seems hungry for revenge which will be the driving point for season two. Honestly? I’m not so into it. I think the ending could have done without it. Let You just be a dark short story told in ten episodes about a psycho stalker who looked for love, failed epically in having to kill his lover, and then dream about his next love as he simultaneously mourns his ex and bemoans he’ll never get over her. Yeah, dark. A dark, bad cycle. A bad ending. I really think there aren’t enough bad endings in TV these days – we shouldn’t be afraid of them. I digress: character wise we have Joe, our main guy who we kind of rooted for, kind of hated; Candace, his mysterious and angry ex; Ethan, the nothing character who works for Joe and Blithe, another nothing character. There are also Beck’s pals who are also nothing characters (although they seemed super sweet and I liked ‘em).

            So, yeah. You. I really enjoyed watching it, I really enjoyed binging it, and the little repetitivenesses at the end didn’t really take away from interesting twists and character development. I’m not so into a season two, though I will watch it out of interest as to what the writers will do with it. The show was cleverly written throughout and very creative, so I have faith that season two will be nothing if not entertaining.

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