Your favorite serial-killing loverboy is back, and this time, he’s followed his beloved Marienne abroad to London.
The latest season of Netflix show “You” flips the narrative drastically, making Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgeley) the hunter instead of the hunter amid his new friend group of privileged London socialites. He is stalked and implicated in a series of murders by someone who knows him and his entire past.
“You” fans positively received Season 4: Part 1, with the new season garnering over 92 million streaming hours during its debut week and skyrocketing to #1 Netflix’s “Top 10” list.
This season was a refreshing change to the previous, somewhat formulaic seasons. In the first three seasons, Joe falls in love with the girl, gaslights her incessantly and murders her loved ones or enemies in classic Joe Goldberg style.
Despite their predictability, these seasons were full of suspense and surprising twists. Part of the reason for this was because of beloved character Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), who embodied “matching someone’s energy” with her equally murderous tendencies. Though Joe killed her in the third season’s finale, fans speculate that she survived and will return in Season 4: Part 2 as Joe’s stalker.
Unfortunately, the latest season fell slightly short of my expectations. It may have been the fact that only half of the season was released at once, but this season did not have the expected suspense or lovable characters, save for Phoebe.
The new characters are just that — characters. They are overtly satirized, merely extreme caricatures of the privileged class that Joe so deeply abhors. I was not invested in their lives or issues.
While I enjoyed seeing Joe try to repent for his previously-committed atrocities, this season felt disjointed from the prior three. I was intrigued enough to binge watch Part 1, but I hope that Part 2 picks up the pace and has more action than its predecessor.