Season: 4
Genre: Thriller/
Drama
Number of
episodes: 10
Year:
2023
Starring: Pen Badgley, Tati Gabrielle, Charlotte Ritchie, Ed Speleers, Tilly
Keeper, Amy-Leigh Hickman, Lukas Gage, Greg Kinnear
Description: A dangerously charming, intenstly obsessive young man
(Penn Badgley) goes to extreme measures to insert himself into lives of those
he is transfixed by.
Review: It’s always commendable
when creators of a film series and television series throw in some good variety
and don’t follow the same pattern over and over again. “You” did it, but
eventually managed to ruin it.
WARNING! THIS REVIEW MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!
It is refreshing that season 4 is done differently. Not only because the
battleground had moved from the United States to London’s upper class, but also
because for once it is Joe himself who must fear his safety. This is because
someone is trying to frame him for murder. The plot creates a new dynamic,
although Joe must cope amid a group of very annoying snobs.
After the previous season, in which Joe toppled his “partner in crime”
and great love Love Quinn, he has assumed a different identity in London. He
now is Jonathan Moore, a literature professor, who managed to spin things so
that Love was the evil mastermind behind the events and Joe did not survive. He
just wants to lead a quiet life now. Mingling amongst the high society of
spoiled influencers, uppity artists, annoying rich kids an snobby gallery
owners is not really my idea of living a quiet life, but Joe somehow ends up
there. And every single character Joe meets is unlikeable, annoying and
slap-worthy. Cleverly done by the creators, but also a bit transparent, as this
leaves the empathy entirely with Joe. Especially when it turns out that after a
night out he is blamed for a murder.
Text messages are used to extort the former bookseller and newfound teacher:
the culprit knows his true identity and apparently h is not the only one who
knows more about Joe.
For the first time, a season of “You” has been divided into two chapters
dropped on Netflix. The writers did take this new strategy quite literally. There
is a clear cut in plot and approach between the first five and the second five
episodes. Complete with a sort of interim wrap-up. The writers could have
filled the entire season just with the question of who is pressuring Joe so
much, more importantly, what the motives are for doing so. But in the second
half, the perspective is completely thrown overboard and the course is changed
decisively. Except for a few, the many irritating side characters hardly have
any function. Moreover, the writers throw it entirely on Joe’s mental state,
which is in stark contrast to the man who for seasons has been portrayed as admittedly
quite disturbed, but also calculating, cunning and opportunistic. The main
character is left reeling and things don’t really work out. With that, I kind
of predicted the whole Rhys storyline and that it was eventually Joe himself.
Moreover, more than before, characters from other seasons are revisited.
Then the realization dawns that despite the change of environment and tone, “You”
is starting to become formulaic.
Season 4 of this successful Netflix series is what I would call a “mixed
bag”. It starts strong, but loses itself in contrived plot twists and futile attempts
to change its ways.
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