TV Show Review - You (Season 5)

Season: 5
Genre: Thriller/ Drama
Number of episodes: 10
Year: 2025
Starring: Pen Badgley, Charlotte Ritchie, Madeline Brewer, Anna Camp, Griffin Matthews

Description: A dangerously charming, intensely obsessive young man (Penn Badgley) goes to extreme measures to insert himself into lives of those he is transfixed by.

Review: In the penultimate season, we saw Joe take a trip to the United Kingdom, where he was inexplicably allowed to play the literature teacher. The members of his new elite social circle were not sure of their lives. His friend Kate, who came from a well-to-do family, knew about Joes secret, but like some of her predecessors, she found a way to deal with her lover's killing intent. If only because she only knew half the truth.
 
In season five, we are several years down the road and Joe has moved back to New York with Kate. Kate runs the prosperous family business Lockwood there, but soon finds herself in trouble. This prompts Joe to overcome obstacles in unconventional ways. In addition, he dusts off his old bookstore, where he finds an eccentric woman who calls herself Bronte. Joe decides to hire her as a bookseller, but soon develops an obsession with her.
 
WARNING! THIS REVIEW MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!
 
It's just the same old story, told again, with some twists and turns here and there. So many things in this season make no sense. Why does Joe decide to become a public figure, with everything he has done? And why is Kate still surprised about Joe, when she knows what he is capable of? And another new woman who Joe claims to be “the one”…..?
 
Season 4 was already a mixed bag for me, but season 5 was just bad. I didn’t like it. It had some twists I thought were pretty good, but most of it was very predictable actually. And in the first couple of seasons I could still, kind of, understand why women fell for Joe. But not anymore. It becomes increasingly implausible that women fall head over heals for him. And I was just hoping, the entire time, that Joe would be exposed. Because he made so many dumb mistakes (this entire season is filled with dumb people and decisions by the way), it doesn’t really feel like Joe Goldberg anymore.
 
They tried, but they should have ended “You” after season 3.

TV Show Review - You (Season 4)

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.  

10s Movie Review - Easy A

Director: Will Gluck
Genre: Comedy/ Romance
Runtime: 92 minutes
Year: 2010
Starring: Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Dan Byrd, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Cam Gigandet, Lisa Kudrow, Malcolm McDowell, Fred Armisen

Description: A clean-ct high school student relies on the school’s rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.

Review: High School student Olive is a wallflower and is pretty much invisible. Her best friend Rihannon gets more attention after she told everyone she had sex. Olive thinks it wouldn’t harm anyone if she starts a rumor herself, about losing her virginity. This rumor spreads faster than she could have ever imagined.
The story doesn’t sound all that special, but it’s the execution of this story that is almost brilliant. And Emma Stone is fabulous in “Easy A”. This is the movie that introduced me to her and I have been a major fan ever since. Her portrayal of Olive is just great and she is actually one of my favorite female movie characters. Her parents, played by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, are great too. They are so funny, I love them in this film. And Amanda Bynes, as Jesus freak Marianne, is really funny as well.
I’m not a fan of romantic comedies, but when there is more com then rom, I tend to like them more. “Easy A” is one of those films, I love this movie! “Easy A” gets an A+!

Rating: 5/ 5

TV Show Review - You (Season 3)

Season: 3
Genre: Thriller/ Drama
Number of episodes: 10
Year: 2021
Starring: Pen Badgley, Victoria Pedretti, Dylan Arnold, Scott Speedman, Saffron Burrows, Shalita Grant, Travis van Winkle, Michaela McManus

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: Joe Goldberg is back. The obsessively love-struck bookworm is now married and the father of a newborn son. Although there would be no new season, if all that family happiness were not somehow infused with lies, stalking, suspense and murder. 
At the end of season two Joe wanted to kill Love, but when she turned out to be pregnant with his child, he decided to marry her and move to the suburbs of San Francisco where they would spend the rest of their lives playing house. And this is where season 3 starts. Turning a page is easy, keeping it clean is another matter. Especially when a couple of extremely annoying influencers turn out to be living in your neighborhood. And they know how to stir up you killer instinct like no other and an attractive neighbor next door lurs Joe’s attention. And so, in no time at all, Joe relapses into old habits. From that moment on, I thought it was going to be much of the same. But then I kept watching. Surprise, it’s not! 
Joe is no longer a lone wolf, he is a part of a pack of three. And the writers have found a new vein to make this ride as rich and exciting as possible, with Joe’s wife Love as one of the driving forces of this season. She is basically Joe’s equal, but adds her own manic spice to the series.  She’s less calculated, more impulsive, passionate and that clashes on all sides. Both with Joe and the local residents. 
Penn Badgley remains unmatched as stalker Joe, though Victoria Pedretti as Love shines. “You” season 3 is definitely one to watch.

TV Show Review - You (Season 1)

Season: 1
Genre: Thriller/ Drama
Number of episodes: 10
Year: 2018
Starring: Penn Badgley, Elizabeth Lail, Shay Mitchell, Ambyr Childers, Luca Padovan, Zack Cherry, Nicole Kang, John Stamos, Kathryn Gallagher, Daniel Cosgrove, Victoria Cartagena, Mark Blum

Description: Clever bookstore manager Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) relies on his savvy Internet know-how to make the woman of his dreams (Elizabeth Lail) fall in love with him.

Review: “You” is a new Netflix show, created by the brains behind “Riverdale” and “Supernatural”, “Arrow” and “The Flash”. After seeing this first season, I can best describe it as “Dexter” meets “Pretty Little Liars” meets “Gossip Girl”.
The show follows Joe, a friendly and charming man who manages a bookstore, restores rare and old books and is friends with the kid next door who is in a problematic realtionshio with his mother and is happy with Joe’s attention. When Joe falls for one of his clients, Guinevere Beck (Beck for friends), we meet the other side of Joe. Because he becomes a psychotic stalker.
From the moment he meets Beck, Joe sees it as his task to make her life better and to save her from the toxic people in her life. It starts by secretly watching her and finding out details about her life via social media.
The first season of “You” is full of tension and is intriguing. It keeps your attention from beginning to end and it’s hard to stop watching. Penn Badgley, who we now from “Gossip Girl”, is very convincing as Joe. Both as the creepy stalker and the charming do-gooder. Elizabeth Lail plays Beck, who does a good job as well portraying the gullible and naïve writer-to-be. What I think is done so well, is that for some reason the ‘villain’ in this show, is not actually the real villain. Even though he does bad things (very bad thing), somehow you can never really hate Joe. But Beck and the people around her are the people you really start to dislike.
“You” is a strong thriller series, that doesn’t let you go while watching it. It’s mysterious and surprising. Season two will be released in 2019 and I can’t wait!