You Netflix review: Penn Badgley’s psychopathic killer moves to London – but is it any good?
You Netflix review and star rating: ★★★☆☆
You on Netflix started as an interesting rumination on social media, Penn Badgley’s Joe Golberg skulking around New York murdering people who gave away too much online in-between his penchant for reading high brow books. Now they’ve brought the formula to London, where The Shard and Tower Bridge pop up behind Badgley and his ominously low black cap.
It feels like Gossip Girl actor Penn Badgley really gives a lot of himself to You. Insightful in interviews, and with a similar bookishness to his character, (but less of the murdering people, we can hope) You’s main attraction is Badgley, who remains the most enjoyably convincing on-screen psychopath I know. He seems the type of guy who wouldn’t string along a show that should have ended two seasons ago if he didn’t believe in it.
There’s just about life left in You to believe in. Broken into two parts, both with five episodes, the season opens feeling more than a touch superficial. There’s a soapiness that’s more than before, especially noticeable in the interactions with secondary characters. So many bland plot openers are set up in the first episode that you end up caring about none of them. And the inevitable death per episode is starting to feel predictable like Killing Eve season three. Still, things roar into action in the second episode, offering a more intriguing set up that suggests there’s another murderer in town to give Joe a run for his blunt objects.
It’s fun switching the Lower East Side for Shoreditch, even if Joe walks out of his South Kensington flat via Shoreditch to get to a private members’ club in Soho. Londoners will revel in spotting their favourite pubs – Commercial Tavern, anyone? – go by in the background of shots. I watched episode 2 in the City PM office metres from where most of the episode was shot at Old Billingsgate Market.
As ever, the writing feels intelligent. “Freebies for those who need it least – capitalism is going swimmingly,” Joe utters dryly, going for a suit fitting for an esteemed event he’s blagged his way into to try and look for clues to a string of murders. The show remains a biting critique on privilege in a way Gossip Girl never could. “Who cares what they turn into if they knew you in school,” proclaims Adam, played by Lukas Gage, one of the vivid set of upper echelon Londoners who’s intriguing but isn’t given enough time to be properly unravelled in early episodes.
If feels as if You has all gone a bit meta – Joe asks “how am I here AGAIN?” a handful of times. Perhaps that’s right: the show has run dry of interesting conversations about privacy in a digital age, and free of those shackles, it’s become just a lovely polished thriller. Who cares why when it looks this good? But Goldberg remains a thrilling case study of a psychopath – Penn Badgley luring us in for the kill.
You: Netflix is streaming season 4 part 1 now
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