It’s fun to be evil. So is the appeal of “You,” the Lifetime one-season wonder turned Netflix phenomenon. Based on the book by Caroline Kepnes, the thriller took great pleasure in showing the sociopathic brilliance of Joe Goldberg, a serial killer with a penchant for obsessing over certain women to the point of violence. For four seasons, Penn Badgley’s repellently charming villain has manipulated his world and the audience around him into rooting for his madness. It’s undeniably a blast to watch someone be very good at their job, even if that job is being a murderer. But in the show’s final season, Joe has, once again, turned over a new leaf. It’s for real this time, honestly!
Joe is back in New York City, living a life of glamor and privilege alongside Kate (Charlotte Ritchie), his CEO wife with her own dark past. He’s in the spotlight as the loving husband of a girlboss, and everyone knows him by his real name for reasons that exist to fuel the later plot. The pair wants to atone for their sins and be normal, happy, multi-millionaires. The shadows of the past, however, are never too far behind, nor is Joe’s insatiable thirst for chaos. But the vipers may be even closer than expected as Kate’s spoiled, power-hungry family seems ready to stab them in the back.
The first season of “You” was a proudly perverse subversion of romantic comedy tropes – what if that nice guy who was always there at the right time was stalking you? After that, the show had more fun playing around with the unconscious societal bias we have towards attractive white men who are forever coded as the “good guys.” Given the intrinsically one-note quality of the source material (albeit one impeccably executed note), it’s impressive how much material Netflix has wrung out of it. That did require them to zhuzh up the formula with more jokes and increasingly soapy storylines. The unsettling familiarity of that first season was long abandoned in favor of something sillier, if still highly enjoyable.
The calculations of Joe’s crimes, so carefully planned like a mystery novel from the wrong perspective, remain the most enjoyable part of the show. For all of his voiceover insistences that he wants to be capital-G Good, it takes very little for the mask to drop. It doesn’t help that his services are so frequently required, a handy tool in the world of New York business where there’s no such thing as an ally, even when they’re family. Kate’s relatives include her sisters Raegan and Maddie (Anna Camp in fine soapy mode), identical twins who are clawing for the throne, and Teddy (Griffin Matthews), her somewhat loyal half-brother whose outsider status as the illegitimate Lockwood child keeps him on the sidelines.
As Joe fears a return to his old ways, and a lack of understanding from his wife on the matter, new potential prey enters the scene in the form of Bronte (Madeline Brewer), a fast-talking, quirky girl he catches breaking into his old bookstore. She is immediately irritating, like the manic pixie dream girl of our early 2000s dreams, ranting about gentrification and quoting Dickens. She feels like the amped-up version of Beck, the first grand obsession of Joe’s life. The first minute she is introduced, you know exactly what is going to happen to her and how the “twists” will play out by the climax. It’s the first sign that this season has lazily gone off the rails.
As always, it’s Badgley who holds this increasingly ludicrous rigmarole together. “You” giddily embraced camp at some point during its third season. He’s retained Joe’s smarmy cruelty even as the show often seemed to side with him over less charming killers. While he’s also having a lot of fun with an inherently ridiculous character – incel Hannibal Lecter who isn’t as cunning as he wishes to be – there’s an undeniable thread of the real to his character. None of this would work if Joe were too broadly drawn, and as much as the show wants to let the entire affair delve head-first into an Instagram-ready version of “Clue,” Badgley has a tight rein on proceedings. Sometimes, it feels like he’s the only person who still believes that Joe is the villain of the story.
Later seasons of “You” retained the early juiciness and sheer thrills of Joe’s machinations but struggled to keep the focus on him as a figure of malice and cultural subversion. He works best when he’s within those specific genre frameworks, like the rom-com and crime thriller. Soap makes him fun, but it’s in the details where “You” shines. As a critique of privilege and the ways that we perennially side with abusers over victims, it’s aged like fine wine. But this final season is overladen with a needlessly knotty plot and a repetitive approach to Joe. We’ve done all of this before in earlier and better arcs, and it didn’t feel so plodding or perfunctory then. “You” was always another Netflix show that suffered from the streamer’s habit of putting three hours of content into a 10 hour format, but at least it retained a sense of mischief. Now, everything is tired.
“You” was always going to find it difficult to bring this messy show to a cohesive and satisfying end, especially since the entire hook is in watching a villain succeed. The difficult relationship the series and its fandom has had with Joe, simultaneously condemning and justifying his actions, has left this final season with a hesitant approach to dealing with its protagonist. When it finally does decide to deal with him, it’s with a bunch of callbacks and plan so silly that it robs the story of any sense of danger. What is “You” without danger? It’s just kind of daft, but not with any thrills or guilty pleasure. One cannot help but wish the showrunners (Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo took over this season after Sera Gamble, who ran the first four seasons, stepped down) had been nervier and committed to something truly dark, or further engaged with contemporary issues of gender like seasons past. The social commentary in this season is fleeting at best.
In the era of true crime, incels, and #MeToo, “You” was a curiously fitting show that sought to dissect a cultural sickness with a sly nod, but it has long struggled to contend with those who were too taken by its antagonist. Penn Badgley had to warn fans against siding with Joe. That may have been the best sign that the show was doing its job well, however much that made our stomachs churn to admit it. Alas, in its final season, “You” flinched.
“You” Season 5 is now streaming on Netflix.