A Review of Netflix’s “You” Before Part II
Netflix’s Original series “You” came out with the first half of its fourth season this year on Thursday, Feb. 9. We were gifted five episodes that were each an hour long, and, while there were only five, there was still a thrilling storyline that had me glued to the screen. Given the recent debut, I will not go into great detail on the specifics of characters, but for everyone who may not have seen it yet, small season four spoilers may be ahead, as well as spoilers for earlier seasons.
“You” season four is vastly different from all the others we have seen before. While the first three consisted of Joe desperately trying to find “true love” (even when he clearly found his perfect match with Love in season two), this season he is desperate to find a murderer. As Joe later surmises, he’s found himself in quite the “who done it.” This all takes place in the city of London, England, where Joe is now English Professor Jonathan Moore, and has somehow been brought into a group of outrageously wealthy individuals (there is literally a Princess). Fast forward and a member of the group is murdered with someone attempting to frame Joe by leaving the body in his apartment. (Un)luckily, Joe knows how to get himself out of these situations.
Unfortunately for Joe, he lives across the way from the victim’s house, where Kate also lives. Meet Kate, an art gallery director and the new female lead in this season of “You.” I have to be honest, she is not my favorite character this season nor my favorite female lead in the show as a whole. Kate talks a big game, all stern, tough, and rude, but the moment someone says or acts morally wrong she claims right up, almost cowering in her seat (Gemma assaulting the waiter). She becomes more of a friend with benefits than an actual love interest, leaving Joe without love to fight for in this season. Perhaps in future episodes, their dynamic will change, but as of the first five episodes, Joe is keeping his heart locked up tight. Joe met Kate when saving her from some robbers and the interaction wasn’t exactly gracious. It was later that night when Joe was taken to The Sundry House (rich party scene) as a thank you and to meet the numerous other characters present in the coming episodes—this night resulted in the murder that kicks off the rest of our season.
As stated before, Joe clearly has experience in dealing with an unwanted body, but that is entirely unknown to the actual murderer-turned-stalker. Completely intrigued by Joe’s capabilities, the murderer begins to stalk Joe, finding out his name and his entire past—every murder and every cover-up found, all the while leaving disappearing messages on Joe’s phone and notes in his flat. I have to admit, I was not at all expecting this season to be an Uno reverse on the infamous bookstore manager, but I can also honestly say I am so happy about it. As the episodes progress, Joe becomes more and more enraged by this person for invading his privacy and his new life (everything he was portraying was extremely hypocritical as you can imagine). This was a parallel I didn’t know I needed. Finally, the stalker is being stalked, a victim of his own trade. At the end of episode five, we do find out the identity of the murderer, which is not something I expected to happen. This leaves the future for part two (releasing March 9, 2023) entirely up in the air. Any theories?
Whenever I watch new seasons of shows I love, I get so nervous to watch because I don’t want to be let down. “You” has never let me down. This season we have a love interest who isn’t really a love interest (Kate), and a chance to see how Joe reacts to his own tactics being used against him. What does this mean for Joe? He isn’t actively trying to find love or to fight for love. How will Joe continue with the next part of the season? It seems as though Joe becomes more exhausted each season. Season two he was ready to try with Candace after Beck (of course he didn’t know this was Candace), then again with Love and two more women after that.