YOU

Scary and soapy and funny and tense, YOU is a lot like social media itself: perhaps not the most edifying way to spend your time, but very, very hard to quit.

A comedy-thriller with a serrated edge, You is a scary, delicious snack of a show, a bit like “Dexter” crossed with “Younger.”

Creepy, addictive and full of dry humor about social media, millennials and dating in the age of Tinder.

You is a vicious thrill; smart and mean in all the right ways, with a devilish sensibility and a clever, inviting pessimism, like the friend who wants you to sit in the back with her and make jokes.

An enjoyably unnerving 10-episode tale of meet-cute millennials. ... There’s truly nothing new to report here as far as premises go, but You unfolds with the sort of momentum, chemistry and solid structure that other new TV shows would do well to study.

Once you get deep into the premiere, which with its incessant voiceovers plays more like a talking Viewmaster reel than an hour of television, you may find yourself hooked--and recognize some wry observations about human behavior at the root of this thriller.

At times creepy, often absurd, it's not necessarily the show for the #MeToo era, but it's certainly a good reminder to go change all your web passwords.

It’s been a while since basic cable has delivered a guilty pleasure as enticing and entertaining as Lifetime’s stalker drama You.

The series' biggest weakness: Often it takes the safest, most predictable option in crafting its narrative, sometimes veering into the cliche. But You is still reasonably captivating, right from its demented beginning, and cliffhanger endings make it an ideal binge-watch. The series really hits its stride in Episode 4.

Joe's warped wit, honed by Badgley's sensitive-guy panache, sets You apart from Lifetime's woman-in-peril formula. [17-30 Sep 2018, p.25]

You may not be great. It may at times even be bad. ... But it is undeniably magnetic. It’s fast and fearless, and its plot dodges and weaves in a way that suggests the death knell of an exhausted premise looms large on the horizon. In the meantime, though, You is running for its life, sprinting through story and sense as fast as it can before it either exhausts itself or gets clobbered over the head with a conveniently placed rock.

An extremely watchable stalker drama. ... The breathless pacing of You is what could well make it a juicy guilty pleasure for many viewers, but it falls short of the kind of thoughtfulness that could have made it special.

You has sharp ideas, if sometimes expressed with thudding lack of subtlety, about social media; it has an interesting premise; it gets the hip-young-literary-Manhattan setting as satisfyingly almost-right as did “Gossip Girl,” in the manner where its departures from reality end up feeling refreshing and fun. But it doesn’t quite have the courage of its convictions.

YOU has an intriguing premise, though it will certainly not be everyone’s cup of tea. Through five episodes, though, it’s a slick ride so far.