YOU

This season of You took a risk by moving its tried-and-true narrative in a new direction – and it works. Season 4 of You is bold and unexpected with twists and turns that are simply wicked. Joe Goldberg has managed to conquer an ever-increasingly challenging feat in Season 4 – he finds a way to shock us once again.

Because for all its wildness, the series remains fascinating not just as a character study, but what this character in particular tells us about our favorite stories, about the way we as a culture look at the line between love and obsession. The final word on that matter doesn’t feel like it’s been written yet.

You Season 4 takes Joe to an unexpected setting and places him in the midst of a murder mystery with a strong new supporting cast, creating an exciting and complex two-part season.

Despite the extremely self-aware shift to this genre (no thanks to Badgley’s staple voiceovers), the essence of what enraptured audiences. It’s just as macabre, sexy, and absurd as ever.

You has always been a series that's terribly addictive to watch but this time round, the classic murder-mystery spin has restored faith in a drama that could have easily continued with many of the seen-before tropes. The result? A season that may very well be more enjoyable than those before it.

The show is and always has been an incredibly well-acted soap, buoyed by Badgley’s excellent lead performance, and its continued commitment to taking things to crazier places than it ever has makes it more than worth your while.

Ritchie is excellent as the cold, biting art dealer – the move away from British sitcoms suits her – while Joe’s uncharacteristic vulnerability gives Badgley’s sinister voice-over a new edge. Both elevate middling material to a level of maturity the story doesn’t always demand, turning what could be one of the most unwatchable series on TV to one of the most gripping.

It becomes clear that both Joe and Kate are beginning to recognize pieces of themselves in one another. It’s in that unexpected connection where some of the season’s most fascinating work lies.

Seeing Joe scrambling and utterly in the dark does make for a nice change of pace after three seasons of watching him direct the lives (and deaths) of so many people. But it also uncomfortably positions him in the role of a victim in ways that the show doesn’t seem particularly eager or capable of looking at too closely.

The show is at its sharpest and best when it gives Joe’s phony attempts at the personal transformation a rest and instead lays bare the injustice, cruelty, and, yes, campiness and dark comedy of the world.

Honestly, You only seems to be having more fun with age and has never been as laugh-out-loud funny as it is in Season 4. Penn Badgley's performance, both on screen and through his spot-on voice-overs, continues to anchor the show.

None of the new cast clears the Shalita Grant bar for “You” ensemble excellence, but there are a few standouts in the parade of sparkly privilege, like Tilly Keeper and Lukas Gage.

The first five episodes are entertaining but mostly serve as an exposition-heavy launchpad for the second half of season four, which arrives on March 9. Hopefully, those last five eps pay off.

Season 4 just doesn't feel quite as sharp as its previous seasons. ... It doesn't help that the "eat the rich" subgenre has been done and redone on TV and film lately, much better than "You" manages here, at least in the first part of the season.

Like its lead character, You is pure trash — but just like Joe, the show is also smart enough to adopt new disguises, letting it continue to thrive. It's fun, throwaway entertainment designed for binging.

His new clique of “aristo-brats” is so toxic, it's hard to care when anyone gets knocked off. Wisely, Netflix is breaking the season into halves, with a midpoint reveal setting up a cool new cat-and-mouse game. Still, I can’t say I’m counting the days until the March 9 return. [13 - 26 Feb 2023, p.6]

You succeeds in giving the audience the shocks and gore that we’ve come to crave, while Badgley is as compellingly sardonic as ever as the sullen leader of this ensemble cast. ... But that’s not enough when so many of the characters feel like ciphers floating around a hilariously unrealistic depiction of London.

It has another go at reinvention by turning itself into a Cluedo-esque Agatha Christie whodunnit, although it is arch enough to feature a discussion about whether or not the whodunnit is the lowest form of literature. It is fun, although it suffers a little under the weight of comparison. ... When it works, it works because Badgley is charismatic and the show is brash enough to drop a decent number of plot twists into every episode.

The way that Joe can turn a corner in east London and suddenly be in Piccadilly will give geographical pedants conniptions. But barbed wit means You gets away with such implausibilities and the odd tasteless flourish. ... I don’t usually agree with the notion of “guilty pleasures” but if they do exist, this ludicrously enjoyable romp is certainly one.