Succinct Cinema: YOU
Issue 3
I was very reluctant to begin watching the Netflix series You (2018-2025). This spring, the fifth and final season of the series was spectacularly put to rest. The serial-killer centric series is one of the most challenging shows I have ever watched. I grew up with Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Copycat (1995) where the plot was often about the pursuit and arrest or even execution of predatory men. But over the years, entering the mind of a serial killer has gone far beyond psychological profilers hunting a murderer to spending hours, weeks and even years in the mind of a charming killer living with little to no consequences until they put the viewer out of their misery. Although this has become popular with Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022) and was smartly handled with the popular Showtime series Dexter (2006-2013), I wonder if there is too much of a “good” thing when it comes to programming about these characters. Or that perhaps America no longer believes in interrogating nefarious forces, but in simply exploiting them for entertainment value? But You gave me a new perspective.
You stars Gossip Girl (2007-2012) alum Penn Padgley as Joe Golberg, a mostly New York City (NYC) based serial killer with a jones for classic literature. The hit show, based on a book of the same name beginning on Lifetime in 2018 before hopping to Netflix for season two, is co-created by Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble. Berlanti brings his years of executive producing experience to bear with TV shows like Arrow, Blindspot, The Flash, Black Lighting, and Riverdale for a show that came out swinging from day one. You is under the sharp direction of showrunner/head writer Sera Gamble who we can credit as executive producer of interesting television such as Supernatural, Aquarius, The Magicians and Apple TV’s eccentric hit dramedy Physical. All this to say that You is a very well made production from set design to casting to its smart writing.
Joe meets his first on-screen victim in season one in a classic rom-com “meet-cute” kind of way that sets the stage for Gamble’s five season exploration of psychopathy, sociopathy, love addiction, patriarchy, celebrity culture, white male privilege and our collectively perverse interest in the minds of dangerous men. Joe Goldberg is like a more charming version of Billy Crystal’s character in When Harry Met Sally (1989) and it’s disturbing. In a 2020 conversation alongside Badgley at the 92nd Street Y in NYC, Gamble says, in response to the question of whether the Me Too movement inspired her, that her interest in telling this story began before the popular wave swept through entertainment in 2017. Gamble affirms her interest in the same themes of sexual predation, but she posits, “What does [our media and patriarchy] do to men? What messages are we feeding our little boys? And what’s the worst case scenario of that?”
Also, Badgley, to his credit, has a very sophisticated and intentional understanding of the series as an examination of all the aforementioned themes or dimensions of a distorted masculinity. As an actor, he is willing to portray a twisted man who rationalizes his actions to such an extent that the viewer might even sympathize—but little do you know that bad guys like Joe never become good, try as they might. The series is a hell of an experience! The women cast alongside Joe are also incredibly compelling because they are smart, independent and talented as showcased by actors Elizabeth Lail, Victoria Pedretti, Tati Gabrielle, Charlotte Ritchie, Anna Camp and Madeline Brewer. These women expose Joe the killer—and perhaps male predation—as a desire to consume amazing women’s vitality. Despite my reluctance to watch You, after all five seasons one may discover that You has a lot more to say about us as a society than the murderer at its center.