You – Season 1 Review

Hi!

You is a tv show on Netflix and Lifetime (Season 1) starring Penn Badgley. The rest of the shows cast changes depending on which season you are watching, but as this is season 1, it also stars Elizabeth Lail and Shay Mitchell. The series is a psychological thriller centred around a stalker / killer. The series has received strong reviews, but while it aired on Lifetime, its viewership was down, this meant that while the show had been picked up for a season 2 before airing, there was talk of a cancellation, but the show eventually moved to Netflix for its 2nd season and as of yet unreleased 3rd.

Considering the premise of the show, I actually gave it a miss for over a year as I thought it would be poor and just in general not a good way to spend my time when it came to tv. But last Christmas I was bored and there was a second season coming in a couple of days, so I watched the premiere. Then 24 hours later, I had only a couple of episodes left. This show is great for binge watching, its absurdity, how the story plays out and the pilot, oh my god, it was the best pilot I have watched. I was hooked and I couldn’t put the series down, it was like I was watching something terribly morbid but I was unable to look away. Then when the second season came out I finished it in I think 3 days. (I was also not aware at the time of watching there was a book series, if you are interested in that too!) Now let’s get into it;

Acting

I thought the acting by the lead was amazing. The show in its first season is really carried by Penn Badgley and his portrayal. We see multiple sides of Joe (Badgley) and it is thanks to Penns acting that we come to sympathise with him as a character and a person. We care about him and are in a way, rooting for the serial killer throughout all of this. (Which is a bit insane to begin with!) We see the ruthlessness that Penn is able to portray followed swiftly by kindness. When his neighbour is unhinged, Joe attacks him while simultaneously looking after the little boy Paco, this was a great chance to show a range of acting ability and versatility that perhaps few actors have in this modern era. He is menacing, kind, controlling, obsessive and vulnerable, he is someone that flips the narrative that one may have on the notion of stalkers.

Elizabeth Lail was, adequate. There was nothing wrong with her acting but I feel that when she comes to realise who Joe is, it just feels wrong. The horror and fear are not sold to the audience in a way that feels authentic to me. The story she was given to work with was perhaps, under-whelming. At least to the point that what conjures up in your mind regarding potential reality while watching is something may have been more interesting but not necessarily a better fit. We are dealing with a character who could be able to see what is in front of her, but instead, due to wanting to have someone around, does not see it. I don’t think Lail is at fault for this in her portrayal of Beck, but rather the writing, this show was created for you to root for Joe, that is obvious from the narrative standpoint and how Beck only does one voiceover. The show wants you conflicted, and it found a great way to do that, by sacrificing Lail.

Actors Opinion

When the role was offered to Penn, he was originally very unsure about whether or not to take it. He felt that if the show was a love story, what was it trying to tell the audience, feeling that the show was more of a social commentary of how life has become in the age of technology. It was through discussions with Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble that he was convinced to play the character and Penn felt that his apprehension to do so, showed them that he was the best actor for the role. As Penn himself notes, everyone knows that sex and murder sells, but trying to do it in the combination that this show has tried, means it was not always going to be a success and good easily have fallen flat on its face. But that did not come to pass, thankfully.

Societal Influence

The show did not become a hit until it appeared on Netflix (Bit like most shows these days). This resulted in many people beginning to have conversations regarding the romanticising of serial killers. This is something that can be seen clearly in real life killers and fictional ones like Joe. There seems to be something in people that draws them to these type of characters, Netflix themselves are a large culprit of fanning these flames through their continued release of serial killer documentaries.

Following the receipt of tweets from fans glorifying how Joe was acting, Penn spoke of the need to avoid romanticising these kinds of people in our lives. With Lail also needing to comment on it, she expressed that to begin with she was alarmed by how people were reacting to Penns character and how they felt about him, but she came to realise that perhaps it is simply just a way that we are all programmed by watching various media. We want to root for the hero, and we hope that the character we spend the most time with is successful in their endeavours, this has gone on to cause a discussion amongst people about how they consume media.

Ending

The season has a strong ending, while at the time was important as while it had been picked up for a season 2, it was not known if it would air or where. As I have mentioned most of the cast changes from season to season, so we needed to be a situation where that was possible while also giving the audience the potential to say, that was a good story, end of, lets’ move on. That’s not an easy thing for a show to do, they had to close the book on what they had but without giving away the game to everyone around.

We get a nice wrap up the story we have been told for 10 episodes, we have an open door to return too in season 2 (Maybe it wouldn’t have been an acceptable ending, if it didn’t continue, but I think over time it would have been ok). Then perhaps most importantly, given how the season went from episode 1 to episode 10, we saw how Joe reacted to being seen, being seen the same way that he ‘saw’ Beck, the real Joe. His reactions were to be expected, where he got what he desired but was still able to give the girl he ‘loved’ the story that she always wanted.

I know this review is a bit different to some of the others I have posted, that I mainly just because of the scenes in New York and the smaller cast removing the ability to talk about the intricacies of cinematography, colour and that damned box. But I have just re-watched the back half of Season 2 for that review next week. So I will have more to say about that one then.

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Until next time 🙂