What to Watch: YOU Season 2

by Mike Lunsford, Editor-In-Chief Great Geek Refuge (click here for Mike’s review of season 1)

Season 1 of You snuck up on me. I did not expect it to be as good as it was. What made it even more enjoyable was that both my wife and I liked it…as much as people can enjoy a show about a stalker who manipulates a girl to fall in love with them then murders her. Yes, the lead of the series is a murderer, but there’s something about him that is still charming and likable. That’s the trick with this show: you know what Joe is, you know what he’s done, but you somehow still root for him. In this article, I will tackle those issues as well as discuss how You Season 2 is in comparison to its first season. And fret not readers, this review is spoiler-free!

In short, You Season 2 is equally as binge-able as the first season. While it is not as shocking and surprising as its premiere season, it’s darker and more thought-provoking. The series is based on Caroline Kepnes sequel to her novel You titled Hidden Bodies.  Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley, Gossip Girl) has left New York City after his first love, Candace (Ambyr Childers, Ray Donovan) reappears after Joe assumed she was dead (and the audience as well). After showing up at his bookstore, she lays out her plan to expose him for the murder of Beck and his abuse of her during their relationship. Before Candace can enact her plan, Joe escapes and makes his way to Los Angeles. What ever will he do? His whole life was in New York!

As showcased in season 1, Joe Goldberg is no slouch, though. This new life he has to create is well within his almost Superman-like list of abilities and skills. Need to come up with a new identity? No worries, he’s got that by stealing a clean identity and going by Will. Need to build another one of those bulletproof, airtight book-repair boxes/prison cells? Done, in fact he uses it to keep the original Will captive until they can work out a way to let him go (Robin Lord Taylor, Gotham). And ultimately we wonder, why Los Angeles? This doesn’t fit with who Joe is. He makes that clear that it is not…but it’s also the last place Candace will look for him. He manages to find an apartment, a new youngster to befriend named Ellie and a new job! He’s running the book section (shocker, right) of a very chic LA health store/grocery called Anavrin. Yes, that’s Nirvana spelled backwards which is so L.A. it makes me want to Instagram about it while drinking kombucha and talking about the best taco trucks.

While working his first shift at the Anavrin grocery store/bookstore/haircare/notary’s office, Joe/Will is smitten with a young lady who is shopping in the produce section. Uh oh, we’ve seen this song and dance before.

Before we get into more of the season 2 plot, I want to address the “stanning” that is going on with Penn Badgley’s Joe Goldberg. Women LOVE Joe. It’s gotten so bad that on twitter, Penn has had to tell women how awful his character is and that people shouldn’t be pining over him. And of course, that’s only making him more attractive to the Twitter “stans” of Joe.

This series is about a murderer who managed to get away with it, multiple times. In the first season, he killed Elijah, Benji, Peach, Ron and then eventually Beck. He ended up pinning Beck’s murder on Uncle Jesse, crap, I mean Doctor Nicky. Joe Goldberg is not a dark, brooding, handsome dude who just happened to get tangled in some misunderstandings and unfortunate circumstances. He’s not a bad boy with a heart of gold. HE. IS. A. KILLER. And his bad habits are rearing their ugly head again with his new life in Los Angeles.

Side note: I’ve read many reviews of this series where writers have called Joe a serial killer. That is so grossly incorrect. Serial implies organized, planned out. Joe is a convenience killer, someone who murders those who stand in his way or threaten to expose him. They are not the same thing. Back to my point…

Joe is not a hero. He is the protagonist of the story in that the series revolves around him and his life, but a few cutesy moments, romantic scenes and him being handsome does NOT wipe away the stain that is the psychosis he possesses. He fights with this, you see him struggle with just wanting to love someone, to have children, “settle down” but this isn’t something he deserves. In fact, Penn Badgley has some really poignant words in regards to who Joe really is.

“I think the logline on Lifetime is ‘how far are you willing to go for love?’ But I was always like no, that’s not what that is, To me, it’s ‘how far are we willing to go to forgive an evil white man?”

“In this different context, somehow people find that it has much more depth, and they find it much more roguish and charming, and it’s like ‘yeah well it’s just because I’m killing people in the next scene,'” Badgley said. “And there’s something about that. Like maybe we’re not evolved enough yet to not be attracted to? This is the evil white man thing. You know as much as we’re progressing… the cultural norms we’re still all indoctrinated by incline us to forgive a certain type of person, namely someone who looks like myself, less so than someone who looks like you… and we keep doing backflips to figure out how we’re going to forgive him.”

Damn, Penn. I want Joe to be redeemable. I want those murders in New York to stay in the past. I want him to find happiness because for some reason, I feel he deserves it. I’ve had moments like this in my past where I really loved someone and they hurt me or broke my heart, too. The fact that the series is narrated by him so we get an insight into his thoughts and feelings is a key contributor to this sympathetic outpouring. Most people can identify with the feelings that he’s going through about love and heartache. In the end, we all want to see Ebenezer Scrooge be redeemed. We want Darth Vader to turn back to the good side. We want Joe to stop being a murdering bastard who gets away with it because of his wits and charm. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, THE POLICE LET HIM GO IN SEASON 1 AND HE HAD MURDER WEAPONS ON HIM! So maybe, that “forgive an evil white man because he looks like me,” thing worked in the story…art imitates life after all.

We all love a good redemption story. But here’s the thing: murder is not something that just “gets forgiven.” That’s the difference. If Darth Vader had survived that final fight on the Death Star after killing the Emperor and showed up at the Rebel celebration with the Ewoks, you think they’re going to just embrace him? HE WAS A MASS MURDERER. He tortured his daughter, tortured Han Solo, killed thousands of Rebel soldiers. Justice would be doled out. You don’t just get to walk away from a life of murder with no consequences. Do I want to forgive Joe and hope he has a good life going forward because I want to “forgive the evil white man because he looks like me?” While that may be true for some, it is definitely not my reasoning.

In my mind this desire for a peaceful, happy resolution is more about wanting to see this broken character find a way to become whole. In the end, those murders do need to be atoned for. I think the other side of wanting to see him succeed is the narrative aspect of it all: people like stories that have a conclusion. Whether Joe ends up in prison, laying dead after a potential victim stops him or he ends up happy on a beach sipping a tropical drink, we as the audience just want a satisfying story that makes sense. A good villain seems unbeatable, but when they finally do slip up or lose, that sometimes is just as satisfying as them getting away with it.

If you’re looking for the answer to “why do we love Joe Goldberg the murderer so much?” it’s because of Penn Badgley. Not only are his performances with the rest of the cast of You fantastic, he’s also narrating the story, which adds an additional heavy workload. His voice performances are the backbone of what makes Joe so charismatic. We get to see through his own words and thoughts that he’s not some mindless, soulless monster. Much like Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter or Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Joe Goldberg is another in a list of villains who are so well played and performed that we as the audience find ourselves liking them, almost rooting for them in a way. There’s a certain charm in these characters, but that is also what makes them so dangerous in the first place. Badgley performs this perfectly. He can go from charming to frightening in a split second.

Alright…back to the review.

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Coming into season 2, we see Joe/Will meet this lovely woman in Anavrin named Love (Victoria Pedretti, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood). He starts down that obsessive path again but catches himself. He catches himself in these dangerous thoughts and you are almost proud of him. Yes, proud of the murderer. I’ll own it. What transpires is another love story of two people finding each other and it’s sweet and adorable…until it’s revealed that Joe/Will stalked his way into knowing about Love. He’s no different than he was in New York. He’s the exact same dude he’s always been, and Love is falling for it completely.

Don’t cook for him! RUN GIRL, RUN!

This season felt reminiscent of the first, with characters being plugged in to fill the roles of archetypes from season 1. Instead of Paco, the lovable youngster who Joe tries to protect, it’s Ellie (Jenna Ortega, Stuck in the Middle), the little sister of his new landlord, part-time investigative journalist Delilah (Carmela Zumbado, Need for Speed). Instead of the pain-in-the-ass best friend Peach, this time we have Love’s twin brother Forty (James Scully, Heathers series). Yes that’s his real name. His white-bread, L.A. parents named their children Forty & Love. Another perfectly written Hollywood moment. On top of that, Forty is what anyone who has never been to/lived in L.A. thinks L.A. people are like: Hollywood-speak, obsession with image, “clean living” and being shills for any branded product. They do a great job with his character as he goes from annoying to lovable in the end, though. Without spoiling it, there’s an incredible episode involving him, Joe, Ellie and LSD…I’ll leave it at that.

However familiar it may seem, the key word is reminiscent, not derivative. Season 2 takes this story to some completely different places. We also get Hollywood “good guy” Henderson (Chris D’Elia, Whitney) who has a heart of gold…but it masks some pretty nasty habits. Top it off with back-from-the-dead Beck v1.0 Candace and we get a packed season that has upped the stakes and keeps up a break-neck pace throughout all 10 episodes. And it feels like a Hollywood story, just like season 1 felt a New York one. The city becomes a part of the story, not just a setting.

All of these characters really showcase how truly hypocritical Joe/Will is in trying to convince the viewer, and honestly himself, that he’s a good guy. But, as the series begins with “Will’s” interview for the job at Anavrin where he discusses Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment shows, this season is about his crimes and his punishment. He sees the ghost of Beck when he’s at his most vulnerable proving that he cannot escape what he did to her, and Candace is just a corporeal version of that reminder. You cant’ run from your past.

You Season 2 has some incredible performances but also the writing is top notch. This season has its typical plot reveals that you see coming, but there are some that are quite shocking. When it comes to Joe getting the punishment he deserves at the end of the season, the show takes a unique twist that is both satisfying and impressive. The reveals and surprises from season 1 may have been more shocking, but season 2 was more dark and twisted. In fact, it fits perfectly with both sides of the coin: does this charming, handsome, abusive, murderous bastard deserve love and happiness or does he deserve punishment and imprisonment for his crimes? This season answers both of those questions in a way I didn’t see coming.

I give You Season 2 on Netflix a 7.5 out of 10. I didn’t think a series could hook me like the first season did, but I’ll be damned if season 2 didn’t accomplish the same feat in a very natural, fitting way. It wasn’t like action flicks where they up the stakes and explosions, the differences with season 2 were organic and at times shocking. I’m all in for season 3.