The initial set-up of YOU, Lifetime’s new crazy-addicting soapy drama is pretty skeevy. Joe (a perfectly creepy Penn Badgley), a humble bookstore clerk, falls head-over-heels for a customer, Guinevere “Becks” Beck (Elizabeth Lail) after she flirts a bit with him while buying a book. He gets her full name from her credit card (which, he surmises, she uses rather than use the cash on her just so he could look her up online), and proceeds to fall completely down the Google rabbit hole. He searches out where she went to school, what she does for a job, who her friends are, and even where she lives. And begins stalking her around New York City. Only, to Joe this isn’t stalking. Nope, she invited him into her life by giving him her name that day. She wants him to notice her (all her social media is set to public, after all). She wants to be with him. So, he goes about making sure that can happen.
That’s where things get totally crazy. And totally addicting. I will admit to binging the first five episodes of the series made available to critics. Joe is the latest in a line of “antihero” male leads, only this time, we really don’t want to see him win from the get-go. The lengths he goes to simply to get a date with Becks are . . . well, pretty horrific in the grand scheme of things. And the lengths he goes to to keep her? Well, you’ll see just how devious he gets. But he does this all with a “nice guy” belief that he’s saving her from all the bad influences in her life, whether it’s her troublesome fuck-buddy, her vapid friends, or her particularly vindictive best friend (played pitch perfectly by Shay Mitchell). Joe reasons out each of his increasingly unstable choices as being necessary to protect the women he loves (who he’s only known for a few weeks). And we know all this thanks to the show’s judicious use of voice over, letting us get inside Joe’s twisted psyche.
YOU churns through plot quickly and has a soapy quality to its storytelling, like Pretty Little Liars (Mitchell’s previous series) or Lifetime’s last dramatic hit UnReal, only with consistency in characterization and a story that tracks well from start to mid-season. Is it a good show? Not really. But it’s a hell of a fun, twisted ride through the initial five episodes. I suspect that once word gets out on the series, it will become an underground hit for LIfetime (and inspire a million and one thinkpieces on Joe’s actions, and those of Mitchell’s Peach – who has her own laundry list of darker personality traits, which give Mitchell a hell of a lot to play with).
The series is certainly trying to highlight the completely disturbing and destructive actions of Joe for what they are – this isn’t a knight in shining armor saving a princess in distress, as Joe consistently insists throughout his voice overs. But the show still wants to humanize the character more than it probably should. There’s a subplot where he tries to save his young neighbor from living in an abusive household, which, naturally, brings up his own memories of growing up in a similar situation. Does it lead to the audience caring more about this incredibly troubled and entitled man, who thinks Becks needs him to go to extremes to save her from herself? Not particularly. The meat of the series, and it’s most interesting moments, come when Joe and Peach face off against one another, Joe finally finding someone he can’t charm. Most importantly, Joe is faced with someone who reflects back his own interpersonal failings and cannot recognize them within himself. It’s the most human this charming psychopath appears within the series.
And that’s what kept me coming back after each episode: Joe isn’t a good person, but he’s not Hannibal Lector. Joe is presented as your standard every-man in the internet age. This is a guy who likes a girl, and has the ability to manipulate her into falling for him. He’s a dangerous person, but one who sees himself as the good guy in the fairytale. He’s the wolf in sheep’s clothing who genuinely believes himself to be a sheep. It’s incredibly addicting to watch him reason away his actions without truly taking stock of them. He’s repulsive, but fascinating to watch.
The show also takes pains to flesh out Becks, who is far from the fair maiden in the tower, innocent and looking for a savior. She’s your typical twenty-something on the surface, trying to figure out what she wants of out life. She’s consistently choosing the wrong guy (which gives her fun stories to talk about with her aforementioned friends, but which also gives Joe more ammunition to believe he can be the one to “save” her), she doesn’t really know what she wants out of her writing aspirations, and she’s desperately trying to figure out how to make ends meet. Becks has a perfectly curated life online, while internalizing her worries and fears. It’s a complicated character, and Lail makes her relatable and charming. You want this girl to be happy, healthy, and settled. You just don’t want it to be with someone as manipulative as Joe.
But Becks has a habit of being drawn to those who can manipulate her (a theme over the first five episodes is Becks finally confronting those in her life who are clearly trying to get something from her through manipulating her, although Joe isn’t one of those she pegs as a problem), and that penchant allows Joe to worm his way into her life. It’s a great character to put up against Joe. And makes the series all the more interesting to watch.
YOU is crazy, dark, twisted fun. And I’m certainly going to be turning in to the rest of the season to see if Joe gets what’s coming to him- or if this “nice guy” will manage to weasel his way out of each tight spot he finds himself in.
YOU premieres September 9, on Lifetime.
