Jillian Kurtz
After the first season of “You” premiered on the Lifetime network on Sept. 9, 2018, the show had “a challenging time cutting through the clutter on Lifetime, drawing only a live viewership of 611,000,” according to Hollywood Reporter. In December 2018, Netflix picked up the series.
“Lifetime had an incredible experience working with Greg Bertlanti, [showrunner] Sera Gamble and the entire team on You for season one,” Lifetime said in a statement. “We wish the cast and crew the best as the series continues on at Netflix and can’t wait for the opportunity to work with the creative team again.”
On Netflix, the show is already marked as a “Netflix Original” and the according to the show’s Instagram, @younetflix, “Season 2 coming soon.”
According to the Netflix UK and Ireland Twitter account, the second season will feature Victoria Pedretti as the main female lead and will play an aspiring chef called “Love Quinn.” There are still some loose strings that will reportedly be back to bite Joe in this upcoming season.
The show is based on the novel by Caroline Kepnes that was released in 2015. The book received praise from critically-acclaimed authors, including Stephen King who called it “hypnotic and scary.”
First Season Review:
*SPOILER ALERT*
The logline on Netflix describes the first season with “Obsessed with an aspiring writer, a brilliant bookstore manager begins quietly and strategically removing all obstacles that keep her from him.”
As an avid Netflixer, I was intrigued when I saw what I would call a romantic-thriller series. During the Pilot episode, it was unsure of what to expect from this show, but it made it easy to get hooked. The main character, Joe, works at a bookstore in New York City and seemed like a genuine nice guy. A young aspiring female writer, Guinevere (Beck) crosses paths with Joe in his bookstore and Joe is hooked on her. At first it just seemed like a normal romantic connection until the attraction became an obsession for Joe. It is revealed in later episodes that Joe had a previous relationship where things did not end well and there was some unfinished business, as revealed in the final episode of the season.
Joe successfully captivates Beck into a relationship, but through all misconstrued ways. After his obsession is secured, he not only finds out her daily routine, but follows her through it. All the while, Joe is playing it off like a normal relationship. He is so determined to have Beck all to himself that he goes as far as killing people to get rid of any obstacle that potentially stands between them. Beck does not catch onto the situation she is in until she finds a box of items that clearly reveals what she hasn’t been catching onto.
As a young female aspiring writer myself, I found this especially unsettling because I felt like I related to Beck in many ways. I feel like when starting a new relationship with someone who you don’t, you really don’t know anything about that person and have no idea what kind of situation you might be getting into. I think this is an important show for people, especially young women to watch because it could give insight into something that could potentially happen to anyone.
Not only did this show creep me out, but it also made me think about how something like this series could actually happen in real life. Throughout flashback scenes of Joe’s childhood, there is a definite correlation between traumatizing events that he experienced as a child tie into the acts that he is doing as an adult. This almost seems like a cry to watch for people who have symptoms of mental health disorders.
There was also talk about how viewers were romanticizing Joe in the series, and the actor took it upon himself to comment on this matter. Many young girls took to Twitter saying how attractive they thought Joe was and seemed blind to the fact that he was not only a stalker, but a murderer.
