If you’ve been on social media lately, you are well aware that the show ‘You’ has been the latest talk and trend. To be honest, when I first heard of what the show was really about, I told myself “NOPE, not watching that.” Mostly because anything remotely creepy I immediately categorize as scary and count myself out. But, the more tweets I read, the more I was drawn in.
‘YOU’ is not your average romantic comedy where everything all comes together in the end. Honestly, not even close. It’s all about a manager at a bookstore, Joe Goldberg, who one can say falls in “love” at first sight with Guinevere Beck, an aspiring writer who is finding herself in the crazy city of New York. Throughout the show, you constantly see Joe’s perspective and how his mind works as he narrates everything he thinks. You follow Joe’s journey as he relentlessly stalks Beck, and the people around her. He calls it love, but who can really consider stalking, manipulation, and constant lying “love”? From the moment he meets Beck at his bookstore, an unhealthy obsession begins. But when I mean unhealthy, I mean in no way shape or form anything he did was even close to legal. To give you a gist of how crazy this show is, here are some parts of the show that made my jaw DROP. *Spoiler Alert Ahead*
Joe kills FOUR people on the show (possibly more)
Joe claims he is not a murderer, we all call BS. Not only does Joe kill Benji (Beck’s somewhat boyfriend), Peach (Beck’s best friend), and Ron (officer boyfriend of Paco’s mother), but he kills Beck–the girl he is foolishly in love with. Ironically as he kills all those people, he says he does it because all he wants is what is best for Beck. Creepy much? As the famous quote goes, “love can make you do crazy things,” and with Joe, that’s pretty much accurate.
Peach Salinger’s obsession with Beck
I don’t think anyone in this show can be considered crazier than Joe, but Peach Salinger (Beck’s best friend) really does come close. Not only did she have hundreds of inappropriate photos of Beck stored in her laptop, set her up to meet well-known agents just to see her fail, and book a trip to Paris for the both of them to move in together, but she pretended to overdose just to get Beck’s attention. Long story short, Peach is in love with Beck and reaches some crazy extremes in hopes for Beck to dump her bookstore boyfriend, and fall into her arms.
Who IS Candace ???
Throughout the show, Joe gets flashbacks of a redhead girl who we find out to be his ex-girlfriend. This is what we know: that’s Joe’s ex, she cheated on him, Joe killed the man she cheated on him with, we got hints that he killed her too, but wait, she’s actually alive?? Yeah, the show’s pretty intense, and this storyline doesn’t even make up ten percent of the show itself. This is what the viewers are hoping to find out more about in the next season, and see how Joe became the freakishly creepy Joe he is.
Overall, each episode definitely has its “OMG” moments. It’s astonishing to see how Joe’s charming outward personality, the one he shares with the world and with Beck, is the absolute opposite of who he really is. As creepy as the show can be, it really is an entertaining and bingeworthy. It can really put things into perspective. We live in a society where everyone’s highlight reels are posted online: what we’re doing, where we are, how we look. People can say we live in a world where privacy is no longer real because nowadays everyone shares every aspect of their lives online. So while watching ‘You’, I guess one can say it’s basically a reality check to make sure if we are on social media, to be aware of who follows us and what we’re posting. No one wants to have Joe Goldberg in their lives.