By now you have probably heard a lot of things about the newer Netflix series You which stars Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg and Elizabeth Lail as Guinevere Beck. The show follows Joe as he falls in love with Guinevere, or “Beck,” and the steps he takes in order to ensure she never leaves him. Sounds like a traditional romantic comedy, right? No, wrong, completely wrong. While some flashbacks of Joe’s life before Beck are shown, the main storyline revolves how Joe becomes obsessed with Beck and takes violent, threatening, and toxic steps in order to not only earn her love but to keep it. Through kidnapping, torture, and eventually a few counts of murder, Joe tries to keep Beck in his life without also revealing his criminal ways in which he does so. While this is obviously a dramatic story created to keep viewers interested, there is a question of how many shows and movies use this sort of obsessive, possessive relationship as the front of their storyline. Daily Express
Many young adults are used to seeing storylines like this and are seemingly unfazed by it and realize that this is just a show and not an example of how real life should be. Others have taken the role of idolizing and fantasizing about the toxic and detrimental relationship set up by Joe and Beck. Penn Badgley has even expressed his concerns over Twitter on how romanticizing this dangerous love story in the completely wrong thing to do. He explains how the character he plays is the absolute worst kind of person that no one should ever strive to have a relationship with. The torturous, obsessive nature of this seemingly “perfect” relationship is not something that should be confused as love or even strong “caring” for the other person. Instead, the relationship should be a domestic violence situation. Joe is eliminating everything that can come in the path between him and his love for Beck. As these people, events, obstacles, etc. are erased, Beck seemingly falls in love for the person she thinks Joe is, which is a kind person who would never hurt or kill anyone. The truth is that his obsession and his pushing every other thing that he thinks is a threat to their relationship out of the way creates a dangerous situation for Beck. The fact that many people think that this is the perfect relationship, or the ultimate idea of love, is something to say about how we as a society view love; this is mainly due to the influence of social media, other films, and shows we have at our fingertips. With films like this, we may grow up viewing the love of our life as someone we simply can’t, (i.e. without and losing them as being the ultimate pain and hardship in our life) which can often lead to clingy and obsessive relationships. Putting the importance of not being toxic and possessive within relationships but to still share that same love you have for the other person, as exemplified in the shows like You, can be a great way to watch shows in the future.