You Review: Solid Binge Watching Entertainment

Penn Badgley trades the swanky universe of Gossip Girl to satisfy his unhealthy phantasmagoric drives in You, a TV show adapted from the novel written by Caroline Kepnes in which a New-York bookstore manager becomes obsessed by a young aspiring author, Beck (Elizabeth Lail), who had the misfortune of pushing the door of his shop.

Driven with care and passion by Sera Gamble (Supernatural, The Magicians) and Greg Berlanti (Titans, Riverdale), two regulars of the television world, the show that has already been broadcast on Lifetime will land on the Netflix platform the 26th of December.

Our gateway to this psychological thriller is none other than Penn Badgley, under the skin of Joe, a bookshop manager haunted by a troubled childhood. As a voice-over and main character, Joe takes us in his neurotic and psychotic delirium which ultimate goal is to possess Beck heart and soul, a young nymphomaniac woman. Persuaded that they are made for each other, Joe keeps nourishing his perverse obsession through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or while roaring down the streets of New York to spy on Beck or to break into her place. A tortuous path that will push him to commit irreparable acts for his ladylove.

What happens when prince charming is not as angelic as he suggests ?

Introduced as a phenomenal series, You loudly questions the limits of love and those thoughtless actions undertaken in the name of Cupid, while bringing to the fore a case of obsessional neurosis. Joe is convinced that he is a “good guy”, at least that what he keeps repeating. After all, his actions as a whole are justified for the sake of Beck, he only wishes to protect her from her friends and her family as well as to guide her on her writing career. However, he is not aware that the main threat for Beck is none other than himself, and that, the viewer is well aware of it. It is by adopting the perception of a man like Joe, who persuades himself that he is acting correctly, that You is successful and improvises itself bearer of fondamental feminist messages.

Through this prism, the show also tackles about the weapons of mass manipulation that social networks can become into wrong hands, on make-believes conveyed throughout the web and biased relations via a screen. In other words, the topics raised are fresh, fully rooted in our time and exposed with intelligence.

However, even if the recipe works during a few episodes, the concept quickly bits its own tail : the suspens disappears to make room for boredom and becomes a roller-coaster ride before ending in a quite unexpected and intriguing finale.

In terms of casting, it’s very pleasant to discover Penn Badgley in a completely different range of emotions, in a much more developed and detailed role than the one he played in Gossip Girl. Facing him, Elizabeth Lail, seen in Once Upon a Time, brings a perfect balance to this unashamed duo.

As a whole, You is a suitable entertainment to binge-watch in order not to get weary between two episodes. If we can notice a huge slowdown along the way, the bias and perspective taken to describe this subversive relation between to young people make the show You worth of interest. A season 2 that will focus on the end of the book has already been purchased for next year, we can only hope that the scenarists will fill up the voids of this first season.

Elodie Cure is a Contributor to ComiConverse. Follow her on Twitter @Elodie_Cure.