The first season of the psychological thriller “You” was released in September 2018. The premiere was held on the Lifetime channel, which, as it turned out, was not the best place for the premiere.
The project did not find success at the source, and was bought out by Netflix, where it was extended for the second season. At the moment, the series counts 1 season (10 episodes) and 72% of those satisfied out of 100% on the official Netflix website.
Plot
The beginning of the first series introduces us to two main characters – the mysterious employee of book Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), and his client, a novice writer Beck (Elizabeth Lail). Between the young people a spark slips.
After their brief meeting, Joe decides to learn more about Beck. With the girl’s name on hand, he easily finds her profile and home address. And if the profile search situation is common enough. Well, who wasn’t looking for a girl or boyfriend they liked? Then his further actions, including finding the address and tracking the main character, cause genuine confusion.
Heroes
The role of a novice writer performed by Elizabeth Lail, best known for the role of Princess Annа in “Once Upon a Time”. Her Guinevere Beck – a young and pretty student, smart enough and talented enough to know the price, but not enough to stop communicating with inappropriate friends and boyfriends. Her life – a series of small trials, which, to achieve success, the girl had to cope alone. The fateful meeting with Joe changes that point fundamentally.
The role of Joe Goldberg was played by Penn Badgley. Let’s be honest, his hero is a real jewel in this project. He is a head-button maniac, with an obvious split personality, whose thoughts we can hear. The interesting thing is that the reception with the voice-over gives us an opportunity to look at the situation from Joe himself. And it works. So don’t be surprised when after two episodes you start to empathize with him.
Secondary characters
Although most of the screen time went to the development of Joe and Beck’s relationship, minor characters such as Beck Peach Salinger’s friend (Shay Mitchell) and neighbor Joe Paco (Luca Padovan) also deserve a little attention. The first one is interesting because like the main character, it has several skeletons in the closet. Well, little Paco is the only character to whom Joe doesn’t want anything wrong even in his thoughts.
Visual and atmosphere
If you like soap operas in the same color scheme, “You” will not disappoint you. The picture is nice and of high quality. And some frames are reminiscent of photos in Instagram every now and then. Taking into account the importance of the role assigned to this network, it makes no sense to deny that it was intended to be so.
If we talk about the atmosphere, here it is almost inextricably linked to the visual component. Muffled warm undertones are present in all frames, as well as a muted sense of danger and madness, of course, coming from the main character.
Central idea
Despite the rather rustling thriller wrapper, the show is not greedy for food for thought. So let’s highlight two of what we think are the key thoughts:
1. The influence and possibilities of social networks are endless. If a person is not there, he is invisible. If there is, it is easy prey.
2. In order to become a maniac in today’s world, you only need two things: the phone and the Internet. In order to hide a crime you need two things: the phone and the Internet.
Final result
If you like quality thrillers, you’ll have a “You” to suit your taste. Unusual and not quite pleasant characters – here too. Squinting like the wind in the corners, the point is, too. The only downside to which you can nag from time to time – the hyperbolized impunity of the main character. On which the second season is likely to be built.
Good luck with that.
