‘You’ S4 Part 1 Review: Anti-Climactic Storytelling Makes This Potential Thriller Fall Flat!
We demand that this season be remade!
When I saw You season one, I was shocked, impressed, and amazed at how well this psychological thriller was executed. From the air-tight plot to the crisp performances by everyone, everything in the show was brilliant. Even as You progressed into seasons two and three, the thrill of wanting to know who Joe Goldberg kills next and with what motive, kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. So, imagine my disappointment when I saw all this fall flat in the latest season of You. Created by Sera Gamble and Greg Berlanti, and based on Caroline Kepnes’ novel, You season four part 1 changed the course of the base plotline with a highly unsatisfactory one.
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You season four’s plot
You season four part one follows what happens in Joe Goldberg’s life in London after he killed Love in season three, and left his son in Dante, the librarian’s care. He was actually shown to be in France after escaping Madre Linda to follow Marienne. But when he sees how much Marienne fears him, he decides he will prove to her that he is a good man, and he did what he did to protect himself.
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So, he returns to London, where he is conveniently handed a fake passport, a fake identity, and a work visa by a hitman who was sent by his late wife, Love Quinn’s father. I knew right at this moment that the show is going to go downhill because of how easily he got access to live in the city without having to fight or kill someone for it as he had to in season two by stealing Will’s identity.
He gets a job at a University as a literature professor in London and he takes on the name Jonathan Moore. Joe who hates the rich and their typical first-world behaviour is sucked into the world of the English elites after he saves Kate, his friend Malcolm’s partner from a mugging. And after a wild night of partying, and too many shots of absinthe, when Joe returns home, he finds a body on his kitchen table whom he did not kill, of course.
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Joe AKA Jonathan has to take care of the body or else the victim’s friends would inform the police of their friend’s disappearance and things would not look nice if the police came to know that Joe was the last person to see the victim alive. So, the body is disposed, and all’s well until it isn’t. Joe, who is always the hunter in these kinds of games, became the hunted when someone anonymously texts to tell him that they know him and his bloody past. They keep murdering people and make Joe keep taking care of it all.
Ideally, things should take an interesting turn hereon. But it all keeps going downhill because, for some Godforsaken reason, Joe wants to keep hanging out with the elites while cursing them internally. On one hand, he keeps saying that he wants to lead a simple life and does not want to get caught up in drama anymore, and on the other, he keeps accepting invites to hang out with those he hates the most.
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Now, Joe is already neck-deep into the rich peep’s lives while at the same time, he has to figure out who among them is blackmailing him with things of his past. Joe Goldberg suddenly starts assuming the role of a knight in shining armour for Kate as well, (yes, the same one whom he saved from getting mugged) and wants to protect her because he thinks she might be in danger. Again, he’s thinking with his dick and not his brain!
When you will see who was blackmailing Joe at the end of You season four part one, you will realise that their motive was so utterly crap that it does not fit the MO of the show. There was no point in turning this season into a whodunit because that is not what the show’s baseline is. We’re used to knowing who’s committed the murder, and we’re interested in knowing the motive behind it.
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There’s a scene when Joe is held accountable by the rich for all the murders that are taking place and he is asked to run so that one of them can hunt him down, literally. So, Joe, who is always the smart one making smart choices, decided to run into the woods unarmed instead of running to Kate for help who had a considerable hold on the group and could shut this nonsense down. Things were functioning a little too much on fluke and coincidence in this season which we, You fans, are not used to because we need reasoning for everything.
You season 4 part one’s cast
No one was convincing with their performances in the latest season. Not even Joe Goldberg AKA Penn Badgely could hold the fort this time because he kept making all the wrong choices for the wrong person, and it was not justified either. It was Love and Joe’s chemistry and unmatched partnership that kept the previous seasons floating. The characters in the new season were not relatable at all. Being filthy rich, all they did was party, drink and do drugs all the time. And every time there was a murder, they acted like its the most natural thing in the world to happen. There were no consequences to anyone’s death.
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You know, there was curiosity on Joe’s face every time he met a new person. In this season, Joe looked tired and exhausted. Like even Penn was done with it and wanted to wrap it up. For a person whose dark past was discovered by their enemy, and if it got out, all hell would break loose. Joe was handling this rather too casually.
Also read: Farzi Review: Oscillates Between Thrills And Lulls, But Vijay Sethupathi Is The Real MVP!
Dividing the new season into two parts was also not a good idea because there is no curiosity left to know what Joe does ahead it is not him who’s actually doing anything here. He’s innocent. But we don’t want innocent. We are not used to an innocent Joe. The new season was neither gory enough nor interesting enough.
Let’s see what part 2 has in store for us. You season 4 part 2 drops on Netflix on March 9, 2023.
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