Joe Goldberg’s most prized possession is a box. At first, you might think its contents rather innocent: an old phone here, a photograph there. Then you notice the women’s underwear. The tampon. The teeth. The box is chilling – and so is Joe, the antagonist of Netflix’s hugely popular thriller You. Played by former Gossip Girl pin-up Penn Badgley, Joe is a serial killer-slash-stalker who is just as good at melting hearts as he is at crushing skulls. Sometimes he even puts them into a meat grinder.
Joe’s various stalking crusades have formed the premise of You for three seasons, with Goldberg fixating on different targets each time. Now, a fourth season of the hugely popular series is launching today. You is no doubt engrossing. But as thrilling as it may be to fancy a murderer (most viewers seem to), the show has been repeatedly criticised for romanticising stalking.
