Joe the heartthrob killer is finally back on Netflix with You Season 4. This time around the man has a new alias, Jonathan, and is starting a new life in London. Although wanting to lie low, he ends up mingling with members of high society. Eventually he ends up being hunted by a mystery killer.
The new season is very different from the typical You, with a genre shift to whodunit murder mystery -- youdunit? -- as well as brand new characters across the board. While the changes seem a bit all over the place, the show still manages to keep audiences entertained.
Please note in this review for Season 4 there will be some spoilers regarding stories from previous seasons.
At the end of Season 3, we saw Joe (Penn Badgley) murdering his serial-killer wife Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), faking his own death and dropping his son off at a neighbour's. He then travelled to London hoping to track down Marienne (Tati Gabrielle). In London, Joe becomes Jonathan and gets a new job as a professor of English literature. He meets new people and makes new friends, among them English high-society types. Things seem to be going well until Jonathan is framed for murder, accused of being the "Eat the Rich" killer.
Part one weaves two or three smaller mysteries within a larger mystery, Jonathan solving puzzles while wondering who can be trusted. So if you're a fan of murder-mystery dramas like The White Lotus (2021), Knives Out (2019) or Murder On The Orient Express (2017), then you'll enjoy the latest You. However, unlike previous seasons Jonathan actually doesn't do much murdering this go-round. Instead, the story focusses on the Eat the Rich killer who's picking off his new circle of friends one by one.
Although Joe assiduously tracks the killer, there isn't much mayhem in part one. Nonetheless, the latest season of You is still rated as adult TV with sexual and violent content -- that is, pretty much everything we've seen in other seasons.
Apart from You's absorbing storyline, I'm sure anyone still watching the show by this point is very much a fan of Badgley and his portrayal of Joe/Jonathan. While I don't have anything against his performance here, I think the writers have made his character a bit confusing for viewers. He's more likable in the new season. You might even find yourself rooting for Jonathan despite his being a serial killer, which is a bit weird. And much like the previous season, much disbelief has to be suspended. Given the amount of damage he causes throughout each season, viewers do wonder how he manages to get away with it. Improbabilities pile up as well. For instance the ease with which he faked his own death, then ditching his son and going off to Europe, somehow landing a job as a literature professor at Oxford. And as Season 4 progresses, likewise improbable is how quickly he enters elite society where basically everyone is royalty except him.
For the past few seasons the show has been about Joe the predator, on the hunt for victims. This time around, he's the one being preyed upon. Although the new storyline provides a change of pace, it seems almost as if the creator wanted to completely forget everything that's ever happened in previous seasons and start anew. But why they'd want to do so is perhaps the real mystery. Yet despite such improbabilities and meandering character traits, You is still fun to watch. You, the viewer, will just have to accept that things have changed, and not necessarily for the better.
- You
- Starring Penn Badgley, Charlotte Ritchie, Tati Gabrielle, Tilly Keeper
- Created by Sera Gamble
- Now streaming on Netflix
