One Star Classics : You: Season Three

You: Season Three

Oct 27, 2021 / Thriller

Sure, you could watch Midnight Mass with its thoughtful crisis-of-faith storyline, or you could turn off your brain for the third soapier-than-soap season of the Lifetime reject, You. No guessing which one I picked. 1

I may have called last season’s ending preposterous, but it has nothing on the current ten-episode run. We’ve reached the point where the creators have stopped pretending: Season three doubles down on every Lifetime trope with glee I can’t help but admire.

For those in need of a reminder: You debuted on Lifetime, where it promptly got canceled after its first season – apparently, even they found the stalker-turned-killer concept over the top. Netflix, eying an audience it didn’t cater to, picked up the show, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Once again, we follow Joe, a man who stalks anyone he deems to be the love of his life – always referred to as you – and kills those who stand in between them. As it were, ultimately, no you ever reach his dizzying expectations, and so a murderous stalker has to do what a murderous stalker does… The exception: Love – an equally enthusiastic killer with a name you can’t make up – survives by getting pregnant. Here in season three, we follow the couple’s suburban life where, no surprise, history is set to repeat itself.

To repeat: You has settled into what it is without even a hint of apology, and Penn Badgley and Victoria Pedretti chew up the scenery with an appetite rarely seen on screen. Love will murder in desperation to keep the family together; as will Joe, while paradoxically also trying to break up his marriage. You will have its cake and eat it, too, as Joe quickly pursues a new you. Badgley and Pedretti do an admirable job at working with what ostensibly is – by design – garbage.

In all seriousness, bravo to the whole cast: Shalita Grant and Travis Van Winkle deliver over-the-top performances as an influencer/swinger couple, and seeing Scott Speedman bringing his quiet intensiveness is always a treat. The cast takes the material seriously, giving the show a needed oomph to push it beyond the soap it is at its core. It brings the bonkers level to eleven.

You is not a show to watch if you expect any sort of depth, but it is a must-see if you’re craving some well-executed grade A trash. It ends the way it has to end and sets up a season four promising to be even more insane.

1. Of course I also watched Midnight Mass – I pretty much single-handedly created Mike Flanagan’s career after all. ^

By Remi, Oct 27, 2021