Synopsis
Season two of You finds Joe Goldberg in Los Angeles, trying to escape his past and forge a new, normal life – new identity and all. He’s on the self-rehabilitation path, trying not to fall into his previous crazy patterns. However, Joe needs more serious and professional help than just his own self-rehabilitation plan. Once he spots pretty girl, Love Quinn, he becomes obsessed… again. If you watched season one, you know how dangerous Joe is once he becomes obsessed with a girl. He’ll do whatever it takes to make sure his relationship with Love Quinn will succeed.
Review
*Warning: Possible spoilers ahead*
“Serves us better to just keep barreling forward and hope the demons can’t keep up, so you might as well be who you are.” – Delilah
The last time I reviewed You was after the season one finale on Lifetime. I used words like “gritty”, “disturbing”, “thrilling” and “sharp” before calling out the glamorization of Joe’s twisted behavior. Since then, You was renewed and canceled by Lifetime – I guess it was too sinister for their network – only to be given new life as an original series on Netflix and boy has it exploded. People couldn’t stop talking about Joe’s disturbing behavior, their love for relatable Beck and producing memes left and right. They became entranced by Joe Goldberg’s wickedness, patiently anticipating his next disturbing conquest. So, when season 2 was finally released in full on December 26th, 2019 on Netflix, you better believe fans flooded to it like hotcakes.
Wanting to avoid any possible disturbed streaming, I waited a couple weeks for the hoopla to die down before watching. Going into season 2, I fully anticipated to be as entranced as I was with season 1. I expected to be on the edge of my seat with every episode, wanting more. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for me this season. While I did basically manage to binge all 10 episodes in one day, I found myself literally falling asleep at times. Maybe the binge factor of not having to patiently wait a week for what happens next is part of the problem, but I was honestly pretty bored with most of the season. There’s a lot of characters with a lot going on, and while they all involve Joe in one way or another, it was too much in my opinion. Joe’s behavior wasn’t as twisted, and most of his actions had good intentions, so that was a plus. He’s still a creeper, though. Then there’s Love Quinn, his love interest. Yes, it’s just as cringeworthy as it comes off as. All he wants is Love’s love – insert eyeroll. Anyways, she seems as harmless and naïve as Beck at first, but of course, she comes with her own problems revolving around her family. By the end of the season, you’ll be missing Beck’s naivete, but finding Joe and Love to be the perfect match.
As far as plot lines go, they weren’t as thrilling or intense as I thought they’d be. I expected the season to primarily revolve around Candace’s quest to ruin Joe for what he did to her. Instead, that seemed to take a backseat for a while as a handful of other story arcs were pushed to the forefront, most of which tried to prove that Joe only has the best intentions and only wants to be loved as much as he loves. There’s nothing wrong with that… so long as there are consequences to his morbid actions. But alas, that doesn’t happen. In fact, *spoiler alert* he’s practically rewarded with everything he’s ever wanted.
The question is, though, will a possible season 3 tempt Joe with a new fate?
Overall grade: C
Stream You on Netflix now!
Featured Image: IMDb
