On March 24th, Netflix released the fifth season of You. You is a thriller intended for mature audiences, with the new season premiere having 10 million views. The show is based on the book “You” by Caroline Kepnes. For now, Netflix says this is the final season of the series.
The story revolves around a man named Joe Goldberg, played by Penn Badgley. In each season, he becomes intensely infatuated with different women. The fourth season of You took place in London, where Joe was going by the alias of Jonathan Moore and working as a literature professor. He intended to lie low after he got away with the murder of his first spouse. While in London, Joe gets entangled with a group that takes part in the rich society while trying to solve a murder. At the end of season four, he marries his new love, Kate (Charlotte Ritchie), the daughter of a wealthy CEO, after he discovers that he was dissociating and the cause of all the murders. Kate is able to help him cover up his damage with her wealth, and they move to New York City with Joe’s son from his first marriage to start a new life where they vow to be better.
The newest season starts with focusing on how Kate is dealing with taking over her deceased father’s role. To the public, Joe’s family is seemingly perfect. At first, they are a happy family, but Joe feels useless in Kate’s life as she forbids him from helping her out. She disagrees with his violent methods, and he feels he can’t find a different way to satisfy both of them. Joe then meets a writer, named Bronte (Madeline Brewer), and puts her in charge of the old bookstore he worked at in season one. He tries to stay loyal to his wife Kate, but as time goes on, he finds his time spent with Bronte makes that harder and harder to do. He also wants to stay out of trouble for his family’s sake, but can’t suppress the violent urges he feels.
Penn Badgley’s performance is phenomenal as he seems like the innocent bystander when he needs to be, but can become a terrifying man to watch in just a matter of seconds. Kate becomes easy to root for this season as she is continuously put into terrible situations. She genuinely seems to care for Joe’s son, and in doing the right thing, which was a good contrast to Joe’s character.
Joe becoming obsessed with Bronte this season made sense in concept. She was essentially supposed to be like a younger version of his love interest, Beck, from season one, but in my opinion, her dialogue tried to lean into the younger aspect too much. Most of her dialogue came off as cheesy, with cliche lines and too much slang that made the conversations between her and Joe feel unnatural.
The best part of this season for me was that the pacing is fast, not lingering on one of Joe’s problems too long before introducing another. Joe has been able to get away with all his previous crimes, but the show keeps you wondering whether this will be the season where all his wrongdoings catch up to him. You season five is thrilling without being too scary, making a good watch for when you are looking for a complex story. It raises the question whether Joe is wrong for his actions or not, and although the show has its faults, but the plot is dynamic and interesting.