Starring: Penn Badgley, Victoria Pedretti, Shalita Grant, Travis Van Winkle, Scott Speedman, Dylan Arnold, Michaela McManus
After a lackluster second season, YOU returns with a third season which feels more like a retread of a retread with each passing episode. The first season was a fascinating portrait of a man's obsession; a damaged soul who would rather desire than possess the woman who was the apple of his eye. His obsession segues into multiple murders. We heard his thought process and point of view in voiceover narration. Now that season three has come and gone, I almost want to hit the mute button to avoid hearing one more rambling Joe monologue about his latest "you", how much he can't stand Love, and how he will do his damndest not to kill anyone else so he could be a great father.
Love and Joe are now married and living in an idyllic Northern California suburb where the houses must run close to $1 million. It appears Love and Joe can make the mortgage payments with Joe working as a library assistant and Love opening a startup bakery in town. If you consider Love's family money is now gone thanks to bad investments, you wonder how the couple can make ends meet. Joe laments his suburban existence which most people would envy.
Joe's eyes wander to his comely neighbor Natalie (McManus), but Joe balks on carrying on a full-blown affair with her due to a sudden, but brief clash with his conscience. This doesn't prevent Love from taking extreme measures to ensure Natalie won't have contact with her husband again. Joe, feeling a sense of duty to not have Love thrown in prison for the rest of her life, assists in disposing of Natalie and concocting a story to shift blame to her cold husband (Speedman). The Goldbergs strike again.
Other obstacles are thrown in the way, and at least three people find themselves trapped in the plexiglass prison cage which has now grown ridiculously overused. Doesn't anyone notice the Goldbergs dragging knocked out bodies from their car to the basement of Love's bakery? The glass box has lost its shock value, much like YOU itself. With Natalie out of the way, Joe finds another woman to pine for, his boss, who is going through a nasty, bitter custody hearing with her television news reporter ex-husband. However, unlike season one in which we were convinced of Joe's need to possess Beck, this stalking is going through the motions. What Joe does to ensure a life with his latest obsession is scarcely believable. There's no chemistry and Joe himself sounds bored of it all. By this point, so are we.
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