An interesting twist on the serial killer story since technically it’s about a stalker who accidentally keeps killing people, “You” features extremely dark humor, a likeable murdering protagonist, and a fair amount of introspection about the societal and systemic ways Joe’s crimes go unnoticed. As in the surprisingly progressive leaning “Dahmer,” we watch a good-looking white guy get away with, literally, murder.
But it’s not all preachy. More than anything else, “You” is funny. And while the humor of “Dahmer” seems to exist mostly to balance out the horrors, the humor of “You” is its main attraction, especially after the first season. Penn Badgley’s raucous performance of Joe, a stalker with a head injury, is a turning point early on, and later seasons seem almost predicated on the idea of impairing Joe in similar ways as often as possible. That’s not the only funny element of “You,” but it’s something you may not expect going in.
Seasons 2 and 3 offer up a twist, in that the predator becomes prey in a surprising way, but even that twist is secondary to the knowing, arch humor of a show that gives us the pompous monologues of an obsessive narcissist only to let the air out of his tires in ever newer and more hilarious ways. Whether it’s a dark sexy thriller, a comedy of errors, or even a meditation on love itself, “You” is a raunchy pleasure.
