Stepping away from his DC multiverse for a moment, Greg Berlanti brings us a 21st century take on an tale of obsession and murder that has jumped into the public zeitgeist since it's rebirth on Netflix at the start of 2019.
Joe (Penn Badgley) meets Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail) in his New York bookstore and is immediately smitten. Sensing a connection, he begins to use social media to investigate Beck and soon fuels his growing obsession by switching from cyber stalking to the in person kind. Discovering that Beck is seeing the awful Benjy (Lou Taylor Pucci) Joe decides to take matters into his own hands.
I quite enjoyed the first season of "You". Despite the soapy presentation, it's surprisingly dark and funny, both "American Psycho" and "Dexter" are similarly themed touch points. It works very hard to make you have mixed feelings for Joe whose despicable actions are mitigated (slightly) by the fact that his victims are, to varying degrees, generally pretty awful too. Joe is also charming and witty, and the fact you hear the show almost entirely from his point of view also makes you root for him at times when you occasionally know that you shouldn't. There are a lot of reviews here that are not very complimentary about Beck, most of which I think are pretty harsh. She is perhaps a little too easily led by her friends but she's certainly not deserving of Joe's warped attention.
There is the occasional leap of logic is required to keep the plot going, for example, Beck has a ground floor apartment and appears the be completely oblivious as to what curtains are, those only deepen as the season runs on. So much so I worry about the fact it's running beyond a single series. It reaches what I feel would be a serviceable end point, but then has a last minute mini-twist designed seemingly, for no other reason than to keep the show going.
I feel like I'll be back when season two does arrive, but with expectations a little lowered.