![]() On the other end, highlighting Joe's charms is Gotham highlight Robin Lord Taylor as Will yet another not-quite-innocent bystander who gets locked in Joe's glass cage but develops a strangely sweet bond with his captor.Įnough really cannot be said for Badgley's performance in the lead role, another excellent reprise. As he did in the first season, Badgley has to pull off a series of extraordinary performance feats to make Joe work. Their arc, along with Candace's increased presence, brings in a necessary perspective of abuse survivors that only further highlights Joe's hypocrisy. Other standouts include Carmela Zumbado as Joe's new landlord, a fiery and ferociously charismatic reporter on the hunt for a personal vendetta of justice between her well-paying celebrity scoops Jenna Ortega as her wise-beyond-her-years little sister, who Joe can't help but play parent to with dangerous consequences (a la Paco in Season 1) and Chris D'Elia as a beloved comedian, another supposed nice guy with a heart of gold sheltering dark secrets. Scully's wildcard character goes from grating to gratifying, becoming one of the most satisfying players in the melodramatic meltdown as the season wears on. Unfortunately, the satirical side characters never match the decadent darkness and hilarity of Peach Salinger ( Shay Mitchell's Season 1 scene-stealer), the exception being Forty. ![]() You Season 2 has a whole heck of a lot of fun throwing barbs at Angelino cliches, from the Hollywood-speak and wannabe culture to the omnipresent wellness obsession and vapid consumerism, but it does so with the loving side-eye of a transplant begrudgingly won over by the city's charms. That underneath all the romanticizing, self-righteous internal monologuing, Joe is just a violent and unhinged man who will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. That Joe's enthralling web of lies extended to himself - and to the audience members who kept falling for his guise no matter how many times the mask slipped. ![]() Ultimately, the first season's greatest act was the cruel, if unavoidable, reveal that Beck herself didn't fit his narrative. Played by The Haunting of Hill House breakout Victoria Pedretti, once again excellent, Joe's new paramour is Love Quinn (a bracing name, yes, but it plays surprisingly well in the narration.) Pedretti makes Love a compelling and intoxicating woman a new super sweet fantasy girl for Joe/Will to fixate on and fascinate over, spinning the idealized version of her truth in his head and violently rooting out the pieces of her existence that don't fit his narrative. There, Joe gets a new name (Will), a new life (ok, he's still a bookstore employee, but now it's at a hippie chic LA health store called Anavrin, aka Nirvana spelled backward), and, of course, a new obsession. After his pre-Beck ex Candace ( Ambyr Childers) turns up, very much alive and aware of his crimes, Joe flees for the City of Angeles the perfect hiding spot because it's the last place he wants to be. Returning for its second on its new home at Netflix, You Season 2 picks up where the first season left off and packs up for Los Angeles. Working from Caroline Kepnes' novels, they crafted Beck and Joe's tragic, toxic love story by building the bones of a romantic comedy - and strapping it to a serial killer thriller, speeding towards its inevitable doom. Guided by Badgley's truly excellent performance and the subversive wit of creators Sera Gamble and Greg Berlanti. Joe Goldberg ( Penn Badgley) was obsessed with Beck ( Elizabeth Lail), viewers were obsessed with Joe Goldberg, and in ten tight episodes, we collectively spiraled down a psychosexual rabbit hole. The Lifetime series turned Netflix sensation surprised when it landed on the streaming service after meeting middling success on basic cable and absolutely blew up on streaming, proving its depraved delights were a perfect match for the compulsive catharsis of Netflix's signature binge-viewing format. Attraction and repulsion, desire and disgust, fear and eroticism - the parallel pleasures of toxic romance live on both sides of a razor's edge, and few screen love stories have ever captured the can't-turn-away-from-the-wreckage thrall of seductive obsession like You. It is a long-touted maxim, passed down through generations, that women love bad boys.
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