‘YOU’: Inside the mind of a psychopath in love
Starring
Penn Badgley, Elizabeth Lail, Luca Padovan, Zach Cherry, Shay Mitchell
Based on: You by Caroline Kepnes
Release: December 26
Not since Kevin Bacon’s The Following
have we seen such an entrancing binge-able psychological thriller. And while we ran along with Bacon to catch the mastermind of the cult in The Following, the creators of ‘YOU’ give viewers a VIP seat in the mind of a psychotic stalker.
Joe Goldberg is mesmerised by a beautiful girl who has walked into the bookstore. He starts observing her, reading her body language, watching which books she picks. When she finally talks to him behind the counter, it’s no doubt that Joe has fallen hard for aspiring writer Guinevere Beck.
As it turns out, her name is all that Joe needs to insert himself into her life. Joe starts following Beck. He watches her from afar and uses social media to learn everything he needs to know about her. Carefully and planned, Joe starts strategically inserting himself into Beck’s life by creating the opportune moments (also known as ‘an amazing coincidence’).
Beck’s complicated relationship with men, her friends and her family, become burdensome to Joe. His goal is to rid Beck of unnecessary complications, so they can find perfection together. To get Beck just for himself, Joe is forced to take some punitive measures.
The ability to hear a psychopath’s reasoning is what pushes this show over the edge. Being with him in every moment in his head, hearing what he believes to be right, almost makes us sympathetic to his cause. Something we don’t want to be in our moral state of mind. Yet somehow, when the psycho gets away with murder, why do we feel a sense of relief for him? Does this mean there is a little psycho in all of us?
The show subliminally questions our stance on the fine line between what we consider affection and infatuation. It exposes our information vulnerability in the technology era. The enchanting effect of the show is its ability to make us question our own behaviours when we fall in love. Perhaps,
after all is said and done, we are all a little psycho in the name of love.
Star rating: 5 stars