Ashtyn Britt
abritt@lc.edu

Everyone hopes to one day find the person of their dreams walking into their lives to give them the grand romantic story that all the books, movies, and songs have been promising us since before we could even understand what love was. However, in the past few years, people have started to look at some so-called “love stories” to point out some toxic behaviors of the love interests we once fantasized about as a child. A new Netflix series, called “You”, takes that commentary to a whole new level and gives us what should have been a romantic comedy that turned quickly into a very realistic horror story.

“You” tells the story of a young bookstore owner in New York City named Joe Goldberg. He is played by “Gossip Girl” actor Penn Badgley. Early in the series he meets and grows obsessed with complicated, young Guinevere Beck, played by Elizabeth Lail. The story  shows all the ways he stalks her and tries to manipulate her into falling in love with him. The entire story is told from Joe’s point of view, giving us his inner monologue. He talks himself into believing he and Guinevere are soul mates as he removes “toxic” people from her life and he even commits acts of violence to keep Beck exactly where he wants her. As he justifies it to himself and convinces himself that this is all going to pay off with their happily ever after, he manages to convince the audience watching a little bit, too! However, everyone knows from the first few minutes in that it will only be a matter of time before all his devious crimes are found out. The question though is… when?

“You” has ten episodes, roughly fifty minutes each, and is easily the most thrilling and captivating anti-love story of the year so far. I highly recommend it to anybody and everybody, and I excitedly wait in anticipation for the second season!