It has been over 4 years for the reason that addictive tv adaptation of Caroline Kepnes’s You hit the small display screen, and what a wild trip it has been. What began out as commentary on males and the hazards of meet-cutes has turn into a slasher collection stringing audiences alongside one killer’s jarring jamboree. We have adopted anti-hero Joe (Penn Badgley) from New York to Los Angeles and California’s prosperous suburbs in earlier seasons as he strikes from obsession to obsession, remodeling himself every time. Now Season 4 takes us all the best way to London in what’s by far the present’s most bold season but. 

If you happen to do not bear in mind what occurred in You‘s final season, fret not, as a result of it would not actually matter. You Season 4 appears like a very new present with a very new Joe. The season is cut up into two components, with Half 1 introducing us to Joe’s new life in London and the threats looming round him. We rapidly be taught that Joe’s adopted a brand new identification to flee his previous. He is now Professor Jonathan Moore, and he is busy educating an English class at a college and infiltrating London’s wealthiest social circles. 

However Joe’s massive time out along with his new glitzy gang is lower quick once they slowly begin getting murdered by a serial killer dubbed “the eat-the-rich killer.” This mysterious assassin begins concentrating on Joe in a enjoyable flip of occasions the place we lastly see Joe getting a style of his personal stalker-y drugs. From enjoying issues out like a whodunit to giving us a brand new antagonist, You Season 4 Half 1 is completely different, and the true enjoyable of it’s becoming a member of Joe on his first try at fixing a thriller.  

You Season 4 Half 1 is a whodunit that asks you to play alongside. 

Credit score: Netflix

This season of You is basically a recreation of Cluedo. Like Colonel Mustard and Mrs. Peacock, You Season 4 Half 1 introduces us to a forged of characters that match a homicide thriller’s many caricatures and that every one exist as gamers on the killer’s board recreation. 

There’s Woman Phoebe (Tilly Keeper), a wealthy socialite who’s extra like Instagram royalty. There’s Adam (Lukas Gage), her boyfriend with secrets and techniques up his sleeve and an unique nightclub to run. There’s additionally Kate (Charlotte Ritchie), an artwork gallery director with a no-frills angle, and her boyfriend Malcolm (Stephen Hagan), a fellow professor on the identical college as Joe. We can also’t overlook Simon (Aidan Cheng) and Sophie (Niccy Lin), wealthy siblings who show a belief fund should buy each an artwork profession and a social media following. 

If you happen to thought the slew of cartoonish characters ends there, suppose once more, as a result of we even have Gemma (Eve Austin), Roald (Ben Wiggins), Blessing (Ozioma Whenu), and Connie (Dario Coates) as aristocratic archetypes so as to add to the enjoying subject. Shifting amongst all of them is Joe, enjoying the position of primary detective, making an attempt to roll his cube to get simply sufficient strikes to seek out the homicide weapon hiding within the library. What ensues is a whirlwind whodunit that’ll take you throughout London, with clues sprinkled all all through. So should you think about your self an Agatha Christie connoisseur, chances are you’ll catch on to this season’s plot twists should you hold your eyes out. 

This season’s new formulation ultimately turns into tiring. 

Credit score: Netflix

Whereas mysteries are often good enjoyable, Half 1 of You Season 4 begins to tug pretty rapidly as a result of, imagine it or not, Joe is essentially the most likable character this season. Which is fairly awkward! Usually, we might have already wagged our fingers at Joe for killing an ex-boyfriend or stealing somebody’s dental data, however as an alternative Half 1 spends most of its time introducing you to new characters that you do not actually need to get to know. 

Joe’s new crew of nepo-baby socialites are totally boring and so exaggeratedly out-of-touch that it is inconceivable to care that they are being killed off one after the other; on condition that their convoluted monologues concerning the woes of caviar or their faculty years at Oxford earn them extra display screen time than every other characters, it is a downside. The redeeming consider all of this, surprisingly sufficient, is Joe, whose voiceovers this season are hilariously catty and supply the viewers an outlet for our frustrations as he lashes out — internally, a minimum of — towards these totally unlikable characters. Joe’s one-liners, like when he declares he appears like he is in a “West Finish revival of Imply Ladies,” save the present’s pacing but in addition positions Joe as a relatable protagonist when he is notoriously something however. 

This makes You the newest media to wrestle with the thought of ostentatious wealth, with combined outcomes. Whereas we’re not truly imagined to like all these wealthy of us, they’re the goal of this season’s thriller, and the dearth of incentive to empathize with them makes Half 1 a tedious watch. We have seen different whodunits centered round extraordinarily rich characters, like Rian Johnson’s Knives Out and Glass Onion, the place character likability was by no means a difficulty; these characters had been as wildly charismatic (or a minimum of as fascinating) as they had been wealthy. You‘s new forged of characters could also be excellent props for its homicide thriller recreation, however they’re boring and lack the sure callous chaos that makes the style enjoyable. 

You is a good pop-culture time capsule. 

Credit score: Netflix

Regardless of Half 1 ultimately slowing down, it nonetheless maintains You‘s standing as an underrated pop-culture mediator in tv. In previous seasons of You, we have seen the new subjects of that 12 months mirrored onscreen, just like the generational divide between millennials and Gen Z, the myths of suburban “self-made” America, and modern-day New York and Los Angeles of their full social media prime. Season 4 isn’t any anomaly and leans arduous into the zeitgeist’s largest trending subjects: consuming the wealthy, nepo infants, and rolling all of it out as a whodunit (a style we’re more and more seeing the return of). 

Certain, this season hits the nail on its head by calling its antagonist “the eat-the-rich killer,” however it’s nonetheless fascinating to look at the writers sort out that sentiment. Whereas the meta operate of Hollywood criticizing the echelons it concurrently fosters is up for debate, I do not suppose You was ever a present about severe commentary as a lot as it’s only a portrait of the place trendy discourse is at. You‘s at all times been good at bringing your Twitter feed to life, and this season significantly emboldens the voice of the web by its anti-capitalism motif and thru much more campy choices with its soundtrack (a sure Cardi B second may have stans reeling). 

So, quite than treating this season of You as severe commentary or an extension of the previous three seasons, take pleasure in it for the novelty and enjoyable it tries to supply as an alternative. You may rely on some creepy Joe scenes, alongside along with his many sizzling takes towards the world through voiceover, however play together with this season of You just like the Cluedo recreation it intends to be. And with Half 2 dropping in March, there are much more tips up Joe’s sleeve simply ready to unravel. 

You Season 4 Half 1 is streaming on Netflix(Opens in a brand new tab).