You (Season 2)

Creators: Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble
Starring: Penn Badgley, Victoria Pedretti, Jenna Ortega, James Scully, Ambyr Childers, Carmela Zumbado, Robin Lord Taylor, Chris D'Elia, Charlie Barnett, Melanie Field, Danny Vasquez, Saffron Burrows, Magda Apanowicz, Elizabeth Lail
Original Airdate: 2019

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)
 

If anyone's looking for conclusive proof of Netflix's complete domination over the ailing network and cable TV platforms, go no further than the soapy thriller series You, which in 2018 aired its first season on Lifetime to moderate acclaim but few viewers. The show (loosely based on the novel "Hidden Bodies," by Caroline Kepnes) is narrated by a seemingly mild-mannered New York bookstore manager named Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) who stalks, then eventually dates aspiring writer Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail), revealing himself to be a murdurous psychopath, using social media and technology to control and manipulate every move she makes.

Unlike most Lifetime shows,this really had something on its mind, turning the mirror on its audience and their relationships. If you're not a Joe, there's always that chance you could know one. And despite its flaws, it didn't let either gender off the hook. So how embarrassing must it have been as a network to cancel this series, only to have those very same unwatched episodes become a phenomenon on Netflix and find out the problem wasn't the show, but the thought of having to watch Lifetime. Well, anyone could have told you that.

Wisely, Netflix adopted You and produced a second season, even if the first ended in such a way that you wondered how it could possibly continue. And now that it's here, we find out that it couldn't, or at least not in its previous incarnation. It would have to be something entirely new, which it is, highlighting the stark differences between network and Netflix. Not only does it look better production-wise, it's better written and directed. It's more subversive. And it's funnier. But the biggest plus is a far richer tapestry of supporting characters, each of whom are intriguing enough to carry their own series. If it seems like the show's taking a place within an entirely different universe that's because it is, transplanting Joe into whole new environment and making him squirm, resulting in 10 episodes that really have no business being as ridiculously fun and addictive as they are.

Looking for a fresh start, Joe escapes his past as a bookstore owner in New York City and moves to Los Angeles, attempting to leave his violent tendencies and obsessive behavior back east, most notably his murder of ex-girlfriend, Beck, now a posthumously best-selling author. Assuming the identity of "Will Bettelheim," he gets a job at Anavrin, a trendy, Whole Foods-like grocery store. There he meets Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), an aspiring chef working in the kitchen whose family owns the store and has let her self-destructive twin brother Forty (James Scully), "manage" it while his screenwriting and directing career implodes.

Almost instantly smitten by Love, Joe fights every urge he has to get involved, but it isn't long before he's slipping back into his old patterns, stalking and monitoring her every move. He also attracts the unwanted attention of his new landlord, investigative journalist Delilah (Carmela Zumbado), who's immediately suspicious of his odd behavior, even as he forms a protective bond with her fifteen year old, movie-obsessed sister Ellie (Jenna Ortega). Having grown up without parents, she's been forced to grow up quickly and seems headed for disaster in her new internship with famous stand-up comedian, Henderson (Chris D'Elia). But Joe's biggest problem is the reappearance of his ex-girlfriend Candace (Ambyr Childers), who knows he killed Beck since it's what he tried to do to her. She arrives in L.A. threatening to expose him, while Joe struggles to keep his violent, sociopathic urges under control long enough to build a new life with Love. 

"Psychological thriller" isn't a label anyone would necessarily affix to You's first season, which isn't to say it wasn't highly effective and a huge step up from the myriad of men abusing women programming put forth by Lifetime. Besides the clever commentary on how social media and technology has influenced modern relationships, both its leads were depicted as heavily flawed and prone to some very poor life choices. Except only one was a stalker and murderer and the further showrunnner Sera Gamble got into Joe's head, we realized that nearly all of the efforts bring depth and complexity to the character came from Penn Badgley's performance rather than the writing. Clearly the show's villain, he played Joe with a hero complex, always thinking his actions were just and moral, self-rationalizing to no end.

Dexter at least killed serial killers, walking this tightrope that constantly put his friends and family in danger, before eventually growing into tired trope. Joe has no such "out" so Gamble wisely realized if we want to keep following this guy's story, he'd have to evolve into more than a creepy cyber stalker with an underground bookstore chamber. Transplanting him to L.A.provides that opportunity, with the big difference being that this time Joe really does try to overcome his worst impulses.

A good case could even be made that Joe may not be the most unstable character in a season full of them, spending most of these 10 episodes trying to do the right thing and succeeding maybe about half the time, and with a considerably lower body count than expected. This combined with the sheer hilarity of someone so introverted and straight-laced struggling to fit into an environment of over-the-top, narcissistic Californians creates a more intriguing dynamic this time around, allowing Badgely to do some of his best dramatic and dark, dryly comedic work

For every step Joe takes forward, he seems to take another two or three back. Despite stalking Love, he resists going all in for a relationship out of fear he'll fall back into his old habits. When he steals the real Will Bettelheim's (Robin Lord Taylor) identity and inherits all of his financial problems in the process, he practically goes out of his way to not only spare his life, but befriend him. Or at least as much as you could befriend someone you're holding captive in a storage facility. And much like he befriended young neighbor Paco in season one, he does the same again for Ellie, maintaining his savior complex of "rescuing" underprivileged troubled or neglected kids that remind him of himself.

The continued glimpses into Joe's childhood, this time primarily focusing on his relationship with his mother (Magda Apanowicz), paints an even clearer, but sad and disturbing picture, of how this sociopath came to be. But in his honest attempts to forge a real relationship with Love, he's forced to show some actual patience in dealing with her wildcard, black sheep brother, Forty, who's played with reckless abandon by a series-stealing James Scully. A recovering addict whose filmmaking dreams went awry, much of the season sees Joe trying to manage and contain his mercurial behavior, not mention stopping him from sabotaging his chances with Love. Besides Candace, Forty's Joe's biggest threat, if only due to his manic unpredictability and protectiveness of his sister.

Filling Elizabeth Lail's shoes wasn't going to be easy, as her performance was one of the show's highlights, but as Love, Hilary Duff lookalike Victoria Pendretti manages to put those potential comparisons to bed. She's a completely different character played in a totally unique way, with the actress getting us on her side immediately as we fear whether history will repeat itself as this young widow falls deeper for Joe. She also has a backstory that's as involving and as complicated as his, eventually figuring into the proceedings in a major way. If there's a star-making turn here, it's hers, as Pendretti brings a lot verve to a role that could have easily come off as silly in less capable hands. 

Of course, things will collapse for Joe. That's why we're here. With so many threats and obstacles coming from all angles and Candace looking to pin him to the wall for Beck's murder, it's only a matter of time before Love finds out his big secret. The polarizing twist that occurs in the back half of the season definitely changes the game, with Joe finally meeting his match, though likely not at all how he envisioned. Once the trigger is pulled on this reveal, the narrative does start to lose a little steam, if only because the antipication in getting there will always eclipse the payoff, no matter how big. But it makes sense, and potentially takes the show in a competely new direction for its third season, which was far from a guarantee when this started.

With its setting and criminal twists and turns, this more closely resembles the recently rebooted Veronica Mars on Hulu than anything that's aired on Lifetime. And with a far larger canvas on which to paint, it transcends its cable roots to evolve into a compelling, binge-worthy drama that enhances all that worked about its first season while eliminating a few of the elements that didn't. The reward can be felt in our investment in the show's protagonist, who exits the season as a far more complex and complicated character than before, and yet somehow even more messed up. No longer just a guilty pleasure, You is now simply a blast.