Seasons Ranking: “You”

You is an addicting show about Joe Golderg (Penn Badgley), as he travels the world looking for love and committing murder along the way. Like with any show, it has its ups and downs. This list ranks all the seasons of the show up through the most current season and is organized from BEST to WORST season.

**Spoiler Warning: This post contains plot details and twists for all current seasons of the show **

Penn Badley and Elizabeth Lial as Joe & Beck in You

Season 1

Overall Premise: Season 1 introduces us to Joe Goldberg, a bookstore manager, as he begins a “relationship” with Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail), an aspiring author with questionable life choices. 

Best Part: Season 1 does an excellent job of setting up the mystique of Joe Goldberg. He is unassuming, attractive, and seemingly the “nice guy”. However, once the audience hears his internal monologue, it quickly becomes clear, he is the opposite of a “nice guy”. 

Worst Part: Honestly, a solid first season. Every detail is paid off, the acting is solid, and any “weaknesses” do serve the overall story, as they typically nod to Joe’s unstable nature. 

Best Twist: Throughout the season, Joe’s ex-girlfriend Candace (Ambyr Childers) had been repeatedly mentioned, but made clear through Joe’s internal monologue that she was very much dead. Having her return in the last two minutes of the season was perfect, as it was jarring for the audience, and had them hooked for season 2, as everyone wanted to know how she could still be alive when we were clearly told, by Joe himself, that Joe killed her. 

Penn Badley & Charlotte Ritchie as Joe and Kate in You

Season 4

Overall Premise: Season 4 finds Joe in England as he, again, attempts to leave the past behind him. He does find a new woman to obsess over, but he is quickly distracted by his own stalker who is determined to show Joe what kind of man he really is.

Best Part: Throughout the series, Joe is constantly doing internal monologues while the action of the scene is still happening. The audience quickly accepts this and does not take into account that other characters are still acting while Joe is talking to himself. The Brits have no such patience for this. Every time Joe shares a scene with another character and starts the internal monologue, the other characters are quick to point out the fact he is just sitting there silently while they wait for a response. While this may become annoying, the show makes the gag last from the first to last episode. 

Worst Part: While in each season there is plenty of sex and violence, the show never gave much gratuitous or crude nudity. This season decides to take the plunge and add it to several scenes over the course of the season. While some may like that they made the show a little racier, it did not have that effect on this viewer. The nudity added an element that was not necessary for the show. The series already has plenty of appeal and adding in nudity felt like an attention grabber that did not add to the overall plot, show, or characters.

Best Twist: This season has possibly the best twists since Season 1. Throughout the series, it is obvious that Joe is insane as he continues his near psychotic tendencies. Season 4 brings this to a head as Joe realizes he has a full on split personality. For the first half of the season he is attempting to find his “stalker”. In the second half of the season he finally fights his “stalker” only to later watch the video of his fight and realize there was no one there. Joe discovers that throughout his trip to England, his consciousness has split in two. The “good side” taking the form of Joe, that he functions in day to day, and the other side taking the form of Rhys (Ed Speleers), his “bad side” that commits the murders throughout the season. In the real world, Rhys is an up and coming politician that, it is revealed, Joe had become obsessed with to the point of hallucinating him in his real life interactions. This insanity twist is perfectly played out. Given his actions in earlier seasons, the audience constantly wonders how insane he actually is. To have Joe discover his “bad side” only to try and first deny it and then try to “fix” the problem is perfectly in line with the character. In the end, Joe accepts this bad side to become, what? The audience does not know. 

Victoria Pedretti & Penn Badgley as Love and Joe in You

Season 2

Overall Premise: Joe moves to sunny California so he can out run Candance and leave his “old ways” behind him. This is quickly thwarted with the introduction of Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), a young chef at his new place of employment The rest of the season follows his push and pull obsession with Love and his attempt to run from his past, even when it follows him. 

Best Part: California takes on the role of another character in this series. Moving from New York to California, it is easier to see just how odd Joe is in contrast to everything around him. While everyone is social, bright, and eager to make themselves known, Joe is withdrawn, quiet, and eager to make himself known to only one person. 

Worst Part: The character Forty Quinn (James Scully) is overall the weakest part of this season. While a significant character, as his relationship to Love is paramount to her as a character and her motivations, Forty himself feels like a drag on the whole season. Although this may have been the point, as Joe sees him as an obstacle to Love. 

Best Twist: Season 2 continues the trend of last minute plot twists, and this one did not disappoint. The twist of Love as a killer is excellent as when looking back on the season, the audience can see how she orchestrated events in the same way Joe does. By the curtain call, Joe has finally found someone on his level who loves him with the same twisted love that he loves others.

Penn Badgley &Victoria Pedretti as Joe and Love in You

Season 3

Overall Premise: Season 3 finds Joe dealing with the consequences of the season 2 finale, by marrying Love, who is pregnant with their son, and moving to the suburbs, and of course, attempting to leave his “old ways” behind. This is quickly made more difficult as he realizes his new wife is just as unhinged as he is, not that he sees it that way.

Best Part: The departure from standard format from the first two seasons is a nice change. Instead of “move to city, find girl, obsess, murder” it becomes “move to suburbs, deal with consequences, figure out marriage, and then murder”. This season almost feels like a palate cleanser for the rest of the series, by having Joe actually deal with the chaos he causes. In his mind, Joe is still the hero of his own story, but he now has to grapple with his own dark reflection in the form of Love. 

Worst Part: While the change of format is needed, suburban life does not fit the overall show. It forces the show to slow down in a way that makes certain episodes drag. However, the ending indicates a more return to format that audiences can still look forward to. 

Best Twist: This season does lack a significant twist. While Season 1 had the return of Candance and Season 2 had the reveal of Love as a killer, Season 3 didn’t have anything that gripped audiences in the end. While some may say Joe killing Love was the twist, I would say not. The entire season had been slowly setting up Love’s eventual demise, and Joe as a character, would not allow her to remain in his life, as he is constantly running to his new “love”. A better twist may have been Love surviving while keeping Joe in the dark. 

You has been renewed by Netflix for a fifth and final season. What can audiences expect? Joe finally being caught is high on the list as it is clear that he is incapable of finding real “love”. I do applaud Netflix for calling the coming season 5 the “Final Season”. While a compelling show, no show can go on forever. To end it within five seasons shows that they do in fact care about the show and stories, and that this character does have an end. Now what that end looks like, the audience will have to wait and see.