You Were Wild
You, Netflix (2019–2025)
You took audiences from here to there and back again, but the joyride had to end.
You premiered on Netflix back in 2018. In the first season, there was commotion online about the duality of Joe Goldberg, played by Penn Badgely, and how viewers felt about him. On the one hand, he seemed like his intentions, for the most part, were semi-pure; he was doing his killing for love and to supposedly protect his girlfriend from her overstepping friends.
Viewers were torn because they knew he was a murderer, but at the same time were drawn to Joe’s appeal. He eventually murdered the object of his affection, covered it up, and got away with it, but the affection for a character that would go to extremes to get the girl was not lost. Badgley has expressed his shock at viewers loving this character despite the fact that he’s despicable. In Badgley’s mind, he thinks that Joe deserves ire, not admiration, but audiences had a sparkle in their eyes for Joe.
Seasons 1–3 were excellent. Joe worked his way from New York, to Los Angeles, and then up to a fictional suburb carrying on as he did. He would fall in love, kill people getting in the way of achieving that love, and then kill, or try to kill, his love interests. The storylines mostly made sense, his escapes were nail biting and only a little far-fetched, but viewers were still entranced by his character.
It doesn’t hurt that Badgley is a handsome dude and that Joe can, at first, be a hero before he emotionally and literally smothers his ladies. The “Bundy Effect” is more than likely at play here as to why viewers can look past his psychotic behavior. This phenomenon has perturbed Badgley the entire time he’s played Joe, and in recent interviews he’s expressed his sadness about the fact that people love Joe Goldberg.
I’m going to skip season 4 because it’s kind of a throw away season. That season has garnered a ton of criticism because of how odd, over the top, and unnecessary it was. It takes place in England where Joe is hiding out as a professor but he, of course, falls in love with his soon-to-be-second wife and kills a bunch of people to get to her. It was too wild and too all over the place.
I think the writers realized that they needed to redeem themselves with the fifth and final season, and they did just that. I mean, IT WAS GOOD! From start to finish, I was hooked. The storylines made sense, the new characters added to the drama, and those distinct Joe voice overs were the cherry on top. I was glad that it took place in New York because Joe needed to return to where the monster was made.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The audience knew that Joe didn’t deserve an easy way out for all the heinous crimes he had committed over the five season stretch. Bludgeoning, suffocating, drowning, locking people in his cage, and poisoning were just some of his tactics. Badgley, for his part, said that Joe got what he deserved and was satisfied with the end of the show because he despised Joe Goldberg.
The last two episodes were a perfect ending to his storyline. I won’t give too much away, but I was on the edge of my seat the whole time yelling, “SHOOT HIM, SHOOT HIM!” But that would’ve been too clean and too easy of an ending, and so it ends with sweet revenge, justice, and social media viral status; Joe would’ve hated that.
I’m okay with the show stopping when it did. I honestly don’t know how much longer Joe could’ve been out and about killing people without getting caught. It’s been a wild ride with You, but it had to come to an end.