THE first 5 episodes of You 4 are available on Netflix today (five more to come on March 9). In this new season Joe (Penn Badgley) tries to escape his past as a bookseller stalker serial killer, lives in London and is the literature professor Jonathan Moore. He’s also different in appearance: long hair, thick (but well-kept) beard, shyness, the imperative is to hide. Instead it is involved in a series of murders of which, this time, is not responsible, but who still haunt him. And, almost in retaliation, he, assassin-stalker, turns into detective-stalked.
Fast paced (like previous seasons), this You 4 completely reverses the rolesand from thriller becomes a bizarre yellow. But what ensnares the viewer is not so much the desire to find out who the murderer is (which is there anyway), but the path through which this discovery is reached. Because in the foreground are the Professor Jonathan’s analytical and quibbling reasonings.
The obsessions and visceral impulses that he tries to keep at bay, but which always re-emerge in an overbearing way. His dark side fascinates. That demon that makes him tremendously irresistible. What’s obsessing him? The love. The sick one that leads to perverse choices.
You 4: the plot that erases the past
It has been over a year since the previous season. But for fans of the series it is difficult to forget that one house on fire That Joe he set fire to get rid of his wife Love (Victoria Pedretti), and in which he simulated the suicide of her and also his own death.
The last episode with him walking around Paris after depositing his son at the door of a gay couple it suggested that Joe would settle down in France. Still obsessed with his great love, Marienne (Tati Gabrielle), but terrified of him after discovering he was dealing with the murderer of her ex-husband Ryan (Scott Michael Foster).
Instead in You 4 we find Joe in London in the new identity of Professor Jonathan. “Clean” Intellectual who tries to think only of his students and to lead a low profile life. The whole story is “driven”, once again, from Jonathan-Joe’s thoughts that become a narrator.
“Never again”, he repeats himself, referring to his love for Marienne, with whom he is still obsessed, but whom he finally thanks “because a broken heart makes you wiser”. “No more love, no more people, just books,” he says. But fate is strange. And the development of facts it forces him to become entangled in his past.
He’s no longer the only assassin out there
A little reluctantly Professor Jonathan-Joe finds himself sucked into a club of super-rich, vicious, a little apathetic and talentless friends. He stands out because he is the American in Londonthe one without pedigree, of unknown and in any case humble origins.
When he wakes up at home, dazed after an evening of debauchery with this circle of “privileged suspects”, he finds the corpse of one of them on his table, Malcolm (Stephen Hagan). He doesn’t remember anything. It could have been him who killed him. Or maybe not. However, his instinct is always the same: get rid of the body by tearing it apart.
Thus the past as a murderer from whom he wanted to escape resurfaces. But only up to a point. Because Jonathan-Joe understands that actually he didn’t kill that boy. Confirmation comes with the subsequent death of Simon (Aidan Cheng), artist son of a Chinese tech tycoon. Jonathan is lucid when this other death occurs. He has nothing to do with it. There’s another killer out there. And it comes renamed “rich-eating killer”.
You 4: everything revolves around the question: «Who are you?»
But to bring Jonathan-Joe in the unintentional role of detective they are other things. They are mysterious messages that you receive on your cell phone. warnings, almost threats.
Whoever writes them to him knows that the professor got rid of the body, but doesn’t know who he really is. He doesn’t know his past. «I will find out who you areshe says to him, making Jonathan plunge into terror. «Who are you?», Jonathan asks himself obsessively, in version Sherlock Holmes, start a sort of private investigation to figure out who the killer is and who is haunting him with those messages. It’s the same person, he’s convinced.
Charlotte Ritchie. (Netflix)
And the obsession with women reappears
But to nail the protagonist to his past is always his uncontrollable obsession with women with whom he falls in love.
After Marienne, it’s up to Kate (Charlotte Ritchie), charming and grumpy girlfriend of the late Malcolm. Intelligent, independent, wealthy, beautiful, brings out that dark side of JoeThat Jonathan would like to hold off. And that instead explodes with ever greater violence.
Almost all new cast
Many new characters appear in You 4. It’s mostly the rich new friends like Adams (Luke Gage), the son of an entrepreneur, loves to party and bet. Of his fiancée Phoebe (Tilly Keeper), sweet, ditzy, chaotic, famous, since she was 15, she has been targeted by gossip.
There are Roland (Ben Wiggins), aristocratic, handsome, stylish, hides a dark side, e Gem (Eve Austin), defined as «the toxic aristocrat». There is also Blessing (Ozioma Whenu), the Nigerian princess who invests in cryptocurrencies. Connie (Darius Coates) who loves alcohol and cocaine. And the paparazzi Dawn (Alison Pargeter),
Stands out Rhys (Ed Speleers), irreverent and sarcastic, he published a book, became famous, but was born poor. He’s the only one Jonathan bonds with. They have a difficult past and hidden traumas in common.
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