Stalking people on social media is a skill most of us have already, but when it leads to multiple crimes and obsession, it’s scary—even if it is just a TV show. The Netflix original series “YOU” has become wildly popular with the release of its second season. Warning: this review will contain spoilers. The series follows Joe Goldberg, a bookstore employee who’s looking for love. Little does the audience know, his journey for love will cross lines that shouldn’t be crossed, including stalking, obsession, and murder.

As a fan of this show from day one, I have followed Joe’s quest from his first love interest, Guinevere Beck in New York City, to his most recent, Love Quinn in Los Angeles. Both stories have striking similarities, such as Joe falling for the first woman he sees in a public place, connecting and trying to protect one of his young neighbors, and trapping people who become problematic to him in his big glass prison. However, season two has taken a twist, with Joe trying to change who he is for Love. 

This season was refreshing with a new setting, but old issues from last season arise again. Namely, his first victim, Candace Stone, who comes back from the dead, literally, in the last ten minutes of season one. Candace follows him all the way from NYC to LA to make his life unbearable and hopes to catch him in the act of murder so she can finally turn him in. Candace coming back was the cliffhanger that enticed me to continue watching the show from season one to season two. Bringing a supposed dead character back from the dead is no new concept, but it still created a good start to the season. It also ended with a bang by revealing Love murdered Joe’s neighbor and lover, Deliah, and by revealing that Love was actually as obsessed with Joe as he was with her.

This turning point really showed the moment Joe lost love for Love. The minute he realized she was Deliah’s murderer and had the ability to kill Candance, he realized that she was not the person he wanted to be with. Joe, finally doing the right thing and ending his killing and his destructive behavior, is then punished with his one true love being as murderous as him. 

The only turn off of this show for me, in general, are Joe’s monologues. I believe there is nothing creepier or more appalling than Joe’s monotone comments on his victim’s dead bodies, such as describing the blood splatter on Henderson’s body. To add to this is the appeal of his care for his victims, such as Love and Beck, which leads some girls to voice their opinion online saying that they think they need a man like Joe’s character, even though he stalked and murdered the girls he cared about. Personally, I find myself feeling compassion, even though I do not condone his violent actions, for him and his childhood trauma due to the abuse from his father, even though he murdered his father. 

Overall, I would rate season two an 8/10. The story is absurd but overall, it’s so jaw-dropping that I can’t stop watching. The plot twist of Love ending up also being obsessed made the season worth watching until the end, but the end scene of Joe throwing his new villainous family away to go after the neighbor was too telltale. Now I have to endure another season of the same story over again. Hopefully, for season three, the writers will develop a storyline completely different from the first two.