I Liked the First 2 Season of You on Netflix, but After Season 3 I'm Done With the Show

 You season 3 dropped on Netflix about a week ago now. I finished it today, and I was highly disappointed with the show. I liked the first 2 seasons of the show, so I was really looking forward to seeing where this new season was going to take us, but by the time I finished the season, I knew I was done with the show. 

Before I get too far into this, I'll explain a little about the show and do recap, for those who have seen the show, you can skip down past the recaps to see why I didn't like the 3 season. Be warned that from this point forward there will be spoilers. 

Season 1 Recap

You is a controversial show on Netflix, and rightfully so. Joe Goldberg is You's main character who happens to be a stalker and a murderer. In the first season Joe meets a woman named Beck that captures his attention. After meeting her just once he becomes obsessed and does everything he can to get to know her. He stalks her online presence, and follows her around. 

While following her Joe realizes that Benji, a man she's sort of involved with might be a problem. Joe decides to eliminate the competition and follows Benji around to get more info on him. He ends up killing Benji, and Joe and Beck start getting serious. 

Things seem to be going well for Joe and Beck except for the fact that Joe and Peach don't really get along. Joe doesn't care for Peach and Peach doesn't care for Joe, but they have to try and get along for Beck. Things come to head with Peach and Joe when she accuses him of stealing a book from her house. She knows Joe works with rare books and she's never been fond of him, so naturally she thought it was him, and it was, but Joe doesn't like this unwanted attention and scrutiny from Peach, so he decides that Peach has to go. 

One night on a run he tries to kill Peach, but doesn't get the job done. Peach recovers from the attack, and this drives a wedge between Beck and Joe because Peach is using the attack and her recovery to monopolize Beck's time. Joe doesn't like this and starts to think about how to remove Peach permanently from their lives. 

Peach visits her country house with Beck as a little get away to recharge, and Joe follows them. Peach kisses Beck and Beck ends up leaving. Peach finds Joe at the estate, and pulls a gun on him. In the struggle, Joe shoots Peach in the head and makes it look like a suicide. Everyone buys that Peach killed herself except her parents who hire a P.I. to investigate. 

After Peach's death, Joe and Beck fall apart because Beck starts sleeping with her therapist. Joe gets suspicious, and finally confronts her about it after she catches him following her. During this exchange they break up, and Joe moves on. 

He meets Karen, and they start dating. Joe seems happy, but one day he runs into Beck at a food truck. After a little back and forth over the next few weeks Joe breaks up with Karen to get back with Beck who admits that she wants him back as well. After their breakup, Karen warns Beck about Candace and pretty much warns her about  Joe's sketchy past. 

Joe and Beck are back together, but Beck is curious about Candace. She starts doing some digging and nothing she finds makes her feel any better what happened between Candace and Joe. She finally confronts Joe about it and he tells her that Candace cheated on him with a music producer then skipped town and went to Italy. 

Beck satisfied and while Joe is making breakfast she goes to the bathroom. She finds Joe's keepsakes box where he has all kinds of incriminating goodies including her ex-boyfriend's, Benji, phone. Joe then knocks her out and takes her to the workshop where he repairs books, and killed Benji. She wakes up and manages to convince Joe they can be together. She locks him in the "cage" and tries to get away, but luckily Joe escapes in the nick-of-time to kill her. 

He blames the therapist she was sleeping with for the murder and gets her book published. She ends up becoming quite famous. The season ends with Candace telling Joe that she and him have unfinished business. Cue the season 2 recap.

Season 2 Recap

Alright so now we know from all that we learned from season 1 is that Joe is a murderer. He killed some guy, maybe his father I can't recall if they've made that clear in the show or not but moving on, that was hurting his mother. Joe then grows up and meets Candace whom he loves deeply. He finds out that Candace is cheating on him with a music producer and he kills them. He killed the music producer by pushing him off of a roof on a dark and rainy night. He then took Candace to the woods and killed her-- or so he thought. 

Flashforward, and Joe met Beck, but had to kill her ex-boyfriend, her best friend who happened to be in love with her as well, and some other guy for them to be together. Beck and Joe do the relationship dance for a while, but then she finds out what Joe really is and then Joe has to kill her. Candace knows he killed her too which is why she told him at the end of season 1 that they had unfinished business. 

Joe's life is a complicated mess and he tells himself that being in a relationship and looking for love might not be in his best interests at the moment, plus, he's still trying to get over what happened with Beck and let's not forget that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and Candace is out for revenge. Despite all that, Love finds Joe, and that's not love as in the word, I mean Love as in the person. 

Joe meets Love and they start a little romance despite the fact that Joe figured maybe a relationship isn't the best thing for him right now. Love's brother, Forty, becomes friends with Joe and before long they're all happy together until Forty introduces his new girlfriend, Candace. Yes, Joe's ex is now dating his new flame's twin brother. Candace puts in a lot of time trying to ruin Joe's life and she's got the best seat in the house to do it. 

Joe and Forty were hanging out with Henderson, a pervy comedian, because Joe wanted to find dirt on the guy. Joe finds pictures of passed out women and give them to his friend, but her little sister seems to be the comedian's next target, but Joe stops it. He kills Henderson, and not really on purpose but the outcome is just the same. 

Love and Joe are doing well, but Forty's neediness is a tad bit of a problem. Joe is gets along with Love's friends but things get complicated when Amy (Candace) inserts herself and tries to ruin Joe's life. Love figures out that there's something off about "Amy" so she looks into her. 

While Joe is out trying to kill Candace, again, Candace is out looking for dirt on Joe only to find Love there waiting for her. They talk and Love confronts Joe. Joe tells her that she is lying and he left New York to get away from Candace. Love breaks up with Joe and they agree he can still work at the store.

The friend of Joe's with the little sister gets nosey and Joe has to lock her in the new "cage". He tells her that he'll let her go when he's out of town. Forty gets the bright idea to "self kidnap" and they go on a drug filled night to complete a movie script. Joe wakes up and doesn't remember killing his friend so he tries to retrace his steps. Candace is hot his trail and finds the body and Joe. Candace calls Love to prove once and for all that Joe is a monster, but then Love confesses and says that she killed Joe's friend. She then apologizes to Candace and kills her. 

She then tells Joe that he loves him, confesses that she was the one who killed her brothers nanny, and that she has a plan to make the situation go away and they can live happily ever after. Joe gets angry realizing that Love is doing to him what he did to Beck. He goes to kill her, but stops after she confesses that she's pregnant. Joe decides to stay with Love, but at this point Forty is convinced that he has to save Love from Beck's real killer, Joe.

Forty pulls a gun on Joe and is resolved to kill him. Love begs Forty to put the gun, but he refuses and the cop that was following Joe around sees Forty and shoots him. Love is devastated, but she and Joe survive the ordeal by blaming Forty for their mess. They get married and move to the suburbs where we see Joe obsessing over his new neighbor. 

Season 3 Recap

Season 3 picks up with Joe and Love struggling to adjust to suburban parenthood life. Joe develops an interest in the neighbor's wife while Love is trying to make her house a home which leads to tension between the two. Love notices that Joe seems to be distant and not always present even when they're in the same room. 

One night Joe and the neighbor woman have a drink and things get a little when she shows him her reading room. She kisses Joe and Joe tells her he can't and goes home to Love. He has sex with Love and he's thinking about the neighbor woman. When Love finally confronts Joe about how he seems checked out Joe tells her that nothing happened, but Love is jealous. 

The neighbor woman talks to Love one night at a party and suggests that she open her own bakery. The woman even tells her that she knows of the perfect spot. Love meets up with the woman, and just before they close the deal Love kills her in a fit of jealousy. Love calls Joe to help her clean up the mess and while they are doing that Love decides they need to go to couples therapy. 

The therapy starts to help, but neighbors know something has happened to the missing woman and the search is on. Henry gets sick from the measles because an anti-vaxxer family exposed their kid to the disease. The father of the family comes into Love's bakery to apologize, but as he turns to leave, Love knocks him out and traps him the cage. 

She and Joe now need to figure out how to let the man go, but they need to find some dirt on him so he won't tell anyone what happened. Love hires a P.I. to look into the guy and they find out that his son was rapist and they covered it up. The husband had no idea about the second cover up and in his guilt hangs himself inside the cage thus forcing Love and Joe to make other arrangements for his release. They pin the missing woman's murder on him and things seemingly calm down. 

Joe and Love are in a better place in their relationship, but the missing woman's husband and step-son become issues. The woman's husband is obsessed with finding out what happened, Love ends up falling for the step-son, and Joe finds a new woman to obsess over. 

At their last therapy session, Joe and Love tell the doctor that they are happy and don't think they need to come anymore. The doctor tells Joe that he needs to make friends just like Love has. Love encourages Joe to go on a camping trip with her friend Sherri's husband, Cary. Joe goes on the camping trip where he almost kills Cary but when he revives him and the guys still accept him as part of the group Joe starts to feel like himself again. 

Joe was already suspicious of Love and Theo, the neighbor's step-son, but while Joe on the camping trip Love and Theo make the beast with two backs. Love comes home and her mother confronts her about it but Love is very defensive and fights with her mother about it. Joe comes home and Love notices the change in him. 

Doesn't take long before Joe is back to doing the same old Joe stuff except this time he isn't allowed to do anything more than watch. It's a rule he's set for himself but he can't help himself because his boss, Marianne, is just too much for him to resist. 

Love finds out from Theo that his step-dad is still looking for the killers and she tells Joe. She eagerly volunteers to get close to Theo to find out what the step-dad knows. Joe is okay with this because it keeps her focused on something other than him, so he can focus on Marianne. While all this is going on, Sherri and Cary invite Love and Joe to swing with them. Joe agrees because this is could be the way to blow up the marriage and he can be with Marianne. 

The night arrives, Cary and Sherri show up, and things get underway. Sherri gets Joe on the bed and starts to ride him while Love and Cary watch. At first Love doesn't mind, but then Joe closes his eyes and that's when Love suspects that he's thinking about someone else and she yells the safe word and leaves the room. She goes down stairs and Joe gives chase. While downstairs they start arguing and Love gets a little too loud when Sherri and Cary overhear how Love killed the neighbor. 

Love and Joe go back upstairs to see if they heard anything, but Sherri and Cary play like they didn't hear anything. That's when Joe notices that Sherri has a very defensive posture and that's when Cary pushed Joe and escaped the room. Love and Sherri fight while Joe takes care of Cary. Joe and Love get the better of the two and take them down to the "cage" to figure out what they should next. 

While in captivity, Sherri tells Love to out Theo's step-dad because he is accessing camera footage that is illegal to do his investigation. The information gets leaks, and right before the footage is all erased, Theo downloads it and starts to look at it. In one clip he finds that Joe is the one who drove the car and he goes to tell Love that Joe is the killer. 

He goes to the bakery and finds Sherri and Cary locked in the basement. Love comes to the bakery and hits Theo with a fire extinguisher and pushes him down the stairs thinking he is dead. Love tells Joe and Joe goes to try and deal with the situation. He finds Theo and takes him to the hospital after he realizes he's not dead. Love finds the bloody shirt from the night Joe killed Marianne's ex-husband. 

Love makes a nice dinner for Joe and they sit down and have a talk. Joe tells Love that he wants a divorce. Love is visibly shaken by this and just as they are about to really get into the conversation Henry cries and Love goes to check on him. Joe gets suspicious that Love might be trying to kill him so he grabs the knife Love used to carve the chicken not knowing she had already poisoned it. 

Love comes back down stairs to talk to Joe which eventually leads her to telling Joe that she's doing what's required to save her family. Love tricks Marianne into coming over while Joe is lying their paralyzed on the floor out of view. Hearing the whole conversation between Love and Marianne, Joe tries to talk but can't. Helpless he has to watch as Love is about to kill Marianne when her daughter comes to the door to ask to use the bathroom. 

Love decides not to kill Marianne because her daughter is there with her. Love leaves Joe at home and while he's home alone the step-dad comes into the house to talk to Joe because Theo is missing. He tells Joe he knows that they did something to him and that's when Joe uses his eyes to tell the man how to find his son at the hospital. The man decides to leave Joe there for Love to finish what she started. 

Upon Love's return she goes to talk to Joe who is still on the floor but not nearly as paralyzed as she thought. Joe had already prepared a countermeasure for the poison he knew love was growing in the backyard. He ends up dosing Love and killing her faking his own death in the process. He leaves Henry at the doorstep of a co-worker who had been trying to adopt a child. With Love dead and Henry in the care of his friend, Joe is free to start over somewhere new, but he vows to find Marianne and be with her. 

Why I'm done with the show...

Alright, so when I first heard about the show I thought it was a little sketchy just based on the premise. A story about a stalker who turns into a murderer is a dicey subject matter especially when you consider that he is the main character, and while you don't actually root for Joe to do bad shit, you end up with this sort of weird desire for things to work out for him but if they don't it's okay because he's a murderer, you know? We don't want bad people to get good things. 

That being said, I think they did a good job of telling the story in a way that didn't glorify the behavior so at the end of the first season I was left wanting to find out what happened next. When the second season came out I was happy to see that Joe found Love because she was essentially the same as him. I thought it was a good second season and Joe ridded the world of some very bad people. It's shame that Candace and Forty had to die, but Joe and Love were perfect for each other. 

With the third season I was really hoping they would move away from the crazy bad people stuff and go in a different direction. Obviously they are murders so that still has to be in there somewhere, but I didn't expect anything close to how the season went. Joe ultimately killing Love and being in that same cycle of obsession, and killing is just pointless now. If they make a third season why should I watch when I just watched Joe go through 3 seasons of chasing "love" to finally get "Love" just to have to kill it so he can chase it all over again and it was 100% his doing. 

I feel like a 4th season would just be more of the same. Joe chasing someone, having to kill some people, and then starting the process all over. I can't say that I regret watching the show, but the lack character progression to me is leading the show down the road of glorifying this Joe character. I know that might not be the intent, but what feeling are people supposed to be left with after each season? They are supposed to be left with this desire to find out what happens next, which by default is just another form of hoping Joe, a bad guy, keeps getting away or has some sort of happily ever after.