Latest news with #ShockinglyEviland
Sydney Morning Herald
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
This Netflix hit sold us a likeable serial killer. Now it's pointing the finger at you.
What is it about murderers like Joe that keep luring us in? Well, like Dexter, he's a layered character sprinkled with some redeeming traits. He's chivalrous (however misguided), and kind towards young people. He's also intelligent, made painfully obvious by his constant reference to classic writers. A man who can accurately quote Emily Dickinson on request surely can't be that terrible, right? Loading Add that to the fact that the show is filmed like a romcom, and it's clear how we became ensnared in this man's web. You is a collection of romantic slow-motion shots, scenes lit with an amber glow, and boppy pop songs. The actual murder scenes are grittier, but everyone looks better in the radiant light of day – even a serial killer. Importantly, Joe is also at the centre of this story. He narrates every season, manipulating the audience as much as the women he lures into his creepy underground cage. His objectively atrocious crimes are overlaid with his non-stop rationalising – 'I'm killing for love, I'm killing to protect her, blah blah'. When he isn't rationalising, he's expressing regret. After moving back to New York, Joe repeatedly hints at his 'changed ways', attempting to convince himself that he is redeemable. It's difficult not to sympathise with someone who expresses a desire to improve. After all, we've seen enough romance movies to believe it's possible to 'fix them'. Joe, however, is far beyond fixing. By the mid-point of season five, this becomes apparent. His narration is less apologetic, instead embracing and justifying his violent tendencies. But even when Joe is running around the woods half naked and growling, tracking Bronte down to murder her, he's somehow still just as enthralling. Loading This is because we constantly romanticise, even fetishise, violence. Sexualised killers like Basic Instinct 's Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone) have long titillated us, along with some real-life killers such as Ted Bundy. When Zac Efron played Bundy in the 2019 film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, Netflix had to remind viewers to stop lusting after a character who was in reality a convicted serial killer. Casting someone like Penn Badgley – known as Dan Humphrey, the romantic lead from Gossip Girl – as a man who kills 'for love' was bound to excite. And excite it did. The lustful response to Joe reached such a fever pitch at points that Badgley himself took to social media to remind viewers that Joe is a murderer. 'You're supposed to see past my face to the crazy shit,' he wrote on X in 2019. Romanticising a serial killer is ethically dubious at best. But that has always been the point of You. It's not endorsing murder, but forcing us to question why we're so easily convinced to ignore it. This is hinted at through the final series, especially when Joe is accused of multiple crimes on social media. He's able to escape the allegations relatively unscathed largely due to his diehard supporters, those still referring to him online as their 'Prince Charming' and thirsting over his good looks. The show may as well have been showing snapshots of real tweets and TikToks. To really drive the point home, creators Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo then fully lifted the curtain. By shifting some of the narration to 'final girl' Bronte, the show finally presented Joe as the full-throttle maniac he has always been. And the shot to the crotch left him stripped of his power, deprived of the thing that drove his every sick decision. By the final scene, we're forced, once and for all, to question why we've been so transfixed by this man for five seasons. Joe, locked away in a prison cell, tells us what we've been avoiding all along: 'Maybe the problem isn't me. Maybe it's you. '
The Age
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
This Netflix hit sold us a likeable serial killer. Now it's pointing the finger at you.
What is it about murderers like Joe that keep luring us in? Well, like Dexter, he's a layered character sprinkled with some redeeming traits. He's chivalrous (however misguided), and kind towards young people. He's also intelligent, made painfully obvious by his constant reference to classic writers. A man who can accurately quote Emily Dickinson on request surely can't be that terrible, right? Loading Add that to the fact that the show is filmed like a romcom, and it's clear how we became ensnared in this man's web. You is a collection of romantic slow-motion shots, scenes lit with an amber glow, and boppy pop songs. The actual murder scenes are grittier, but everyone looks better in the radiant light of day – even a serial killer. Importantly, Joe is also at the centre of this story. He narrates every season, manipulating the audience as much as the women he lures into his creepy underground cage. His objectively atrocious crimes are overlaid with his non-stop rationalising – 'I'm killing for love, I'm killing to protect her, blah blah'. When he isn't rationalising, he's expressing regret. After moving back to New York, Joe repeatedly hints at his 'changed ways', attempting to convince himself that he is redeemable. It's difficult not to sympathise with someone who expresses a desire to improve. After all, we've seen enough romance movies to believe it's possible to 'fix them'. Joe, however, is far beyond fixing. By the mid-point of season five, this becomes apparent. His narration is less apologetic, instead embracing and justifying his violent tendencies. But even when Joe is running around the woods half naked and growling, tracking Bronte down to murder her, he's somehow still just as enthralling. Loading This is because we constantly romanticise, even fetishise, violence. Sexualised killers like Basic Instinct 's Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone) have long titillated us, along with some real-life killers such as Ted Bundy. When Zac Efron played Bundy in the 2019 film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, Netflix had to remind viewers to stop lusting after a character who was in reality a convicted serial killer. Casting someone like Penn Badgley – known as Dan Humphrey, the romantic lead from Gossip Girl – as a man who kills 'for love' was bound to excite. And excite it did. The lustful response to Joe reached such a fever pitch at points that Badgley himself took to social media to remind viewers that Joe is a murderer. 'You're supposed to see past my face to the crazy shit,' he wrote on X in 2019. Romanticising a serial killer is ethically dubious at best. But that has always been the point of You. It's not endorsing murder, but forcing us to question why we're so easily convinced to ignore it. This is hinted at through the final series, especially when Joe is accused of multiple crimes on social media. He's able to escape the allegations relatively unscathed largely due to his diehard supporters, those still referring to him online as their 'Prince Charming' and thirsting over his good looks. The show may as well have been showing snapshots of real tweets and TikToks. To really drive the point home, creators Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo then fully lifted the curtain. By shifting some of the narration to 'final girl' Bronte, the show finally presented Joe as the full-throttle maniac he has always been. And the shot to the crotch left him stripped of his power, deprived of the thing that drove his every sick decision. By the final scene, we're forced, once and for all, to question why we've been so transfixed by this man for five seasons. Joe, locked away in a prison cell, tells us what we've been avoiding all along: 'Maybe the problem isn't me. Maybe it's you. '
