Don’t be fooled by the fact You‘s fourth season is split in two: the first five episodes arrive today, followed by the second five exactly a month later. The hit psychological thriller series hasn’t suddenly turned into a Breaking Bad-style prestige drama; it’s still schlocky, preposterous and just self-aware enough to get away with it.
If anything, this season is the most ridiculous yet, mainly because it’s set in an upscale London that bears little resemblance to the real thing. At one point, the show even uses an establishing shot of an entirely different city, Oxford, to show us that the university where Penn Badgley’s serial killer is working is, like, historic and super-posh.
Also super-posh is the social circle that Badgley’s Joe Goldberg infiltrates now he is masquerading as Jonathan Moore, a reserved literature professor complete with beard and tweed blazer. Joe has moved to the UK in pursuit of Marienne Bellamy (Tati Gabrielle), the woman he was obsessed with in season three, but he is also trying to turn over a new life – which means no more stalking women and killing people who get in the way.
His belated good intentions are thwarted when a member of his condescending clique is murdered. Joe wakes up after a heavy night at an exclusive Soho members’ club called Sundry House – yes, really – and finds a dead body in the fancy South Kensington flat that comes with his job. Presuming that he killed the hapless aristocrat because, well, he has form in that area, Joe disposes of the body by putting it through an industrial woodchipper and dropping the remnants in the London sewage system. Nice.
Only later does Joe realise that someone dumped the body at his place in an attempt to frame him. “Shit! I’m in a whodunnit – the lowest form of literature,” is how he phrases it. The suspects are everyone in his offensively wealthy social circle. Joe’s internal monologue has always done a lot of You‘s heavy lifting and here it constantly reminds us how much he despises this snobby lot of entitled idiots.
They have names like Roald Walker-Burton and Lady Phoebe Borehall-Blaxworth and say things like “come to a little soirée for Simon” (really?) and “don’t be a cunt” (better). They’re deliberate caricatures who care way more about designer labels than actual posh British people, though they share the same disdain for anyone who dresses differently.
The White Lotus‘ Lukas Gage is good value as Adam Pratt, an arrogant American playboy who has founded Sundry House to impress his billionaire father. In one of the season’s best twists, Joe discovers that Adam isn’t quite so overbearing when he thinks no one is watching. If any show can carry off a kinky curveball, it’s this one.
Yes, it’s all very silly, but it’s also surprisingly gripping and consistently witty. “I’m in the West End revival of Mean Girls,” Joe’s internal monologue deadpans at one point. By the end of episode five, you’ll be craving the season’s second half more than you might care to admit.
‘You’ season four part one is streaming now on Netflix
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