How Far Would You Go For Love? ‘You’ Netflix Series Review

I recently watched the Netflix series ‘You’ and it got me thinking about the question: how far would you go for love? And not just to get love, but to protect the person you love?

I started watching ‘You’ as the trailer really intrigued me, and Dan from ‘Gossip Girl’ plays Joe in the series. I finished ‘Gossip Girl’ a couple of months ago, so I thought I’d give this series a go!

‘You’ is 10 episodes long – and I binged the whole thing in about a week. While it was slow at times, Joe’s narration was so intriguing – and it was disturbing to be inside the head of this man.

This series definitely messed with my mind. It made me question everything about love and relationships. It is incredibly explicit – and it handles some pretty sensitive issues.

‘You’ plot synopsis

‘You’ follows Joe, the manager of a bookstore in New York. Early on in the series he meets a girl browsing the shelves.

Her name is Guinevere Beck, but people just call her Beck. They are instantly drawn to each other, but Beck leaves the shop without Joe’s number. So Joe does a little internet stalking, checking out her Twitter, Facebook and Instagram – and he finds out a seriously scary amount.

And then he crosses over into actual stalking. The stalking starts off “low-key”, just standing outside her apartment and watching her, but then it turns a little darker. Joe sneaks into her apartment and even takes some of her clothes home with him – putting all his finds in a box which he hides in one of the ceiling panels above his toilet.

From there, the series gets even more messed up – and it slowly ramps up until you realise that Joe is very troubled.

It soon becomes clear that Joe’s mission is not just to be with Beck, and make her fall in love with him – but to protect her from others and from herself. He finds out that she has serious trust issues, and she’s being played by older men who just want to sleep with her.

One guy, Benji, continually messes with her – and yet she keeps going back to him because she doesn’t know how to maintain a healthy relationship.

Joe desperately wants to protect her against him, and he takes the question of ‘what would you do for love?’ to extreme lengths. Or does he? Would anyone do what Joe does for someone they love? It’s a disturbing question that you have to ask yourself while watching this show.

Beck’s friends in ‘You’

Beck surrounds herself with toxic friends, such as the infamous Peach Salinger, who begins to suspect Joe of something. Beck distracts herself with these people, hurting her career as a writer and leading herself towards failure.

Joe also wants to protect her against them, help her to come into her own in her writing and her life, and realise that she has potential – and she doesn’t have to surround herself with these toxic, rich, shallow people.

He wants to give Beck the best career and he wants to help her to flourish as a writer.

Throughout the series, Joe paints Beck as someone who can’t look out for herself. He sees her making bad decisions after bad decisions, and he feels such a connection that he wants to help her.

Even when he and Beck start going out, he still feels the need to look after her.

Joe’s narration in ‘You’

Using his direct narration, Joe speaks about how he just wants to take care of Beck, just wants her to be protected against all the bad people in her life.

Little does he realise that by doing this, he becomes controlling. He wants her to fit into a certain image of herself, and when she fails to do this, things escalate. Big time.

However, one of the things I loved about this series was Joe’s narration. As the viewer, you really get into his mindset. Throughout the series, his view towards love and relationships is clearly warped in many ways, in his need to protect Beck – and the way he acts like she’s not capable of living her life without him.

A still from series 'You' on Netflix. A young man peers over a young woman's shoulder as she reads in a bookshop.
Picture credits here

And yet. It’s almost as if you feel like his actions are justified. It’s crazy to say it, but in his feud with Peach, I was almost rooting for him. She annoyed me so much, and yet she was the only one who was right about him.

It’s a very conflicting, troubling show – and it really makes you think.

Joe so easily justified his actions throughout the show, and occasionally I got so deep into his mindset that I could start to see where he was coming from. Are we all capable of the evil acted out by Joe? Would we all act in this way for those we love?

Literature in ‘You’

I liked the literary aspects of this series. Joe has been brought up around books, and the bookshop is such a beautiful place. But then also so haunting. I never thought books could have the potential for horror, but the book cage in the basement of the bookshop is truly terrifying.

The way that Joe gives books to Paco, the little boy living next door dealing with his mother’s abusive partner, is also an interesting relationship. Joe is so sweet with Paco, helping him to escape through reading – but then he is a psychopath when it comes to Beck.

I guess it’s the idea of a charming front. No one has any idea what is going on behind closed doors, like in many relationships. While this is an exaggerated version, the story of Paco and Ron and his mother shows what can go on in a relationship, while everyone turns a blind eye.

The ending

Wow, that ending! It was so sudden, and while it was obvious this series was dark, the ending was a little too dark for me. I don’t think I’ll forget it anytime soon - it really sent shivers through me when I watched that final episode.

Beck’s character in ‘You’

I have to say, I honestly just did not like Beck. Joe is so complicated as a character, because you dislike him so much, and yet the narration from his point makes you get into his head. But with Beck, she just annoyed me.

She had a lot going on, but at the end of the day she needed to take action on her problems, and she was too busy with self-pity to make good choices.

Even when her career was on track, she still surrounded herself with the same toxic people. I just couldn’t like Beck’s character – as much as I tried.

My thoughts on ‘You’

Overall, ‘You’ is so haunting – and it’s the narration that makes it. I was made to understand the mindset of a psychopath and, while this was incredibly disturbing, it was like nothing I’ve ever watched before.

It really makes me want to read the book now, by Caroline Kepnes.

How far would you go for love? What did you think of the Netflix series ‘You’? Would you recommend the book?

Happy reading x

Picture credits here

28 thoughts

  1. I watched the first episode because I wanted to watch Dan, of course, but it really creeped me out. I’m not saying I won’t watch it because I do have some desire to know what happens, but this is going to be a one episode at a time kind of show so I can mentally recover.

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  2. I haven’t watched the series yet, because I wanted to read the book first. I have it on my shelf…just haven’t gotten to it. Your post has made me move it up on my TBR list. People do some scary things in the name of love…

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  7. This series was insane yet brilliant. I too wondered how far one would go for love. Just like in the movie Prisoners, how far would one go for their kids. I’m excited for season 2 of You to hit Netflix! I binged season 1 as well lol.

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  8. I love that series! It is so good and the topics are so very now with privacy issues on social media. What I find disturbing is that sometimes I kind of like Joe, maybe also because other characters are not so likeable as well and because Beck is also not so innocent in all of that. Amazing series.

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    1. Yes that is so true- social media can be such a problem! Yes exactly! Peach is annoyinng, Beck is infuriating and Joe’s narration just makes me get into his mind set, which is worrying. Thanks so much for dropping by 🙂

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  10. I have seen the first three episodes. I am very interested by this TV series. I think it really frames the main character as a complex and deep person. On one hand, he is super creepy and has his issues, and on the other, he mentors and abused child, he is kind to others (if they don’t get in his way?) and he obviously faced a lot of trauma growing up. It is important to remember that when these things happen, monstrosity can emerge from anyone. (No pun intended–) Do not judge a book by it’s cover.

    Thanks for the share!

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  11. I watched a bit of this with my sister — she binged it and I was in and out of the living room all weekend, so I got the important bits without watching the whole thing. I didn’t really pick up on how annoying Beck was, but I think that’s because I didn’t see as much of her character due to the way I watched it. My friend expressed the same frustrations as you, and said she actually stopped watching it a few episodes in because the focus had turned too much to Beck for her liking.

    I wonder how this differs from the book. It’s kind of frustrating to see that the male psychopath is so well-developed whereas the woman is just pathetic and sad. Maybe I’m biased, but I think we need less sympathy towards cruel men and more sympathy towards the everyday woman, as interesting as the concept of exploring the mind of a serial killer may be.

    Regardless, this is a great post, and a good discussion to spark. 🙂

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    1. Haha, Beck is a bit of an annoying character it’s true! Hmm, I understand that, and for sure I had great compassion for Beck at times- I think it would be heard to argue she deserved to be a victim in any way! I did enjoy the complex narration of Joe however, but i completely agree with you 🙂 thank you so much!

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  14. I don’t think Beck is supposed to be likeable. I still like her though, I found it much easier to understand Beck than I did Joe who was so obviously an incel alongside being a murderer. I don’t think Joe was supposed to be all good or bad throughout, I think what made him interesting is that he’s so multi-faceted. But a murderer is a murderer. Can I understand his motivations? Sure. Can I justify his actions? Hell no, and I don’t think any responsible human being could. I was so frustrated that his equation with Paco is what kept him alive. I was really hoping that Beck would survive by the end. I’m guessing the series is going to return based on that cliffhanger, but I don’t know how they’ll top it because the premise will be completely different to what we received from the current one. Either way, I need a new fix because I have no idea what to watch after this, I would count on Black Mirror, but I’ve finished watching every season, so now I’m in a show funk.

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    1. That’s very true, while Joe is a complex character he is still a murderer! I found the bits with Paco a bit uncomfortable too, and I was really rooting for Beck in the last episode haha! Oh dear, I hate when that happens, I’m in a similar position

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