We have to give it to You — it managed to pull the wool over our eyes with that innocent enough deviation in the plot in season four part one that ended with a massive twist in part two. But if Joe Goldberg plans on ensuring that we remain in love with his new, cruel avatar, he will have to do a lot more than ruthlessly dispatch anyone that irks him — the patience-testing tropes of the series that have been its permanent fixtures since season one.
Yes, the Netflix series managed to surprise us with its big ‘Woah!’ moment in season four — even though we predicted it in advance — but how it chose to get there remained painfully repetitive, as tropes that earned the first three seasons the blame of just copy-pasting each other’s plot were blatantly repeated. So, now that Joe has shed his maniac need to be “good” and is reserving no qualms about destroying lives as long as he is happy, he can do us a favor and do away with these clichés, as well.
The always-open curtains
We can understand the need to abhor curtains — they stifle what little light seeps into our dreary homes. But if you have floor-length giant windows that make up an entire side of your apartment and are facing neighboring flats or a bustling road, keeping those curtains drawn is almost a necessity.
God forbid if any character in You dares to draw the blinds. So, it’s not that Joe is good at stalking (more on that later), it is just that everyone makes it too easy for him to peep into their lives.
Forgoing the entire house to do everything in front of the window
And that ranges from eating, sleeping, and fighting to getting intimate and masturbating in front of the windows. It’s like they are playing a version of ‘The Floor is Lava’ in which the only spot in the entire house that is safe is immediately in front of the massive glass panes.
Joe’s questionable stalking skills
It is a no-brainer that Joe gets the jump on every single person he kills without much effort. After all, if no one can see him very openly and obviously following them, with that sad little cap doing absolutely nothing to hide his identity, Joe is actually doing everyone a service by killing these supremely blind and exceptionally dumb people.
One supporting vulnerable character that needs the protection of a serial killer
In season one, it was Paco, Ellie in season two, Theo in the third season (though he ended up being Love Quinn’s boy toy and barely managed to not become her victim), and Nadia this time. The trope is majorly a Joe thing — except for Theo — and has been majorly there to make it really hard to hate the obsessive serial killer because, after all, he is protecting them selflessly without hoping for anything in return — though Nadia ends up being collateral damage in the tornado that was Joe’s “transformation.”
The snobby characters who are always rich
In the world of You, being rich is synonymous with being mean and selfish. So, if a character belongs to the middle-class population or is explicitly labeled as being poor, their being horrible and ill-mannered is totally out of the question.
That damn glass cage
Joe’s ‘you’ changed every season, his methods of killing altered with his wardrobe, and he even switched his profession, but his love for the exact same sound-proof glass cage he likes to house his victims in refuses to disappear. Season four seemingly hinted that we are done with the box for good, only to reveal Marienne has been held hostage in it all this while. Come on, Joe, it is time for some upgrades! With Kate’s money in your hands, it is time to get something new. A fancy-looking torture room, perhaps?
Joe getting off scot-free EVERY SINGLE TIME is getting boring
We get it — Joe is clever, street-smart, armed with the knowledge of books, and is hardly deterred by any task. But there has to be a line after which his literally walking away every time he kills someone becomes impossible? Just when it seems like he will be apprehended for sure, he wiggles out by either murdering his way out of the problem, using someone’s money to shut it down or is simply blessed with luck that comes out of nowhere.
Fortunately, we can bid farewell to at least one thing — we no longer have to watch Joe trying to be God’s righteous, self-sacrificing angel on Earth anymore and sit through his inner monologue of trying to justify why he has to off someone for the greater good of someone else. And with Joe flaunting his newfound, unabashed love for violence on one arm while Kate — the first ‘you’ who truly understands him — and her wells of riches hang on the other, we are hoping that we have also said goodbye to some, if not all, of the clichés above.
Netflix is yet to confirm You season five. Both parts of season four are available for binging on the streamer.