Joe Goldberg

Joe Goldberg is my guilty pleasure. If you‘re a fellow watcher of the Netflix series “You”, that name alone invokes many emotions. Whether you unwittingly love him or hate him. One things for sure, Joe is a character that you’ll never forget. Gone are the days of my childhood, when all the tv and movie characters were written so rigidly black or white. In walks the grey characters with all their complexities that I love. Joe is the embodiment of the grey and so the story begins. For anyone who hasn’t watched it yet, I’ll try my best not to ruin it for you but you‘re going to want to add this one to your guilty pleasure binge list.

SPOILER ALERT!! We meet Joe lurking in the shadows of a bookstore trying to find someone worthy of his love. As he narrates, yes he narrates in an almost poetic way, how much he’d be perfect for “her”. In walks Beck, she is the object of his affections and so much more. Joe is romantic, intelligent, funny, passionate, loyal, charming, affectionate and protective. Yeah I know but he’s also a stalker by every definition. He makes Beck his mission and he will attain her by any means necessary. As the first episode ends, I realize I’m in for the long haul. Each episode exposes the depths that Joe will go, to ultimately make Beck’s life better. He invades her privacy in a myriad of ways, from her social media to actually watching and stealing items from her, that she wouldn’t even want to keep. Eww, Joe why? Also breaking the law is nothing for Joe Goldberg. Before the season ends he’ll hack, assault, burglarize, kidnap and murder. You won’t be able to look away. It took me a week to complete the first season. "You" quickly became my new favorite show and I told friends, family and anyone looking for a new binge worthy guilty pleasure. The kind hearted person I am, knows I shouldn’t be rooting for the stalker but Joe Goldberg has a way of getting under your skin. I empathize with him but he also makes me cringe at times. My emotions were all over the place at the end of the season. I was angry, hurt and surprised. My heart was broken even though a part of me always knew it would end that way.

Since I was late to the party, I only had to wait a short while for season two to start. I was nervous that season two wouldn’t deliver, as series can sometimes do. I devoured it in about two weeks and it didn’t disappoint. I still like the first season best but the writers don’t skip a beat, getting right into the grey of it. We get to watch Joe’s character grow in some ways while still being the creepy stalker that he is. Joe’s childhood and the relationship with his parents is revealed, making him more lovable and explaining why his character lives in the grey. Joe still has his share of surprises. Yes, he continues to stalk and commit crimes that we love/hate to watch but still can’t look away from the screen. Once again Joe Goldberg made me want things to go his way. I wanted him to get his happy ending. Each subsequent episode delivers one surprise after the next, leading right up to the cliffhanger of a finale. Ok now I’m going to toot my horn for a bit. The plot twist is one of the best I’ve seen but I still guessed it. Now saying that, no one else I personally know guessed the ending and by no means did my figuring out the ending, take away from the finale. Actually the way it ends has me, not so patiently waiting for season three to arrive. “You” season three is slated to air on Netflix sometime this year. So you still have time to binge watch before the new season airs.

Update!!! “You”, season 3 airs Oct 15th on Netflix. I can’t wait to watch!!