A kid had to face the world in his own animated version and conquer life's biggest monster. ANI (The Harvest) It's as if a child's imagination is a safe haven, a place where the world is a playground for all the possibilities the mind could think of. And even the tight and humble space called home, situated on a busy Metro could not hinder the inquisitive headspace of a young Mithi (played by Zyren Dela Cruz), a boy who accomplishes the day by playing with his colorful toy robots that perform a vital role in his imaginary narrative. With a loving father and a mother that sings him a self-assuring lullaby, Mithi is blissfully unaware of the harsh reality. But life decided to toy with his fate, and Mithi's perfect little world is now showing its cracks, putting his vulnerability to the test and slowly depriving him of his happiness he thought would last forever. And through his eyes, the world suddenly transforms itself into a menacing monster. Set in a lush
"You" Season 1 Review - Ridiculously Bad It's Good
A bookstore manager met a girl and felt a liking of her. From a chaste infatuation, it evolved into a creeping obsession that leads him to do unnerving actions, all in the name of love.
Based on the 2014 novel of the same name, You is a psychological romantic thriller about a man who fell for a girl and became aggressively obsessed with her. It was first aired on Lifetime TV but due to underwhelming reception, the rights was then bought by Netflix. Since it's premier on the streaming platform, it suddenly sparks attention and increasingly became popular to audiences.
You follows the story of Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), an innocently charming lad and a bookstore manager at New York, who crossed paths with Guinivere Beck (Elizabeth Lail), a young aspiring writer, on one of her bookstore errands. Joe was instantly smitten by Beck and quickly becomes assertive of his inner thoughts, analyzing Beck and sticking his eyes onto her, from her vivaciously attractive aura to her alluring lady-like maneuver. Beck approached him and confidently introduced herself.
As introverted as he was, Joe responded nicely and the two swiftly left a doting impression on one another. His curiosity grew and he started stalking her, from her first-floor apartment, through the curtain-less, openly welcoming window, as if she was begging to be seen, well, as how he sees it through his observations.
From then on, he commits more of his time on following her, everyday, silently tracing her every step, cautiously scrutinizing every person around her, completing his whole narrative of her, and slowly losing himself into a cunning, manipulative obsession.
The Good
From his Gossip Girldays, Penn Badgley proves himself to be one of the most dainty and effective actors of his league. His acting is good as he perfectly represents the duality of his character Joe — one that is sweet, caring and hopelessly romantic and the other one who is conniving, dangerous, and has psychopathic tendencies. Through his internal monologue, I get to see more of his personality and it made me gawk at the realization of how similar I was to him, well at least on the part on how his mind operates and how he observes and analyze the people around him.
Another actor that I absolutely gushed over was Shay Mitchell, who played the character of Peach Salinger, the self-centered and mildly psychotic best friend of Beck. Peach has a self-absorbed, manipulative and cunning personality and I thought Shay's performance did the character justice. From a narrative perspective, I thought she was one of the few well-written characters in the show and her actions and motivations are completely logical and interesting.
From a theme standpoint, I really like that show discusses personal privacy and the effects of social media and how have we, especially the young ones, are becoming more and more tangential to physical interactions because of it. That aspect brought another layer to the narrative and because the show knows its target audience, it served as some sort of a wake-up-call to the viewers.
The Bad
While Elizabeth Lail did her best to get the job done, I thought the way her character was written was poor and irritatingly annoying throughout the season. The show even tried to focus the perspective on her, but it was rather bland and a bit dragging. They did tried jumping the focus to Beck, to know her a little bit more, I thought she had one of the most wasteful progression of any tv shows ever made and because of that, the obsession to her character was questionable.
Joe's plans, while intriguing, were so unrealistic. It's like every circumstances was perfectly placed and every situations was so convenient in favor of his arc. I would have preferred if they inclined more on his psychotic tendencies, exploring the insanity and his dangerous behavior than forcing a relationship which don't make sense. Honestly, Joe and Peach looks so much better together and the dynamics between them is far more amusing than Beck's.
The show started off strong and ended even stronger but the in-between were quite dull. They had a great material to use and expand upon but I was disappointed that they focused so much on an easier story to tell — forced romance.
Should You Watch It? There are three types of Netflix shows. There's the really good ones, the really bad ones, and then there's the superficial, passively entertaining ones. This show belongs to that last category. It's good in so many ways but are not excellent about it. Despite its obvious flaws and ridiculously predictable turn of events, You is honestly a sinful addiction I'm willing to continue.
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