Why You is the Perfect Thriller Series for Netflix

Netflix doesn’t hurt for thriller series to watch, but with the streaming platform’s enormous catalog, it can be hard to choose the right one, making You a great pick. Originally airing on Lifetime, the channel canceled the Penn Badgely-starring thriller series after its first season, only for the streaming site to pick it up, and as a result, you can only watch You on Netflix.

You ended with season 5 earlier this year, meaning the series is one of few thrillers that got to tell a complete, satisfying story. Though Netflix may have saved You, they have a habit of prematurely canceling shows, which is especially unfortunate for thriller series, as so many seasons end on cliffhangers. But You is a perfect show from start to finish.

You Was A Perfect Thriller For All 5 Seasons

Love Quinn and Joe Goldberg look to the side in You

At the heart of every entertaining thriller show is a great idea that immediately grabs audiences’ attention. But that’s not always enough to keep people interested, and long-running thriller series can often flame out, having to depend on outlandish twists or rewriting canon in an attempt to stay fresh.

But You lasted for five incredible seasons, maintaining consistently superb quality. The key to this was its artful blend of keeping a formula that worked while also freshening it up each season so none ever felt the same.

Every season of You sees the loathsome Joe Goldberg become romantically obsessed with a woman, stalk her, and kill anyone who gets in the way of his deranged version of happily ever after. Eventually, something in this romance shatters for him, and he sets his murderous sights on the former object of his affection.

Of course, as the bodies of Joe’s You victims pile up, it becomes necessary for him to relocate, and no season sees him in the same place as the last. Each setting, whether New York, Los Angeles, the fictional California suburb of Madre Linda, or London, feels like a character of its own.

Whereas Joe’s first paramour-turned-prey, Guinevere Beck, was a straight-up victim, the You protagonist’s romantic entanglements got more and more complicated. Love Quinn was just as unhinged as Joe, Marienne Bellamy saw him for what he really was and fled, Kate Lockwood loved him in spite of his (abridged) past, and Louise “Brontë” Flannery suspected him from minute one.

You is quite the twisty show, but all of the twists feel natural to the story and earned, as opposed to cheap shock value. As Joe gets in deeper and deeper into yet another mess of his own making, you’ll get deeper and deeper into the show — which doesn’t have a single bad episode.

How You Succeeds Where Other Thriller Shows Fail

Joe Goldberg looking at Bronte in You Season 5 and smiling

You is a perfect thriller show because it keeps you invested in its central question, which is, “Will Joe Goldberg keep getting away with his crimes?” Since we’re in Joe’s head for the vast majority of the series, we feel almost complicit in his villainous acts, watching in sickened awe as he gets away with literal murder again and again.

But that’s not the extent of You‘s brilliance. Though we may be fascinated by him, we’re continuously rooting for Joe Goldberg’s comeuppance, not just wondering if he’ll get caught, but tuning in episode after episode in the hopes that it’ll finally happen.

Other series in the genre simply ask, “Who killed X?” A murder is certainly compelling, but it’s not always enough to sustain many episodes, and as a result, many thriller miniseries are better than long-running shows. But not You. You puts us in a toxic relationship with its evil protagonist, and its complexity makes it one of television’s best thrillers, hands down.