Lifetime's YOU, Part Dexter, Part Breaking Bad


Lifetime's You is a fascinating tale of a man who falls for a woman he encounters but his form of fascination and 'falling in love' might be a bit different than yours or my method of being smitten.

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You is from Greg Berlanti, the power force behind many DC TV products on the CW, and stars Penn Badgley as Joe, a bookstore clerk in New York City. His fixation is Guinevere Beck played by Elizabeth Lail.

When Joe encounters this girl, he goes into full investigative (stalker?) mode, looking her up on all her social media postings, and even figuring out where she lives and hangs around outside her place, to learn things about her. Yep, stalker. But a real nice kind of stalker.

Then there's Benji, a man who uses Beck for, well, you know. When Joe realizes what a user he is, well, Benji disappears, and Joe gets back on track as he tries to win the heart of his fixation while he stalks her, figuring out her quirks and traits.

While Joe fixates on her sunny disposition in her social media, he slowly manages to wrangle her away from her social circle of friends to get her all to himself, but hey, everyone in this story has secrets.

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All in all, Joe is a very very likable character. No! Really! Like in Dexter, the man who everyone loved but was a very methodical serial killer.. of other killers. Joe has some stalker issues but it's all for a good cause, right?

What makes the show fascinating is that Joe narrates throughout the episodes in a very level-voiced tone, giving us insight to his thought processes and such. It's a very calm, nice sounding narrative we get, but the voice does not reflect the true nature of the man who is capable of... well, you'll see.

For the twisted premise that it is, it's entertaining, like a train wreck. A well written train wreck.

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