I’m a little late to the YOU party, and I gotta say that the series is creepy AF. Penn Badgley was great as Joe Goldberg, even though people felt like he’s just playing a heightened version of Dan Humphrey from Gossip Girl, but with a knife. But I digress.
If you’ve finished the series, then you know that Joe isn’t the stereotypical boy-next-door. Yes, he’s charming, but he’s also an obsessive stalker who literally kills anyone that gets in his way of being with Beck. That’s enough to raise some alarms from viewers, but there are those who seem to be romanticizing the horrible things Joe’s been doing. The Stockholm Syndrome is strong.
Sure, the series did a great job at making Joe seem attractive and harmless while his problematic thoughts are going 100 miles per hour. But that’s the point: Dangerous people don’t look scary, they’re often the ones we have by our side and they’ll look hella appealing with a pleasing personality, too.
Even Penn Badgley and the YOU Twitter account are done with all the thirsty posts about Joe. In one tweet, Penn emphasized that people are “supposed to see past my face TO the crazy sh*t!” I mean, how are you going to recognize an abusive partner IRL if their good deeds and looks are all you’re going to focus on?
Of course, you can still admire Penn and the rest of the cast’s performances for portraying the complicated lives of these characters. Just please stop lusting over Joe Goldberg.
Art by Marian Hukom
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