Netflix renews Badgley’s Gossip Girl role as Dan Humphrey.
At the start of YOU season 2, Joe finds himself in Los Angeles. Eager to start fresh after the dramatic events of season 1, Joe assumes the identity of “Will Bettelheim.” He makes a concerted effort to work on the issues that have plagued him for most of his life. Similarly, the series attempts to earn sympathy for Joe by delving deeper into his past and showing the character as someone who can occasionally make the right decision. YOU also took big creative swings in its sophomore outing, putting several characters in the line of danger and framing an episode almost entirely from the perspective of a hallucinating, drugged up Joe. YOU will be free to take on even bigger plotting surprises going forward.
Today, Love carries heartbreak and complexities of her own. Behind the camera, co-creators Sera Gamble and Greg Berlanti will be back as executive producers. Gamble also serves as showrunner.
Given that YOU season 2 dropped in December 2019, it’s going to be a bit of a long wait for the third outing. Gamble has left fans with plenty of possibilities to debate. The disagreements and discussions about the series, which sometimes involve Badgley himself, will hopefully be enough to tide audiences over until there’s a clearer picture of what season 3 will look like.
The biggest challenge for the thriller is baked into the premise, however. Joe is a problematic protagonist, to say the least. Showing him as a mentor to a young neighbor, as well as highlighting that he can intermittently be a normal guy, doesn’t change the fact that he tends to cause irreparable damage to those in his orbit. It remains to be seen whether YOU can pull off being an enjoyable cautionary tale for season 3, but the show has had impressive success so far.
