I Liked the First Two Seasons of You, but After Season 3 I’m Done With the Show

 October 23, 2021

Season 3 of You dropped about a week ago, and I finally finished it today. And honestly? I was disappointed. I liked the first two seasons and was actually excited to see where the show would go next. But by the time the credits rolled on Season 3, I knew I was done.

Before I go any further, here’s your warning: spoilers from here on out. If you don't want to know what happens, stop now. For everyone else, let’s do quick recaps.

Season 1 Recap

You centers around Joe Goldberg — a stalker, a murderer, and somehow the “main character we’re supposed to follow.”
In Season 1, he meets Beck and instantly becomes obsessed with her. He stalks her online, follows her around, and quickly identifies her “competition.” Benji becomes Problem #1, and Joe solves that the way Joe does: by killing him.

Peach, Beck’s best friend, immediately sees Joe for what he is — a walking red flag. The two hate each other from the jump. Peach tries to pull Beck away from him, Joe gets paranoid, and their feud ends with Peach taking a bullet to the head and Joe staging it as suicide.

Once Peach is gone, Joe and Beck fall apart anyway — she cheats with her therapist, Joe spirals, they break up, get back together, break up again — the whole mess ends with Beck finding Joe’s creepy souvenir box. She tries to escape, but Joe kills her and pins it on the therapist. Her book gets published, she becomes posthumously famous, and Season 1 ends with Candace showing up alive, ready for revenge.

Season 2 Recap

Season 2 opens with Joe hiding from Candace and trying to start fresh. Enter Love — yes, that’s her name — who is basically Joe but with baking skills.

Candace inserts herself into Joe’s new life by dating Love’s twin brother Forty. Joe tries (and fails) to kill Candace again, Love tries (and succeeds) to kill Candace, and by the time the dust settles, Joe finds out that Love has her own history of murder.

Joe tries to kill Love but stops when she reveals she’s pregnant. They settle down, Forty gets killed by a cop, Joe and Love get married, and the season ends with Joe already obsessing over a new neighbor.

Season 3 Recap

Season 3 starts with Joe and Love trying (and failing) to adjust to suburban parenting. Joe gets interested in the neighbor’s wife. Love notices and… kills her. Casual.

Things snowball from there:

  • Love traps an anti-vaxxer dad in the cage

  • He kills himself

  • Joe and Love pin the neighbor’s murder on him

  • A PI shows up

  • Sherri and Cary get dragged into their chaos

  • Theo (the stepson) gets involved

  • Joe starts obsessing over Marianne

  • Love starts messing around with Theo

It all spirals until Love realizes Joe wants a divorce. She poisons him, thinks she paralyzed him, and plans to take out Marianne next. But Joe figured her out, countered the poison, and kills Love instead.

He fakes his death, leaves their baby with someone else, and heads off to Europe to start the cycle all over again — swearing to find Marianne.

Why I’m Done With the Show

When You first came out, I wasn’t even sure I’d like it. A show about a stalker/murderer as the main character is always tricky. You don’t root for Joe, but the show is built in a way where you kind of want to see what happens next — not because you like him, but because the narrative is compelling.

Season 1 made sense.
Season 2 made sense — Joe meeting his match in Love was actually a great direction.

But Season 3? It just felt pointless.

Joe ends up doing the same thing over and over again.
Obsess → cheat → stalk → kill → pretend to change → repeat.

There’s zero progression. And when a character never evolves, the story stops being interesting. Joe finding Love — someone just like him — should’ve been the shift the story needed. That was the natural place to evolve the concept.

Instead, Season 3 drags us right back into the same tired cycle. Joe kills Love and resets himself like nothing ever happened. So now if they bring out a Season 4, what am I supposed to get excited about?

Joe stalking someone else.
Joe killing someone else.
Joe convincing himself he’s the “good guy.”
Joe running away from the mess he created.

Again.

It’s not tension anymore — it’s formula.
And when the formula doesn’t change, it becomes predictable.
And when it’s predictable, it’s boring.

And honestly, at this point the show tiptoes dangerously close to glorifying Joe, whether that's the intent or not. Because what else are viewers expected to feel every season except, “Oh damn, how’s Joe going to get away with it this time?”

I liked the first two seasons.
Season 3 killed it for me — ironically the way Joe kills anything that gets too close.

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