You (TV Series)

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About

You is an American thriller television series based on a novel of the same name. The series follows New York bookstore manager who falls in love and stalks a customer. The series initially premiered on the Lifetime television network but was later purchased by Netflix and titled a "Netflix Original."

History

On February 11th, 2015, Deadline reported that an adaptation of the novel You was in development for the premium cable network Showtime.^[1] Two years later, the cable network Lifetime purchased the series and later ordered a 10-episode season.^[2] Prior to its premiere, Lifetime announced a second season for the series.^[3] On May 9th, Netflix purchased the international rights to the series, allowing them to air it as a "Netflix Original."^[4]

That month, a trailer for the series premiered online (shown below).

On September 9th, the series premiered on Lifetime in the United States. Three months later, on December 3rd, Lifetime announced that they would not be airing season two because the show would be moving to Netflix exclusively.^[5] A spokesperson for Lifetime said in a statement:

Lifetime had an incredible experience working with Greg Bertlanti, Sera Gamble and the entire team on ‘You’ for season one. We wish the cast and crew the best as the series continues on at Netflix and can’t wait for the opportunity to work with the creative team again.

Reception

The series received positive-to-mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregator Metacritic^[6] rated the series a 74 based on 16 reviews. Fellow aggregator Rotten Tomatoes ^[7] gave the series a "certified fresh" 89% rating based on 38 reviews. In their critics consensus, the site wrote, "You pairs thrilling drama with trashy fun to create an addictive social media horror story that works its way under the skin -- and stays there."

Fandom

On August 23rd, 2017, the Twitter^[10] account for the series launched. Within a year and a half, the account has received more than 28,000 followers.

Joe Is a Murderer

Online, fans of the show began posting that they would like to be one of Joe's (the series antagonist portrayed by Penn Badgley) victims. Following several of these posts, Badgley began responding to these posts by reminding fans that Joe is a disturbed and dangerous character by posting that the character is a murderer (examples below).

On January 9th, 2019, Twitter published Moments^[8] page on the post. That day, The Daily Dot ^[9] published a listicle on the tweets.

Millie Bobby Brown Instagram Story

On January 14th, 2019, actress Millie Bobby Brown uploaded Instagram stories praising the show's protagonist, saying "He's not creepy, he's in love with her." That day, Twitter user @ivarsforbes reposted the Instagram story, which received more than 3.33 million views within 48 hours (shown below).

Brown's statements were widely criticized for sympathizing with a murderous stalker. The following day, The Daily Dot published an article about the controversy, highlighting several tweets mocking Brown's statements.