TV review: You Season 3
So Squid Game has been knocked off the No. 1 spot on Netflix's Top 10 in the US by TV's most charismatic stalker-serial killer.
The third season of popular psychological romance thriller You is back, with Penn Badgley and Victoria Pedretti reprising their roles as homicidal couple Joe Goldberg and Love Quinn.
And considering it unseated the Korean megahit almost instantly after premiering on Oct 15, it is no wonder season 4 of You was greenlit even before the air date.
Here, the pair escape their previous crimes and seek redemption by moving to the Californian suburb of Madre Linda from Los Angeles - think Desperates Housewives' Wisteria Lane.
But there is no happily ever after behind a picturesque white picket fence life for the new parents of an infant boy, even with the clean slate and fresh start.
When Joe becomes increasingly disconnected from his wife and baby, and in his never-ending hunt to find his next true love, he gets entangled with the sultry next-door neighbour (Michaela McManus).
But let's just say Love throws a spanner in the works and takes things into her own hands.
Changing You's scenery every season does help it avoid settling into a rut, but old habits die hard.
Bad, bloody choices are made in a fit of jealous rage.
Secrets and bodies need to get buried ASAP.
And yes, there is another glass box in the basement.
There is some novelty this season, in that Joe is not alone in his sociopathy any longer, having met his match - and then some - in his impulsive, violently unpredictable life partner Love, which comforts yet scares him.
The pair settle into a performative life of domestic drudgery, finding jobs, getting along with the neighbours who range from vacuous to two-faced to mysterious, and even attending couples therapy together.
Still, they cannot seem to shake off their darker impulses and end up covering even more tracks.
As much as Badgley and Pedretti are a formidable team, their characters' hot mess shenanigans can wear thin and feel awfully familiar.
By the time Joe zeroes in on another target, driven by his compulsions to repeat patterns of behaviour, we feel like we are simply going through the motions from previous seasons all over again.
You remains a twisted guilty pleasure that will entertain its most fervent fans, but my own obsession with it is waning unless it shows me something more.
SERIES: You 3
STARRING: Penn Badgley, Victoria Pedretti, Saffron Burrows, Scott Speedman, Michaela McManus
CREATORS: Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble
THE SKINNY: Joe (Badgley) and Love (Pedretti) are raising their newborn son in the Californian suburb of Madre Linda, but he continues to repeat the cycle of obsession when he becomes infatuated with his unhappily married neighbour (McManus) - with fatal consequences.
SHOWING ON: Netflix
RATING: M18
Score : 3/5
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