The fourth season of the popular television series “You” was released on Feb. 9, 2023 on the popular streaming platform Netflix. Each season consists of the main character Joe Goldberg, played by Penn Padgley, finding a new love interest and inevitably ruining it through his obsessive and controlling personality. Time and time again Joe proves that he will do anything, even murder, to keep his romantic relationships.

In the first three seasons of the show, Joe finds different new love interests and his obsessive personality causes the relationships to quickly turn south. In the first season, he obsesses over Guinevere Beck, played by Elizabeth Lail, and goes out of his way to eliminate any sort of competition for Beck’s attention through conducting various schemes and murders.

His character is understood as a mentally ill individual who murders anyone who comes in between him and his current love interest. He stalks and finds the perfect moment to kill them to ensure that he does not raise any suspicion and no one will know that he was the one who committed the crimes.

In both seasons two and three, Goldberg finds Love Quinn, played by Veronica Pedretti, is his love interest following his move from New York to Los Angeles. His main goal is to keep the relationship afloat at any cost.

In season three, the obsession with Quinn continues and they get married and have a newborn son named Henry. Throughout the season, his obsession moves from Quinn to their neighbor Natalie Engler, played by Michaela McManus. Quinn realizes and murders Engler to save their marriage. In the end, Goldberg murders Quinn and leaves for a new love interest, Marrienne Bellamy, played by Tati Gabriell, the local librarian, leading to the next season.
In the fourth season, Goldberg moves across the globe to London and takes on the persona of Jonathan Moore, an English professor at Darcy College. He meets Kate Galvin, played by Charlotte Ritchie and Malcolm, played by Stephen Hagan, at the college and saves Kate from a potential kidnapping.

He then becomes obsessed with her and learns all about her friends and becomes engrossed in her friend group, similar to his actions in the previous seasons. He goes to events and parties with them but at one, a character dies and Goldberg goes on a quest to find who was behind it.

In season four, the overall filming is done well, but the plot gets confusing and somewhat lost throughout the course of the episodes due to the fact that multiple things were happening at once. While Goldberg tries to figure out the killer, the show gets a little bit confusing because it also focuses on his feelings for Kate and there are a lot of side characters to keep up with. Although the use of multiple plots blurs the focus of the season, it keeps viewers engaged as Goldberg comes close to revealing who he thinks is the killer more than once.

All in all,season four of “You” is a collection of intriguing episodes that leaves viewers wanting more. The season is packed with multiple plots at the same time but leaves viewers feeling confused with many things happening at once.. Although the start of each season feels repetitive with Goldberg falling in love and becoming obsessed, the show is still entertaining. In seasons one through three, it is observed that Goldberg is hunting his victims whereas now the perspective shifts as Joe is the one being hunted.

This season was completely different from the first three because Goldberg falls in love with an ordinary woman leading an average life. In season four, it is seen that Goldberg falls for a wealthy woman leading a very luxurious life. Continuing with the differences, in the past Goldberg is usually the one to kill whereas now it felt like he was the one going to be killed.

Many state that they did not enjoy the season but I personally did due to the dramatic shifts within the seasons. I also liked the season because there were not nearly as many murders which allowed the season to have more variety rather than stay repetitive.

Viewers were able to learn and see different sides of all the characters. They saw a more vulnerable side of Goldberg rather than the usual cold hearted murderer. Watchers also were left on a cliffhanger for the next season, making viewers anticipate for more.

Ultimately, season four of “You” kept viewers engaged. The multiple plot lines within the season allowed for watchers to want more after each episode. The acting brought the entertainment to a higher level and the perspective changes gave something conceptually different for viewers.