‘YOU’ Season 4, Part 1 review: Penn Badgley returns with more guilty pleasures and murder-mysteries

A still from season four of ‘You’

Season 4 of You is so silly that it is unbridled fun. Split in two, the next five episodes are dropping on March 9, 2023. The psychological thriller (yes, that was its original trajectory) based on Caroline Kepnes’ remarkably acute social-media teardown novels, finds Joe (Penn Badgley) in London.

Now a university professor with tweeds and suspenders (he is described as a “bargain bin Colin Firth”), the serial killer-book lover goes by the name of Jonathan Moore. When not setting his earnest students on each other in pitched ideological battles, he spies on his neighbours, Malcolm (Stephen Hagan) and Kate (Charlotte Ritchie).

Dissolute Malcolm is Joe’s colleague and introduces him to a depraved swish set who bathe in sea of booze, blow and privilege. There is Lady Phoebe (Tilly Keeper), who is as sweet as she is rich. Phoebe is seeing the equally rich and slightly dim-witted Adam (Lukas Gage) who owns Sundry House where the group hangs out. 

The gang includes a Chinese technocrat’s children, pretentious artist Simon (Aidan Cheng) and Sophie, (Niccy Lin) a supercilious influencer. Gemma Graham-Greene (Eve Austin) achieves an A for awfulness, what with making her chauffeur run over woodland creatures for fun. Blessing (Ozioma Whenu) is a Nigerian princess with many degrees, wealth and no time for the plebs. Roald (Ben Wiggins) and Connie (Dario Coates) complete the degenerate group.

The icy, ferociously-intelligent Kate with a voice as sharp as her blunt bob, seems to be the only one who works for a living. Rhys (Ed Speleers), a poor boy who joined Oxford on a scholarship, is the outsider in the group. He is a successful writer, mayoral hopeful and endears himself to Joe with his viciously accurate pen portraits including “Simon tore through people like Christmas presents”.

In the first episode, Joe is determined to start afresh, proving he has given up his murderous ways by letting his love from last season, Marienne (Tati Gabrielle) go and leaving his infant son with a caring family. However blood and books can never be too far from Joe no matter what name he goes by, and the first episode ends with Joe waking up from a night of bacchanalian excess to a corpse on his table.

And he is back to the bone saws, the protective eyewear and the black bin bags; does he travel with a body disposal kit? Suddenly Joe finds himself in a whodunit, which he describes as “the lowest form of literature.” Very ouch.

One of his students, Nadia, (Amy-Leigh Hickman) informs him of the basic rules of whodunits including that, “the first suspect is always the second victim,” without a mention of twins. As each entitled friend is bumped off by the Eat-the-Rich killer, against the backdrop of a media-feeding frenzy, the remainder of the group hole up in Phoebe’s country mansion.

Joe finds himself in an episode of “ The Crown directed by Guy Ritchie” as he runs for his life, tries to find the killer, and gets rid of some surplus suspects. While Vampire Weekend sings of Oxford commas, and there is mention of Edgar Allan Poe, there is not much literature love in this edition of You. And horror of horrors, Joe secretes a garrote in a hole cut out of a book.

The cast is in on the joke and acts accordingly, posing languidly in designer duds, while Joe’s inner monologue maliciously rips through the various facades. Badgley says the show is taking on a new direction and that it does, by straying into murder-mystery territory. While season four will not stand up to any sort of scrutiny, its propulsive plot and smart-ish writing ensure the five episodes zip by on well-oiled rails of guilty pleasure. Will March 9 come already?

Season 4 of You is currently streaming on Netflix