You (Season 4)
One of the enjoyable, more enduring Netflix series has been You, starring Penn Badgley.
After a third season that flattered to deceive, becoming a little stale, the tables appear to be turning for Joe as he turns up in the new season as a Professor in a London University. Perhaps unsurprisingly, perhaps not, the shoe would appear be on the other foot.
Joe (Johnathan this time around) continues to do what he's always done. He has been pursuing love compulsively and obsessively, narrating his innermost thoughts to the audience all the live long day. I mean really, he's a proper chatterbox. His previous efforts in matters of the heart have not ended well, so imagine his surprise as he escapes the clutches of the authorities in the United States and becomes embroiled in murder once more, just on our side of the pond.
Cue a collection of UK talent being thrown into the mix with the likes of Charlotte Ritchie and Sean Pertwee to name but two. Both familiar faces on UK screens, but maybe less well known by the usual transatlantic viewer.
Maybe an unusual direction to take, given the franchise's history thus far but the stranger in a strange land dynamic works well enough to keep Joe (Johnathan) on his toes, even if the hole he finds himself in is maybe not what we would immediately expect and really, not of his own making, this time around. Badgley's smart, understated version of a serial killer at odds with himself has always been occasionally anarchic and you can still see the helter-skelter in his eyes when the time calls for it. 'Aaah, there he is', we said, breathing out again.
This has always been engaging and the characters here are catnip as much as any other season, if slightly more tight-lipped. Not mention rich. Very, very rich. Five episodes in and I'm as keen to get the next episode as I was for the previous four. It may not be highbrow plot-wise, but Joe's internal monologue is often inspired and most often dark as the killer he really is. More fun than it really should be, given the subject matter, but fun nonetheless and a step up again from a mostly disappointing third season.