Penn Badgley’s up to his old tricks in the third season of Netflix’s You
The Gossip Girl alum’s sparkling yet terrifying chemistry with Victoria Pedretti galvanizes the show even when it starts to retrace its steps


For Netflix’s You, one frenzied murderer simply isn’t enough—the engrossing thriller doubles down on its winning formula in season three. Last season, Joe (Penn Badgley) met his match while searching for true love: His partner Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti) was revealed to be just as unhinged as he is. In an entertaining but not wholly surprising season three, Joe and Love are married and ready to wreak havoc in the small town of Madre Linda. The couple initially attempt to rein in their bloody urges for the sake of their newborn son, Henry. The two serial killers want to at least try to be good role models.
It doesn’t take long for them to resort to their old tricks. Joe digs out his trusty blue baseball cap—his version of Clark Kent wearing glasses to conceal his identity—to stalk his married neighbor, Natalie Engler (Michaela McManus). Love becomes suspicious, even as she forms a bond with Natalie’s flirty stepson Theo (Dylan Arnold). (Scott Speedman sporadically appears as Natalie’s stoic husband, Matthew, a tech entrepreneur with quite an agenda.) As the Quinn-Goldbergs fall into old patterns and the body count eventually starts to rise, You takes a familiar shape as well.
You continues to offer multiple, increasingly chaotic twists. Fun curveballs are probably expected now for anyone who has devoured the two previous seasons and become familiar with the show’s structure. But You’s mechanical approach still works because the episodes successfully heighten the stakes. Joe isn’t the only committing crimes. In fact, he might be slightly more in control of himself than his wife. (Only slightly.)
As Love is impulsive and wild, Pedretti is absolutely riveting as she seethes in rage, steeps in sorrow, and at a moment’s notice, transforms into a homicidal maniac. The actor’s work in The Haunting Of Hill House and The Haunting Of Bly Manor, or even in You season two was sweet and ingenuous, which makes her dark, expressive turn digging into Love’s pathos even more chilling. Love’s portrayal is bolstered by Pedretti’s sparkling yet terrifying chemistry with Badgley, whose provocative performance makes Joe’s inner monologues almost daunting.