Spoiler-Free Review for You 3

 Here's my specific-spoiler-free review of the third season of You, just up on Netflix yesterday, and superb:

1.  Joe and Love make an excellent killer couple, literally, with true love for their baby.

2.  Joe continues his literary panache, working in a library.

3. There are a plethora of people in the suburbs who could be Joe's undoing, or, at very least, many more than usual.

4.  The dialogue and ambience are hipper than ever.  At some point, someone remarks that "no one uses Tumblr" any more.  (Well, I still use it, but I'm not that hipt.)  Love's mother also says she's taking a Lyft (not an Uber).

5. You won't be able to predict the ending, unless you make a very lucky guess.

6. I don't think I said this in my reviews of You 1 and You 2, but Joe's self-narration reminds me a lot of Dexter's.  Speaking of which, I'm very glad that series is coming back on Showtime on November 7.  I'll definitely be reviewing it here.

7. As in the first two seasons, the acting in You 3 was outstanding.  Penn Badgley is great again as Joe, and Victoria Pedretti perfect as Love. I also especially liked Tati Gabrielle as Marienne and Dylan Arnold as Theo.   All of these performances ranged from charming to frightened to in some cases frightening, which in effect is the essence of this series.

Netflix has already commissioned a fourth season -- I'll see back here shortly after it starts streaming.  See You then.

See also:  You: Review from an Unconflicted Fan ... You 2: Killer Charm

 

Amazing Stories (2020) 1.1: "The Cellar": The Tops

I finally had a chance to take a bite out of Apple TV+'s reboot of Amazing Stories (it's so quiet when I write, you can sometimes hear a pun drop),  and I thought I'd tell you what I thought of it.

First, I should mention that I haven't read any of the reviews.  I really have no idea if people loved or hated this episode. or just felt blah about it, and the same about the other four episodes in this inaugural season.   As readers of this blog will know, I'm often at odds with myopic, dyspeptic critics, and that would be the case for this first episode, because, well, I really enjoyed it.

In part, that's because I'm a sucker for most time travel stories, being an author of same myself, and a fan long before I started publishing.   But there's a difference between liking and loving.   In order for me to really thoroughly enjoy a time travel story, it has to be done right.  Meaning, it has to take some account of the inherent paradoxes in time travel, and make some attempt to deal with them.

So let's begin with the general observation that there are two types of travel-to-the past stories.  One, in which the protagonist tries to do something to improve the course of history, like killing Hitler before he got to power or saving Socrates from the hemlock (a course I chose in The Plot to Save Socrates).  The other is do something in the past to improve your subsequent personal life (as in the movie, Peggy Sue Got Married).  "The Cellar" is the latter.

In order for such a time travel story to work, you have to have appealing, sensitive characters, and if on the screen, played by actors who project that.  Dylan O'Brien does a good job of that as Sam, who renovates houses with his brother, and travels instantly 100 years into the past (2019 -> 1919), when a fierce storm causes some extreme drop in pressure when Sam's in the cellar.  (I think Frequency had some kind of storm as the time-travel or communication back in time trigger.  Fine with me).  Victoria Pedretti who played a completely kind of character in You plays Evelyn in "The Cellar," and does a great job of playing a young woman in 1919, which isn't easy.   The dress, music, and other aspects of 1919 life in Iowa were spot on, as far as I know, and that made for a crisp, colorful, believable narrative.

I won't say anything more about the plot, except the obvious that of course the course of true love never did run smooth, and that's especially true when it comes to time travel.  But the twists and turns are not predictable, and the ending even tucks in an alternate reality which is always nice to see in a time travel tale.

I'm definitely going to watch the other four episodes of this series, and I'll be back here with reviews.

See also Amazing Stories (2020) 1.2: "The Heat": Life After Life ...  Amazing Stories (2020) 1.3: "Dynoman and The Volt!": Sweet Superpowers... Amazing Stories (2020) 1.4: "Signs of Life": Happy Revivals ...  Amazing Stories (2020) 1.5: "The Rift": Time Travel and a Candy Bar

 

You 2: Killer Charm

Well, it's rare that a mystery or thriller surprises me with almost all of its twists, but the second season of You, now streaming on Netflix, did just that.  And with the same wit and style that lit up the first season, maybe even more.  All of which adds up to a highly, often immensely, enjoyable second season of this literate and introspective serial killer.

Joe Goldberg worked in a bookstore in New York City in season one.  Now he's trying to establish a new identity out in LA.  He employs his time-honored way of making things happen: he locks a guy up in his basement and assumes his identity.  Just before he falls in love with Love.  Well, Joe was already in love with love, certainly obsessed with it. but this Love is Love Quinn, perfectly played by Victoria Pedretti, whom I last noticed in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

But she's just outstanding in You, down to that smile she gives us when she realizes that she's finally getting Joe to sleep with her.  Her character is complex, to say the least, and I actually liked her even more than Guinevere Beck in the first season, as Joe's all-consuming passion.

[big spoilers ahead]

And the plot is brilliant.  Here are some of the surprises I didn't get:  Joe letting the real Will go - the guy whose identity Joe stole.  The best surprises are well-motivated, and this one was a logical result of Joe wanting to really be a good person, as part of his love for Love.  The cop killing Forty at the end, and, for that matter, Forty figuring out that Joe killed Beck et al back in New York.  Candace's deployment was not surprising, but very well played.

The one big twist I sort of saw coming - indeed, the biggest twist in the season - was Love killing Delilah, etc.  I put her at the top of the list via process of elimination, behind Love's parents, all higher as would-be protectors of Joe than Joe himself, which have been too obvious.  And I can't say I was thrilled by the very very ending, with Joe starting to fantasize about the neighbor we don't really see.  But, hey, I liked seeing Huxley's Brave New World among her books, and that's just entree to the next season.

All of this is brought to life not only by great acting - the scenes with Joe (also perfectly acted, by Penn Badgley) and Love are nonpareil - but sparkling dialogue, mostly from Joe, often interior, as when he grumbles that "this is what I get for trying to out-tech a teenager" (Ellie) or "the robots are not our friends".  Yeah, though Joe is social media-literate enough, his true talent are words and word-play in the Victorian tradition, and thus he's often challenged by latest tech, all of which adds to his charm.

And charming might be one of the best words to describe this second killer season.



See also: You: Review from an Unconflicted Fan ... Spoiler-Free Review for You 3