Critics trash “insultingly rubbish” ‘You’ finale: “By god did this series need a mercy killing”

The latest season of Netflix’s You has been met with scathing reviews from critics, who have described it as “insultingly rubbish” and arguing that “fans deserve better”.

• READ MORE: Here’s every song on the ‘You’ season five soundtrack

The hit thriller comes to a close after seven years and five seasons, with the latest seeing Penn Badgley’s Joe returning to New York to live a new live peacefully with his wife Kate (Charlotte Ritchie). However, his dark past soon begins to catch up with him.

Fans were anxiously waiting to what became of Joe, but The Guardian says the conclusion was a letdown. “Largely it plods towards the end, through a series of increasingly convoluted and repetitive plot twists that are silly even by You’s standards. Around halfway through, it kicks into gear with a twist that gives some much-needed propulsion, and fittingly, for a swansong, there are plenty of fan-pleasing cameos and callbacks to earlier storylines”.

Writer Rebecca Nicholson concluded: “But as it signs off forever, You has no choice but to deal with Joe. It does so with a final scene that manages to be borderline insulting to the viewers who have stuck with it. It’s not You, but you, it suggests, that is the problem. Ironically, for a season all about elites, I found that a bit rich”.

The iPaper’s Emily Baker concurred, writing: “Ending a story as complicated as Joe’s trail of dead bodies is no easy feat, particularly when its audience is rooting for the bad guy. Turns out it’s this exact problem that propels You to its ultimate finale and the titular “you” – previously used by Joe to refer to his lovers/victims – is used to refer to the audience.

“It seems like a smart, unexpected move, but it really only confirms the conclusion that most of us came to after the very first season: that those of us supporting Joe and romanticising his behaviours are just as much of the problem.

She continued: “It’s not fair to throw the book at those of us who have stuck around so long, and the presumption that we haven’t been engaging with You on any intellectual level is insulting. After sticking by a so-bad-it’s-good series for so long, fans deserve better”.

Maddy Mussen of The Standard that the season is: “Same old, same old. It’s like watching the first episode of Love Island at this point — you know it like the back of your hand”. Of the ending, she wrote: “It’s almost as if the finale was written as a bottle episode entirely independent from the events of the rest of the series — so much so that I’d honestly advise those who are considering giving up midway through season five to skip to the finale so they can bid a proper farewell to Joe Goldberg”.

She concluded: “By god did this series need a mercy killing already. I’m just glad it’s finally been put out of its misery”.

Kayleigh Donaldson of The Wrap suggested that the show didn’t anticipate the popularity of its protagonist. “In the era of true crime, incels, and #MeToo, You was a curiously fitting show that sought to dissect a cultural sickness with a sly nod,” she wrote, “but it has long struggled to contend with those who were too taken by its antagonist”.

She continued: “Penn Badgley had to warn fans against siding with Joe. That may have been the best sign that the show was doing its job well, however much that made our stomachs churn to admit it. Alas, in its final season, You flinched”.

All episodes of season five of You are currently available on Netflix. Recently, NME ran down every one of Joe’s victims in the series.

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