REVIEW | The hotly anticipated You S4 is still a good watch despite missing its usual chaotic charisma

Starting anew in London, Joe vows to bury the past and be his best self. But on the rocky road to redemption, a new obsession takes hold.

One of the most anticipated Netflix shows of the year is back - this time, however, Joe has taken his peeping ways to the other side of the world. With a new identity, a new job and a new circle of terrible people, the man we hate to love has the tables turned on him as he becomes someone else's prey. 

You's appeal has always been hard to describe; its audience asked to root for an obviously awful human being, but you just can't look away from Joe's consistent ability to make cataclysmically bad decisions. With the first part of season four, its showrunners have decided to switch things up by turning Joe's life into a whodunnit among Britain's elites, but it's a hard task to top the chaotic charisma of Love and her story arc in the previous season.

Unfortunately, this is the first season of You, where I feel like it's missing some of its sparkle and charm. Season three left us with many questions regarding Joe and Marienne, whether they will find each other and if the consequences of Love's death will follow Joe to Europe. Instead of continuing that thread, it's clumsily tied up in one go as the series moves on to a completely new and separate chapter. I understand the series has to evolve, as well as our main murderer, but it felt a bit anticlimactic as Love and Marienne are replaced by the slightly less charming Kate, a gallery manager dating one of Joe's coworkers and friends with a group of self-entitled rich kids, socialites and wannabe big-deals.

We also have a mysterious stalker obsessed with Joe, torturing him with details of his past life, but they also end up less intriguing and exciting than Joe's previous nemeses. Perhaps if Jenna Ortega was able to reprise her role as the sister of the investigative reporter killed by Love, it would have added a bit more thrill to the story.

This season also gives us a far more self-aware Joe, now Jonathan the Professor, and I wonder if that's also why the show's charm has slightly diminished this season. His delusions around love and relationships were part of what kept you hooked. Although he still has his moments, this 'healthier' Joe is not nearly as entertaining. He's far less the bad guy, and for some, it might seem like good character development, which it is, but personally not exactly what I want from You. However, this has nothing to do with Penn Badgley's performance, who knows the character inside out and has perfected the spaced-out look whenever we hear Joe's iconic narration. It's instead a writing choice than a director or acting choice, and hopefully, it pans out in the show's final run.

It's still a good watch as there are enough other awful people to laugh about and great performances from Tilly Keeper, Charlotte Ritchie and Ben Wiggins. I'm curious if my disappointed sentiment will change when part two drops in March, as it did with Stranger Things. With other shows, this kind of season split might work, but a show like You needs the full season to tell its story effectively or a weekly episode drop to keep anticipation high. The only hype left for part two is a teaser of a shot of Love, Joe's true paramour and equal, which indicates probably a back flash or ghostly haunt, proving that they're still riding the coattails of that explosively fantastic season three. 

I still love You, but this season is just not getting me as excited as it once did. It's not because of them rehashing the same tropes - this is probably the biggest deviation from their formula yet - but rather that they might be evolving the character in the wrong direction. I stand to be hopefully corrected when part two drops - perhaps they'll be able to convince me that a healthier Joe is a better Joe. We'll wait and see.

WATCH THE TRAILER HERE: