WHEN LOVE IS HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT :- REVIEWING “YOU”
Something in us, draws us to the rosy allure of romantic cinema. We cannot resist, the coquettish charms, passionate romances, and beloved gestures of courtship, all broadcast to us, in the name of love. One show, however mocks these beloved tropes. With content, that although can be said to be a “guilty pleasure” in its own right Netflix’s “You” jeeringly entertains by mocking an entire genre, with humorously dark jibes.
Joe Goldberg, the protagonist (or Anti-Hero, depending on how you look at it) is in search of this “idyllic love”, unblemished by the vices of the world and pure, innocent and unconditional at heart. Sounds, completely reasonable were it not for the fact that, in each time, his lofty hopes are pulverized devastatingly, by his loves. Love after all is a leap of faith, where perils and surprises must be faced with equal fortitude, by the lover. It cannot be coercively elicited from a companion or significant other, and is purely subject to vagaries of human nature. Joe’s love is not just conditional, but worryingly assertive and demanding. From the opening, he displays straits, typical of the classic sociopath; his obsession with his lovers, drives him to unfathomable lengths, including stalking, spying, manipulation, deception and murder. Joe’s voice-overs as a narrator, draws viewers into his psychologically and morally scrambled world, where his personality (shaped by early childhood experiences), thrusts his impulse to engage in what he does, and powers his self-justification for the heinous acts he commits. Venturing, deeper into his world, one realizes, just how psychologically battered, Joe is, and how this is then manifested in his relationships, and shapes his outlook on love. Joe’s transgressions, are never for once condone, as he is not always successful while trying to hide his skeletons in the closet (both metaphorical and literal sense of the word), and this in turn jeopardizes his endeavour.
Alongside the playful thrills offered by “You” , a more intriguing question comes to mind, on what is probably the most constant, theme in the show; love. The cult of love, it seems is ubiquitous and thriving in cinema, throughout the world. With Hollywood’s popular “The Notebook”, “Love Actually”, and “The Diary of Bridget Jones”, love is celebrated throughout the world, and a sense of almost child-like yearning, within us all resides to experiences the wonder and drama of romantic love (notwithstanding Hollywood’s intent to cash in on our fantasies). We wish to partake in the passion, excitement and intimacy, offered by being in a romantic love , yet dismiss, its risks and imperfections. The paradox of love, including romantic love is that, its very experience is also reflective of its own terrible pathology. In both his relationships, Joe is cheated on by his romantic, partners, whom he loves a lot. A short lived period of romantic bliss marked by physical and emotional passion gives way to a great degree of uncertainty, where Joe, to his shock finds out that they had cheated on him. The lovers by themselves are not perfect and battle a range of familial and emotional problems. Why, this period of romantic passion, did not by then also reveal problems lingering in the relationship, then comes to question. Joe’s own pathology, leads him to obsess over finding the perfect love, and prevents him from confronting issues so fundamental to him such as his social handicap, emotional inadequacy, and a morbid fear of being let down. The confluence of all these factors then brings forth the downfall of the relationship. The question of finding the “Ideal love”, too is brought out with a blistering, yet almost satirical ease. Joe, throughout, never faces a dearth of romantic attention, as such, With boyish good looks, and coy charm, Joe, does in fact have a range of potential suitors, yet he is either dismissive of or has casual relationships with them. His mind, intent on a goal, which he has idealized, so much, he turns a blind eye to everything else, not realizing that this goal is either too abstract, or that he has glorified it beyond his own possible imagination. Our imagination of the ideal, is often less glamourous than its reality, much the same way the idea of a country, is not the same as its reality. Joe’s dejection then is as much a source of being unresolved from the inside, than it is from the outside. Joe’s lovers too, while making dysfunctional life decisions, are also torn from the inside. Extending, this logic then, the yearning for romantic fulfilment, is actually be a reflection of being resolved from the inside. In trying to look for the ideal partner, as opposed to projecting our romantic archetypes on others, should we not try then to build a capacity for fulfilment within us?