New York City and Los Angeles are known for stereotypes about the people living there. In season two of Netflix’s series of “You,” book enthusiast Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), makes the move from New York to California following the events of last season’s finale. There, he takes over a new identity of Will Bettleheim in a new city full of new people trying to learn from his mistakes. 

Season two of the thriller series aired on Dec. 26 and includes 10 more episodes. The first introduced main characters of Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), her brother, Forty (James Scully), and Joe’s neighbor, Ellie Alves (Jenna Ortega), who all have interesting character arcs throughout the whole season. 

Fan favorite Joe Goldberg makes viewers empathize with him, even though they know his past mistakes from New York including stalking and murder. His sympathy and honesty seem to outshine his sociopathic tendencies. Experiencing the story from his point of view makes it feel like he is not as haunting as he would be if you were any of the other characters. Compared to last season, Joe is becoming more self-aware and less creepy, which adds to why he is a worthy character.

One of the best things about season two is that moments from season one do not mysteriously disappear, which makes everything seem complete. The story builds in a way that makes viewers have to watch season one to understand Joe’s entire character. Without season one, funny tidbits could be overlooked and deemed unimportant when they actually bring anticipated moments of familiarity.

In season one, each episode revolved around Joe and his previous girlfriend’s Beck’s relationship with tiny bits of  boring subplots. Episodes were often predictable and dragged on. With season two, that is not the case, even though the main focus is on Joe’s new relationship with Love. The focus is not too much since interesting subplots exist about Forty’s past addiction, Joe’s help of troublemaker Ellie, and Love’s get togethers with her other friends. These side stories make all the characters more interesting to watch. 

Season one left viewers wondering more about Joe’s traumatic childhood and what actually happened with his lovers-to-enemies relationship with Candace (Ambyr Childers). The story answers to all of these questions without getting cliche. 

Although “You” is a thriller, each episode contains just the right amount of comedy. Jokes are short and meaningful. The series does not want viewers laughing every scene, but humor builds characters and shows some light-heartedness within such a dark story. In a wonderful way, these moments take a brief but necessary break that viewers did not know they even needed. Even if just for a second, it is refreshing and restarts the cycle of wanting thrill and adventure.

Unlike many series “You” does not try to cram action into the last episode. Instead, every episode has the same thrill factors that make the series strong. 

However, all good things must come to an end with the season finale, but it does not disappoint. New twists and turns are cleverly revealed that viewers did not even think were possible. After, a big cliffhanger, though, fans have to wait until next year to see what happens next in season three.