YOU.
It’s on Netlifx, it’s on social media, it’s on your brain as you attempt to go to sleep after watching six episodes in a row but you can’t because now you’re scared somebody’s got access to your group chat without your knowledge.
Essentially, it’s everywhere, and we are powerless to stop it.
For the past few weeks, people have been enthralled, creeped out, and generally entertained by the psychological thriller.
If you haven’t got a clue what all of the fuss is about, you can check out a brief summary of events here, but if you have got a clue what all the fuss is about, you’re probably also aware of one of the more troubling reactions to the series – people fancying Joe Goldberg.
Not Penn Badgley himself – that would be grand and totally understandable – but Joe. The serial killer stalker.
While the vast majority of people are most likely aware that being into Joe’s whole entirely questionable and rather un-ideal vibe is very problematic, others just can’t help romanticising the guy who kills people to get closer to women and then keeps their tampons in secret boxes in his apartment.
Spoilers if you haven’t finished the series yet.
The problem has been become so rampant over the past few days that Penn Badgley has even taken it upon himself to respond to a couple of Joe’s ‘fans’ on Twitter.
Here’s a taste of what he’s been dealing with.
A: He is a murderer https://t.co/g2g4f3JvaF
— Penn Badgley (@PennBadgley) January 9, 2019
Ditto. It will be all the motivation I need for season 2. https://t.co/fy2hojauDG
— Penn Badgley (@PennBadgley) January 9, 2019
…of problems, right? https://t.co/9NmOGWvSYb
— Penn Badgley (@PennBadgley) January 9, 2019
No thx https://t.co/VnBqJ3JoxG
— Penn Badgley (@PennBadgley) January 9, 2019
Badgley’s responses are important for a couple of reasons.
The first is that a lot of his tweets lately have been about humanitarian crises and straight promotion of his work so you know that this is something he wants to address.
The second is that he’s not about to play into the warped promotion of his character as some sort of misunderstood city boy who just needs a bit of loving. Or a man that young women should want to be pursued by.
Joe is none of those things. Like Badgley says, he’s a murderer – that’s it.
Badgley’s casting as the psychopathic serial killer is no mistake.
He wasn’t owed a favour by some top TV exec, he didn’t just stroll into the role and everyone was like yeah alright we guess we’ll keep him?
Sure he probably nailed his audition, but he’s also an extremely traditionally handsome, and naturally charming, man.
His jaw is chiselled from marble and yet his facial features are soft. He’s forceful looking yet entirely unassuming. As the title of the series’ second episode suggests, he’s the only nice guy left in New York.
That’s what he is, and that’s what he looks like – nice. And that’s why the show works so well, why it’s so unnerving, and why people have been so sufficiently creeped out by it.
Look at Ted Bundy, look at Richard Ramirez, look at any killer who’s ever used their charm, good looks, and general trustworthy demeanour to lure victims into a false sense of security and, eventually, to their deaths.
YOU pushed its depictions of obsession and violence so far so that there could be no doubt as to their danger.
A show entirely about a man stalking a woman who is in turn in love with him risks becoming muddled. Its messages are confused by the scenes of sex and moments of happiness peppered throughout.
Those who have experienced similar situations may know what they are, but others could mistake the man’s obsession for nothing more than intense interest. They risk seeing an extremely unhealthy relationship as something ideal, something to be wanted.
YOU did a lot to try and ensure that this wouldn’t happen.
They made Joe’s intentions of murder explicitly clear from the word go. They didn’t dance around with the idea that he might just be a bit of a weirdo who didn’t know how to act around women.
They turned an Average Joe into a stalker, someone who steals phones, deciphers passwords, and locks lads in underground boxes beneath his bookstore.
They made a handsome, nice, intelligent guy your worst nightmare – and begged you to recognise him for what he is.
And really, that’s the point of it all. The killer isn’t some old, actively creepy, mongrel Beck met down a dark alley on her way home from the pub – he’s the guy you know, love, and trust, and that makes him so much more horrifying.
Get to the end of the series (or Jesus, even the end of the first episode) and there will be no doubt in your mind that Joe is not a hero.
Joe is a killer, he’s a stalker, he’s an abuser, and he is not the ideal. There’s nothing romantic about obsession – it’s unhealthy and it’s dangerous, and YOU – both the show and the book – have depicted the extreme end of dodgy.
It’s right there, you can’t miss it.
Fancy Penn Badgley all you want, like. He’s a handsome guy, he’s talented, he seems lovely. Go for it.
But Joe Goldberg is the worst. Like, literally the worst.
He’s a serial killer stalker who keeps loose teeth in a little box above his toilet – and you can do better.
