“Suburbia is where people start to come apart” – says the protagonist of You season 3 and chief narcissist Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) cleverly manages to sum up the key plotline of the Netflix TV show’s third season in one of his quippy-yet-indulgent voiceovers.
After two seasons of inner-city-based murder, stalking and public masturbation, You season 3 transports the soul of the drama (what soul it has left, anyway) to the suburbs. To the neighbourhood of Madre Linda, specifically, which is full of tech hackers, “mommy bloggers” and white picket fences to hide the scandal (and bloodshed) behind.
This move magnifies the true dysfunction and toxicity of Love and Joe’s marriage – which could have been kept anonymous much more easily in a city – and it’s given us real Desperate Housewives vibes. Now that Love (played by Victoria Pedretti) and Joe have stepped into a close-knit, image-obsessed community – can they hide their most murderous of impulses from the busybodies living next door?
“Heartbreak is always a catalyst for a new path.”
After all, the most ridiculous, salacious and sometimes slapstick storylines of Desperate Housewives – which ran from 2004 to 2012 – weren’t necessarily about the wild acts of violence or infidelity themselves (a housewife stabbing herself to frame another, a husband having an affair with a prostitute, a long-ago sexual abuser being murdered by a vase and hidden during a dinner party). It was all about keeping the secrets from the prying eyes of the neighbours on the other side of the picket fence.
Love and Joe are forced to do the same when they move into a cookie cutter neighbourhood with a trunk-load of their own blood-spattered secrets. These secrets inevitably come close to being uncovered before long, especially after neighbour Natalie (played by Michaela McManus) and Joe’s spiky new boss Marienne (played by Tati Gabrielle) enter the fray.
Also starring in season three is the ultimate “desperate housewife”, Sherry (played by Shalita Grant), a two-faced mom-fluencer and a frenemy for Love.
The shift to the suburbs refreshes You’s old formula – meet girl, stalk girl, kill girl – to a certain extent, because the now-married Quinn-Goldbergs are (pretty much) attempting monogamy, and are part of a community that they must perform convincingly for. Plus, they are now parents. The poor child.
Caroline Kepnes, author of the book series that inspired You, has already outlined how the third season will explore the impact of marriage and parenthood on the already very volatile couple.
“Love has become both the mother of Joe's child and the source of Joe's agony,” Caroline told GLAMOUR earlier this year. “And you will learn about Love Quinn's own struggle with motherhood, mourning and her mixed feelings about her baby daddy.”
Desperate Housewives also looks at what women do to deal with, or distract themselves from, their feelings about motherhood and fractured marriages. When Love finds herself in this situation, we see her strike up a rather controversial relationship with her neighbour’s stepson, Theo (played by Halloween actor Dylan Arnold).
Not only is this another secret for the family to protect, it serves as yet another odd parallel between You and Desperate Housewives. Eva Longoria’s character Gabrielle had a rather salacious affair with her gardener, who was played by Jesse Metcalfe back in the day, when she was feeling lost and unwanted in her marriage.
We are also treated to a guest appearance from Marcia Cross, who played the central housewife Bree in Desperate Housewives. Her character plays a key part in the cover up (or “cleaning up the mess”) of crimes committed by one of the Quinn-Goldberg’s neighbours.
The trouble is this – the reason why the at-times-insane cover ups on Desperate Housewives work is that you’re rooting for the characters involved. At the centre of the show is a group of women (consisting of Longoria and Cross’ characters, along with those brought to life by Teri Hatcher and Felicity Huffman) who support each other through everything. You root for them, even when they’ve done terrible things.
Love and Joe don’t really make you root for them in the same way. While the twist and turns of the unpredictable, impulsive behaviour from the first two seasons are still there, the couple don’t have the support from any significant friendships (or each other, really) to offset the truly flammable toxicity of their marriage and their narcissistic behaviour.
So while You’s suburban exodus makes for a compelling twist to Joe’s story, the intrigue that comes with what goes on behind closed doors and manicured lawns isn’t quite enough without some kind of a moral centre, after three seasons. So the question is this – when Joe and Love start to “come apart”, will they survive their chaotic, crime-induced scandal this time?
You's third season is available to stream on Netflix.
