„Joe has a twisted mind, but he’s not operating with alien concepts,“ showrunner Sera Gamble tells TheWrap of Badgley’s character<\/b>
\nLifetime\u2019s \u201cYou\u201d is a twisted stalker thriller that takes its cues from romantic heroes of the past and will have viewers questioning the behavior of every nice guy they\u2019ve ever encountered.
In the drama from co-creators Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble, Penn Badgley takes the nice-guy character that he embodied so effectively on \u201cGossip Girl\u201d to its most warped extremes. The man trying to win the affections of a woman becomes an obsessive, manipulative, menacing nightmare. But to the outside world, he\u2019s the same lonely boy just trying to get the girl.
\u201cYesterday we were at an interview and [Badgley] called this character the meta-progression of Dan Humphrey, which is hilarious,\u201d Gamble said in an interview with TheWrap. \u201c[Both characters are] people who are slightly outsider, observing even more intensely than other people realize. In that sense there\u2019s certainly a through-line.\u201d
Also Read: Greg Berlanti’s ‚You‘ Gets Season 2 Renewal From Lifetime Ahead of Series Premiere
But beyond Badgley\u2019s involvement, the two shows could not be more different. While the teen drama \u201cGossip Girl\u201d fully bought into the ideas of romance and male heroism, \u201cYou,\u201d based on the novel by Caroline Kepnes, dissects them, revealing their most toxic and harmful outcomes.
The story at the center of \u201cYou\u201d is told from the perspective of Penn Badgley\u2019s character, Joe Goldberg, a charming, seemingly harmless book store clerk who instantly develops an obsession with Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail), a young writer who just wanted to buy a book. His behavior quickly escalates from creepy to dangerous as he tries to manipulate her into a relationship.
\u201cThere\u2019s something so addictive and sticky and conflicting about being inside Joe Goldberg\u2019s head, in the book,\u201d said Gamble. Like the source novel, \u201cYou\u201d is told primarily from Joe\u2019s point of view, heavily employing voiceover narration to delve into Joe\u2019s psyche.
And as viewers hear more and more of the character\u2019s innermost thoughts, Dan Humphrey won\u2019t be the only one called to mind.
Also Read: ‚Pretty Little Liars‘ Star Shay Mitchell Joins Greg Berlanti’s Lifetime Drama ‚You‘
\u201cJoe has a twisted mind, but he\u2019s not operating with alien concepts. He watched the same shows that you did, he read the same books,\u201d said Gamble. \u201cHe internalized what it means to be a \u2018good man\u2019 and a romantic hero, and he\u2019s willing to swing a hammer at someone\u2019s head to protect the woman he loves.\u201d
In the era of #MeToo, when the longstanding dynamics between men and women are being closely examined and called into question, \u201cYou\u201d feels \u201ceerily timely,\u201d as Gamble puts it.
But Kepnes\u2019 novel was published long before men like Harvey Weinstein and Louis C. K. were publicly disgraced, and Gamble\u2019s show was already in production by the time the movement began in earnest.
\u201cThis is not a new conversation in the world,\u201d she said. \u201cThis treatment of women in the world, and the problematic stuff between the genders that\u2019s at the forefront of the #MeToo movement, that\u2019s been going on since long before any of us were born. I just wanted to be a part of a show that tackles it in an interesting way.\u201d
Also Read: Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble’s ‚You‘ Ordered to Series on Lifetime
Expect those ideas to be mined even further in the show\u2019s second season, which was picked up by Lifetime months ahead of Sunday\u2019s series premiere. Based on the second book in the series by Kepnes (\u201cI think she\u2019s got a third on the way too, but I don\u2019t want to pressure her too much\u201d), the show will move to Hollywood for its next outing.
\u201cI want to get to see inside characters, so I can try to understand where they\u2019re coming from, why things happen the way they do,\u201d Gamble said.
\u201cThese cultural ideas are toxic for all of us. They\u2019re hurting all of us. It\u2019s not like men are just hanging out and everything is perfect for them. This is hurtful all the way around.\u201d
\u201cYou\u201d premieres on Lifetime Sunday, Sept. 9 at 10\/9c.<\/p>\n

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