For two seasons, fans everywhere have gotten deep into the psyche of the serial killer Joe Goldberg in the popular Netflix series YOU. Played wonderfully by Penn Badgley, the show has brought suspense, thrills, and a tad bit of psychotic romance in ways we have yet to see from a Netflix show.
For fans of the show, its a shame we have to wait for the third season and wonder who Joe/Will’s next victim(s) will be and how he will justify his actions. For those anxious to get your thrill on, here are 10 shows that you would love if you like YOU.
Updated April 17th, 2020 by Mariana Fernandes: News about the upcoming third season fo the crime-filled drama YOU are scarce and fans are feeling the lack of Joe's antics hard. But that's nothing that other shows can't fix! We know there's a good chance you already went through all the series in the original list. So we went around and compiled a freshly updated article that includes even more exciting television shows for you to binge!
Elite
Money Heist proved that Spanish shows can top American and British ones by a long shot. And Elite is just another great example of that. Teenagers in a private high school mixed up in bloody murders, embezzlement schemes, and forbidden relationships? Sign us up right now!
Fans of You will appreciate the sick games the characters play with each other, along with the suspense these kids invariably find themselves wrapped up on. And it's a great incentive to develop those Spanish skills!
Safe
Yet another show brought to us by Netflix and its never-ending supply of original content, Safe is a 2018 drama filled with mystery, secrets, and oh so much to unwrap! Even though it's only eight episodes long, it's one of those series that serve as a delicious appetizer while waiting for a favorite to come back.
Following the mysterious disappearance of a teenage girl and her surgeon father's mission to find her, Safe is a thrilling experience from start to finish. Plus, it stars Dexter's Michael C. Hall in yet another mind-blowing performance!
Dirty John
The name of this intense drama alone is enough to spark curiosity, especially amongst fans of You. This incredible Netflix show is based on real-life events of a businesswoman who ends up falling in love with a master manipulator, ultimately going down a very dangerous path.
Sounds familiar? If you need more of a twisted boy-meets-girl story which is the essence surrounding You, then Dirty John will surely take you places you've never been before - not even with Joe.
The Stranger
Based on Harlan Coben's novel of the same name, The Stranger is one of those shows that slowly made its way into the hearts and minds of the public and there made a pretty stable home. Indeed, this Netflix show is so gripping, it leaves viewers thinking about it even weeks after the fact.
Secrets, lies, and slowly unravelling mysteries are at the core of this thrilling series. There are eight episodes to go around, so get watching - and maybe even reading!
Black Mirror
The best thing about the anthology series known as Black Mirror is that it offers audiences bite-sized episodes that could easily be turned into films. They leave you wanting for more, but they also leave you feeling extremely uncomfortable.
Black Mirror offers twenty-two episodes that will get your head spinning in the midst of all the dramatic antics of the characters and the shocking secrets that are often at the center of the plot.
Bates Motel
We know Joe had a tough life growing up and that's a big part of why he is the psychopath he is today. Bates Motel has a similar theme, showing the formative years of the young Norman Bates who grows up to become a serial killer in the hit film Psycho.
In the second season of YOU, we see the relationship Joe had with his mother and how complex and complicated it was. It wasn't loving but constant manipulation that left Joe wanting love and acceptance, much like Norman and Norma in Bates Motel.
How To Get Away With Murder
Starring the great Viola Davis, she plays a law professor in a prestigious college. When a group of her students gets caught up in a murder, they look to her for guidance and help to get away with the murder.
Like Joe, she’s extremely meticulous about the littlest details and that's what helps her in the end and helps her get away with the heinous acts. Like all the characters on the list, she’s charismatic and we can’t help but be drawn in to root for her regardless of her actions.
13 Reasons Why
Like YOU, 13 Reasons Why was based on a novel and was brought to life with Netflix in ways of an original series. Although the show first revolves around Hannah Baker, a student who kills herself and leaves behind cassettes targeting certain students, it eventually becomes a thriller and mystery when her ex-boyfriend investigates her murder and looks to expose the real reason she ended her life.
In the third season of the show, the ex-boyfriend, Clay Jensen must clear his name after he was seemingly being framed for a murder and works together with his friends to find the real killer.
Somewhere along the season, we start to question if Clay was really innocent or if he was simply trying to cover up his tracks.
Pretty Little Liars
Fans of Pretty Little Liars would’ve easily recognized Shay Mitchell who plays Peach on YOU and is one of the main stars of Pretty Little Liars. PLL revolves around a group of girls who are set to investigate the disappearance of their friend. While they investigate, they start being tormented by the mysterious person who may have had a hand in the disappearance of their friend and goes by “A”.
Every season is full of suspense and the mystery behind their missing friend is always within reach yet so far away.
like YOU, the show has suspense, questionable morals from our protagonists and the hidden identities we loved so much.
Breaking Bad
As one of the most popular shows in the past decade, Breaking Bad has a huge fandom and a movie with its long history. If you like characters with questionable morals, you’re going to love the meth-dealing former teacher Walter White.
Played wonderfully by Bryan Cranston the show follows a man with a terminal disease who gets in deep with the wrong people and eventually rises as a drug lord.
If you like YOU, you’re going to see a little bit of Joe in Walter, as he sometimes does questionable things, even to ones he loves all to feel validated and accepted.
Ozark
Starring Jason Bateman, this protagonist may not be a murderer but he is still not a very good man. Like all the other men in these shows, he presents a likable personality and makes you sympathize with him even though he’s not a very good guy.
The show follows him as a financial advisor falls victim to a failed money-laundering scheme and in order to protect himself and his family he must become entangled with criminals and drug lords.
The Fall
This next show is almost a dead ringer for YOU where the serial killer lives a secret life as a charming and caring husband. Unlike YOU, the show is told from the detective assigned to take him down’s point of view with gives us a moral character to root for.
Starring Jamie Dornan, we, unfortunately, can’t help but in love with the charm and wit of the serial killer and we can’t help but compare him closely to Joe.
Castle Rock
this next show takes place in the Stephen King universe and is created by the author himself. Castle Rock features a young mother on the run with her daughter after committing heinous acts.
She finds herself in a similar situation as Joe is season 2, desperate for a fresh start and striving to be a good person, even though she knows deep down she never can be.
Like Joe, she commits more violent acts to protect her identity and stay hidden.
Dirty John
This next show is not only creepy because of the actions of the protagonist but because the series is based on the real-life of John Meehan. Eric Bana plays “Dirty John“ a conman who manipulates a successful businesswoman and uses her, hiding his actual life.
When her younger daughters aren’t convinced by the new man and disapprove of the fast-moving relationship, they set out to uncover his secrets. Like Joe, John is handsome, charming, attentive, and irresistible to his prey.
Dexter
If you like oddly likable serial killers or yourself almost rooting for him, you’re going to love Dexter. Similar to the charming and brilliant Joe, Dexter is a strategizer, always planning and always 10 steps ahead to protect himself and anticipate the worst.
Dexter spends 8 seasons evading the law, justifying his actions and literally raising a family while still being a murderer. We’ve seen Joe at the end of the second season go down a similar path, on his way to starting a family but still lingering and obsessing over his next victim.
Joe was even compared to Dexter in season 2 when Love gets close to finding out about his questionable past.