I'm picky on what I select, many times only watching a few minutes or an episode before I begin looking again for another choice. With this one, I never thought once about cutting out. It has it all! A beautiful women, a guy who's 'crazy' in love/lust? with her, a second hand bookstore with a cool nerd coworker, social media, a dangerous psychopath, a willing participant, a cage, a backstory that is there to greet you in the last few minute. I mean, no wonder!
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Marketing. It works.
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Why is no one talking about how disturbing this show is? The show seems to sympathize with the stalker, whose behavior is completely sketchy and inappropriate. Totally not cool...
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@Jason Making non-two-dimensional characters – and having the chops to make a creepy stalker somewhat sympathetic – is good writing.
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Netflix and other streaming services don't have constant drug ads with a string of verbal body horror over and over. That's a MAJOR reason I almost exclusively stream.
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Seinfeld did horribly its first four short season episodes and lingered on the brink of cancellation. I think "You" is one of the most gripping comedy-dramas I've seen in years. It's terrific. As for comparisons to "Dexter," "You" is not nearly as gratuitously gory as "Dexter." "You" is fun, literate, a bit spooky and often funny. Let's get Season 2 finished and on the air as soon as possible!
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After seeing all the buzz about You we were excited to watch it, and gave up after one episode. I saw no suspense or drama, it was tedious with unlikeable characters. With so many programming options it seems like mob psychology is a key influence in making mediocre shows like You successful.
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@Jimmy USA My thoughts, too, after watching and stopping at the first episode. But after reading this piece I'll probably give "You" another chance and watch episode 2.
5
terrific first episode, with a slow decline to unwatchable by the 5th.
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Can't say enough good things about the book this series is based on. I was excited to watch the tv show because I loved the book, but I couldn't even finish the first episode. Read the book instead! :)
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i was eager to watch "you" when i first read about it, and only mildly surprised that it was on lifetime. after all, "unreal," another great, snarky series, aired on lifetime. fast-forward, and "you" is on netflix, while "unreal" has moved to hulu. hmm....
netflix is the perfect platform, as penn is the perfect joe.
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Not a hit on Lifetime? Probably because people are "cutting the cable" and subscribing to Netflix and Hulu, especially the younger crowd who can't afford cable.
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And Netflix will claim this as a "Netflix Original," just like every other bit of content Netflix actually "reruns" or buys after another, genuine content-creator, produces and releases it. Ditto Amazon "Prime Originals." As they head towards branding over quality, the blandness we came to expect from...TV.
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(WARNING: SPOILER ALERTS!) I watched it recently on Netflix and before it came out there I never heard of it. I don't watch much Cable TV anyway, but I have to say this is the first TV Series of this stalker type that I could not decide if I sympathized with him or thought he was completely mad. I was conflicted the whole time, I liked him because I felt he did things out of good intention, but he went about things the totally wrong way. Yes, that blonde dude in the beginning was VERY bad for her, but you didn't have to kill him. Over all, I liked it a lot and I will for sure be watching season 2!
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It's a worthy companion to "Dexter."
1
And nobody mentions that maybe people are fed up with commercials? Anything is better without commercials. I don't watch any shows live on TV anymore, even the news, which I DVR and start with a 15 minutes delay. This way I can fast forward through the ads.
I remember a time when shows were actually 55 minutes long, now they are 45 minutes if you are lucky, because they are forcing us to watch cheap food and drug ads over and over and over again.
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@Jojo
I haven't watched commercial since the advent of the VCR in the 80s, when I would tape shows and blast through the commercials. Now with streaming it is so much easier.
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@Jojo Yep, and that's the main reason I gave up watching football and just about everything else on TV except NPR.
7
42 minutes.
7
I tried to watch it on Lifetime but their platform was clunky and it froze all the time, maybe this explains why it had virtually no viewers until it went to Netflix? I knew people involved with the series, so made an effort to watch it -- but streaming was such a challenge through Lifetime's platform that I gave up until it moved to Netflix.
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My wife works for a TV network, but we cut the cord a decade ago. We were getting lousy service from TWC and they finally threw up their hands and said that they'd have to rewire our building to fix it. We started buying individual episodes when the cable went out, and discovered that it was much cheaper than our cable package. We were watching higher quality shows since we had to pick things to watch rather than turning on the TV and sticking with whatever was on. We had a Tivo and premium channels and now only have streaming.
I wish the networks well, but they made it hard to watch TV. Compared to wading through commercials, dealing with that Netflix auto-play thing is a piece of cake.
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No commercials...I'll watch just about anything if there are no ads interrupting the flow of the program...
22
I really want an independent verification of the Netflix viewership numbers. Are they counting those who are forced to watch the auto-play of previews?
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@JYK The article says that they are counting those that watched 70% of at least one episode. So, no, they aren't counting a preview which is much less than 70%.
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That's the thing, isn't it? The media is all about reporting Netflix's viewership when they're high, because Netflix only reports these supposed millions of viewers when they have millions of viewers. You don't hear a thing when they have dismal viewership, because no one knows except Netflix.
Very selective, and I can't believe the media is participating.
2
I agree with Jessica M. I binged the whole season once it was on Netflix but never heard of its existence before then. Loved the show, can't wait for second season. I cut the cord years ago and I'll never go back. My kids, almost 4, just saw their first commercial watching cable in a hotel over the holiday. Most millennials I know are doing the same thing. YOU just finally found its audience, a majority of which is not watching cable. Not surprising at all!
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Likely Lifetime made the right choice. The people watching the show on Netflix is not their audience.
13
Why is this so surprising? I'm in my early 30's and have never paid for a cable TV subscription; I've only ever subscribed to streaming services. Although I do have some friends my age who still subscribe to cable, I also have many who do not. We are an entire generation who is unlikely to be reached reliably by this outdated medium.
Cable TV is inordinately expensive, commercials are annoying, and for the most part subscribers are at the mercy of watching whatever the networks choose to show on their schedule. Streaming services include a large variety of shows and movies, I can watch at my leisure, without commercials, and the services are relatively inexpensive. The fact that I might have to wait to watch a show until an entire season is available as opposed to watching one episode each week isn't a negative factor for me; most shows are more enjoyable when you don't have to wait a week between chapters. With Netflix, I can even download episodes to my device and watch on a plane or subway while commuting or traveling.
What's surprising to me is that it's taken this long for cable networks to realize how much people don't really like their TV experience; they just like the shows. Given the option to watch the same shows on a different cadence but with much more flexibility in many other respects, many people are choosing to "cut the cord" completely.
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@Jessica M This is well said. There is one big problem though: Netflix acquisitions tend to be much better than Netflix Originals. While the experience of watching on Netflix is better, they seem to have problems making great shows on their own. There's something to be said that YOU was developed elsewhere. And it worries me if cable networks decide not to make scripted shows anymore, leaving us with mediocre Netflix Originals.
22
@Jessica M My guy loves sports. If it weren't for his love of live sporting events, spread out across multiple teams, professional levels and sports themselves, making team or league-related packages impractical, we'd be right with you. It's the only advantage the networks have at the moment.
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