Now that I’ve finished the final season of You on Netflix, I’ve been trolling YouTube for extra nuggets and I’ve found that theactor who plays the lead character is not fond of the lead character.
I remembered my husband stopped watching early in because he was not fond of the lead character.
Based on those two points I can determine a line pointing to what it takes to be fond of the lead character, and that is two X chromosomes.
Yes, he does bad things. So does every man in Ocean’s 11. Why is George Clooney’s character a charming rogue and Penn Badgley’s isn’t? Why the judgment? It’s all part of the suspension of disbelief.
Of course, the last season lacked the novelty of the first season, which sent many ladies off to seek out Words of Affirmation porn. (Those ladies were disappointed.) I suppose I feel a kinship with the character because I have the Affirmation Dialogue running in my brain at all times and if my mouth is open, well, it falls out. (I am less obsessed; I indiscriminately compliment the green eyes of the cashier at the convenience store and never see him again.)
Could it be that men have a running script of “I must scheme to catch this woman” in their heads and they see this character and feel he is spilling the secrets? I don’t know. Perhaps I suspect?