‘You’ Season 4 Part 2 review: The latest instalment of this psychological thriller is unimaginative with its plot points

Ludicrous doesn’t begin describing part 2 of season 4 You, who remains wholeheartedly on the side of absurd fun. The show chronicles the experiences of part serial killer, part book lover, and utterly sardonic Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), who has left the United States to carve out a bloody swath through England’s green and pleasant country. Now a professor of English literature, Jonathan Moore, Joe is deep in the toxic world of London’s swanky set.

Joe has feelings for gallery owner Kate (Charlotte Ritchie), who, while reciprocating Joe’s feelings for her, also desperately wants to get away from her very wealthy and terribly controlling father, Tom Lockwood (Greg Kinnear).

Kate’s friends, who haven’t fallen prey to a serial killer nicknamed the “Eat-the-Rich” killers, are the quintessential bad gang. There’s the sweetly wacky Lady Phoebe (Tilly Keeper) whose dissolute American boyfriend Adam (Lukas Gage) is only interested in her money to fund his uniformly lunatic schemes.

Poor little rich boy Rhys (Ed Speleers), whose memoir provided the perfect platform to launch his political career, and many others sail by in a cloud of glitter and privilege. Paparazzi photographer Dawn (Alison Pargeter) has developed an unhealthy obsession with Lady Phoebe.

On the other side of the poverty line is Nadiya (Amy-Leigh Hickman), Joe’s student, who leads her inner Hercule Poirot to uncover the identity of the killer who eats the rich – so named because of her fondness for the victims’ body parts. Nadiya realizes that her argument with her classmate Edward (Brad Alexander) is actually love and co-opts him as her Watson and ketamine supplier.

Joe is plagued by mysterious messages to wreak much murderous havoc, and he finds that the only way out is to uncover his secret adversary. He is also plagued by visions/dreams/nightmares of former loves such as Marienne (Tati Gabrielle), Beck (Elizabeth Lail) and Love (Victoria Pedretti).

The inner monologue, knowing jokes, literal attributions, sudden violent deaths, shallow graves in the middle of nowhere, bone saws, drugs, sex and power games are all there, but four seasons and 40 episodes later it’s all a bit thin. While not exactly a slog (episodes move smoothly enough), You starts to feel like more of the same.

After drastically moving away from the Caroline Kepnes novels on which the series is based, You urgently needs to find new territory to cover. Badgley’s comments on a new direction for the show, like Joe’s beard-and-baseball-cap disguise, are flattering only to deceive.

They are currently streaming on Netflix