Earlier this year, I listened to the audio book of You by Caroline Kepnes. I knew fully well it was going to be made into a TV series, but some of my friends told me it was a must-read and once I found out that Santino Fontana narrated it, I was sold. Check out my review.
Fast forward to autumn, when You finally premiered on Lifetime. I decided to give it a try to see if it was anything like the book. While most of the TV series followed the story, there were some new aspects that enhanced it. I'll talk first about the non-spoiler stuff before sharing some spoilers later on in this post.
The lead characters were the same as in the novel: Joe, Beck, Peach, Dr. Nicky, Benji, Mr. Mooney, Ethan, and Karen. That's mostly from what I remember. There were some new characters, such as Blythe (at least I don't remember her being in the novel), Annika, Claudia, Paco, and Ron. This time around, we get to see Beck's perspective. There's also more information about Candace (Joe's ex) and she appears in several flashbacks. Claudia and Paco are Joe's neighbors. Claudia's boyfriend Ron is abusive and a major jerk. Claudia's son Paco is an adolescent boy whom Joe befriends. Fun facts:
*Claudia is played by Victoria Cartagena, who also plays Lourdes on Manifest.
*Ron is played by Daniel Cosgrove, who played Matt on Beverly Hills, 90210.
*Paco is played by Luca Padovan, who was also recently on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and performed the opening number for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade last week. This kid is going places!
*Michael Park, who plays Beck's estranged father, is in the Original Broadway Cast of Dear Evan Hansen, as Connor's father. (He also shares a birthday with me.)
The casting I was impressed with:
*Penn Badgley was PERFECT as Joe. I originally wanted Santino Fontana because of his excellent audio book narration, but Penn just blew me away. I can't even imagine anyone else playing Joe now!
*I also liked Elizabeth Lail as Beck, perhaps more than I was expecting to. At first, I thought she looked too innocent to play the role, but she really brought a lot of emotion into it.
*John Stamos was great as Dr. Nicky, but I wish he would lose the facial hair!
*Lou Taylor Pucci worked well as Benji. He pulled off the pretentious attitude that made me dislike Benji so much to begin with.
The casting that didn't work so well for me:
*Shay Mitchell as Peach. She just didn't fit what I pictured for Peach. Maybe she was too pretty or acted too stuck up. Something about her didn't call out Peach to me. She just wasn't annoying enough.
*Zach Cherry as Ethan. Again, just not a good fit for whom I was picturing.
Like with the book, I still ended up sympathizing with and cheering on Joe, even though he's supposed to be the bad guy. Caroline Kepnes messes with her readers' (and watchers') minds in that way. Even though we got Beck's perspective this time around, Joe still came off as likable, especially because of how he was looking after Paco.
Overall, I was impressed with the TV series and how they adapted the book to screen. Some parts felt slow at times, but it was mostly captivating. I look forward to seeing what they do with the second season. Maybe they'll incorporate material from Hidden Bodies...
Before I share some spoilers, check out the trailer. All the episodes are on Lifetime's website, so it's not too late to check them out!
SPOILERS....
There were definitely some changes from the book in terms of how things went down. Like Peach wouldn't have seen Joe at the beach house at all, from what I remember. I think maybe she saw him before he killed her in the book, but it was quick. Beck found out about Joe collecting all her stuff when she was snooping around his apartment. Paco wasn't in the book, so he wouldn't have given her the idea to look in the bathroom ceiling. There was also more to how Beck was murdered in the book and her captivity dragged on longer. (The whole captivity part reminded me of Sweet Valley High, when Elizabeth's kidnapper buys her food from McDonald's.) Candace doesn't resurface in the book and Joe meets Amy Adam at the end of the story. I don't remember much about Karen Minty from the book, including how she and Joe got together in the first place. I felt like the part where Joe follows Beck to the Dickens festival comes later in the story, and she doesn't know he's there at all. I thought it was weird that Joe was telling Dr. Nicky about his "fictional" relationship and how similar it was to the truth, given that Beck also tells Dr. Nicky about her relationship issues. Wouldn't he eventually figure something out? That's all I can really think of for now.
If anyone else has read the book and watched the TV series, please let me know what other differences you noticed between the two.
