8 TV Shows That Were Terrible (But We Couldn’t Stop Watching)

3. You

Although You initially aired on Lifetime to little fanfare at the end of 2018, it absolutely exploded into the zeitgeist when it dropped on Netflix a little while later.

Netflix, who rarely share viewing data, revealed that 40 million people had watched You in its first four weeks, and while that's not a full picture (we don't know exactly what their analytics pertain to), it nonetheless confirms what even a cursory glance at any pop-culture website would've told you, which is that You was a very big deal.

But why?

You focuses on Joe (Penn Badgley), a New York bookstore manager who falls in love with a customer, and also happens to be a complete psychopath. The way You hooks viewers in is also its ultimate failing: it attempts to have its cake and eat it by portraying Joe as the nice guy and the murderer, but can't quite find the right balance. It tries to make Joe be EVERYTHING its plot needs, and he ends up being nothing. It's not inherently a bad thing for TV to be a little bit trashy or ridiculous, but when it does it in a way so hamfisted, that's when it becomes a real issue, with its characterisations an unending mess that never get cleaned up.