Lifetime's You is finally a buzzworthy show now that it's on Netflix
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The Penn Badgley-starring psychological thriller is the latest recipient of the Netflix bump. Even though You premiered on Lifetime on Sept. 9, it only began generating a lot of buzz after it was made available on Netflix on Dec. 26. That's why Badgley has spent the past few days responding to Twitter users who are wrongfully romanticizing his psychopathic character. In fact, You's ratings were so lackluster on Lifetime that a second season was unsustainable, which is why it will become a Netflix original series for Season 2. "It’s the exact same show, just on a different platform—and apparently, way more popular," says Alison Herman. You follows in the footsteps of shows like Breaking Bad and Riverdale that have found a larger audience on Netflix. Yet, says Herman, "as Netflix’s hold on our attention, and therefore the cultural conversation, has intensified, the relationship between networks and streaming has evolved from a mutually beneficial symbiosis into something more complicated...Why watch something live for the sake of a water cooler that doesn’t exist anymore when you know you can simply wait it out and take a show in on your own schedule?" Herman adds: "Lifetime’s role in bringing You to air seems fated to become a distant footnote in the show’s Wikipedia page and is already on its way to being buried under an avalanche of screenshots. A show skewering New York City millennials already feels more at home on an account five of them are sharing a password to than an old-school TV channel. In the process, You has become yet another data point in just how much power Netflix holds over the viewing habits of 2019 audiences, particularly younger ones."
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TOPICS: You (Netflix series), Lifetime, Netflix, How I Met Your Mother, Penn Badgley, Binge Watching
