Joe Goldberg from Netflix’s You might be essentially the most well-known fictional serial killer of the 2010s. Previous to the premiere of the sequence, Joe existed solely as a literary character from Caroline Kepnes’ novels You and Hidden Our bodies. Although Joe does many heinous issues over the course of the You franchise, some followers root for him. Some have even fallen in love with Joe.
Joe’s crimes, unlikely fan base, and connection to Netflix triggered commenters to attract comparisons between him and a real-life serial killer: Ted Bundy. Across the identical time You premiered, Netflix launched each a movie and a docuseries about Bundy. This raises a query: Was Joe in any approach based mostly on Bundy?
What the writer of ‘You’ and others mentioned about Ted Bundy
Joe and Bundy are comparable in sure methods. They’re each charismatic on the skin and wicked on the within. Many followers even really feel that Penn Badgley, the actor who performs Joe, bears a major bodily resemblance to Bundy.
Kepnes advised W she didn’t base Joe on Bundy. She mentioned doing so can be “perverse.” She drew a distinction between Joe and Bundy, saying “Joe is fiction. I really feel like that’s the place—particularly residing with social media and so many photographs, it begins to really feel like nothing is actual. However Ted Bundy is an actual one who killed actual individuals—women, whose households misplaced them.”
RELATED: Zac Efron Reveals What He Actually Thinks of Ted Bundy
Nonetheless, jut as a result of Joe wasn’t based mostly on Bundy doesn’t imply there aren’t any resemblances between them. In accordance with Cosmopolitan UK, psychologist Lee Frost-Facchini sees parallels between individuals who fall in love with Joe and individuals who fall in love with Bundy. “Nearly each serial killer, together with Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and David Berkowitz, have acquired love letters from massive numbers of feminine followers. Add to this the charming phantasm that their usually female qualities will ultimately diffuse the person’s aggression to the purpose that he’ll come to disclose his ‘internal mushiness’ (the norm in romance-fiction plots) and you’ve got a recipe for real-life catastrophe. It’s additionally doable that experiences with ‘alpha males’ previously leads some girls to wish to right adverse experiences.”
Who or what impressed Joe Goldberg?
Kepnes advised Guide & Movie Globe she as a substitute discovered inspiration for Joe in different fictional characters. Many followers have seen similarities between Joe and Patrick Bateman, the title character of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho. Kepnes confirms she was partially impressed by the ebook and she or he needed to duplicate its “feeling” when she wrote You. Like You, American Psycho depends closely on a serial killer’s inner monologue to intrigue audiences.
RELATED: ‘You’: The 1 Factor Penn Badgley Desires Followers of His Character, Joe Goldberg, to Cease Doing
Arnold Buddy, the killer from Joyce Carol Oates’ brief story “The place Are You Going, The place Have You Been?” was additionally an affect on Joe. Kepnes was influenced by the story’s theme of “the hazards of craving consideration.” Curiously, Oates is briefly talked about in an episode of You.
Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs was additionally an inspiration for Joe. Hannibal famously mentioned individuals covet what they see on daily basis. This impressed Kepnes to have Joe construct his life round Guinevere Beck, the lady he obsesses over. Whereas Joe isn’t based mostly on actual serial killers like Bundy, he owes so much to his fictional friends.
Additionally see: ‘You’: Psychological Well being Specialists Say Penn Badgley’s Joe Is Not a Psychopath
