Netflix series scores 10,000,000 views in 4 days despite ‘worst ending ever’

A Netflix thriller about a misogynistic serial killer has notched up millions of views despite being widely lambasted for its ‘derivative’ final episode.

Viewers are unable to cease watching Penn Badgley’s bloodthirsty sex predator Joe Goldberg in the fifth and final season of You, even though it has been accused of having ‘the worst ending ever.’

The crime drama has scored 10,100,000 views in just four days from its release date on April 24 until April 27, making it the number one TV show in Netflix’s global charts, according to its latest data.

*Warning this article will now contain spoilers for You season 5

In season 5, Joe returns to New York to play happy families with his billionaire wife Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) and his son Henry (Frankie DeMaio).

But their perfect life is under threat from Kate’s sister Raegan (Anna Camp), who has set in motion plans to reveal her dark secret to oust her as CEO of the family firm.

Raegan is not the only person who starts undermining Kate and Joe’s relationship, though, as the once solid couple are torn apart over their differing views on how to stop her.

This rupture leads Joe into the arms of Bronte (Madeline Brewer), a seemingly vulnerable young woman who has fled an abusive relationship to seek refuge in his bookshop Mooney’s.

Bronte, however, is not who she seems. All this time, she has deliberately cast herself as a damsel in distress to lure Joe into her clutches so that she can enact revenge for the murder of her friend Beck (Elizabeth Lail).

In the final scenes, Bronte realises her dream, by shooting Joe’s penis off just before he gets arrested to spend the rest of his life behind bars in what has been called a ‘clunky and lazy’ ending.

However, Penn, 38, has since defended You’s conclusion, which he described as ‘rewarding’.

He told Deadline: ‘It does become a question of, “What do we do with people like Joe?” It is a carceral question, a question of justice, of transformative justice as it’s referred to sometimes, vengeance, retribution. What is best, not just for Joe, but the person who then has to do it?

‘If somebody was to kill him — and it would be a woman, right — well then actually now what you’ve burdened her with is having committed murder, like that’s not just, I don’t think. Torture? Uh OK, same thing. Prison? Eh, feels a bit not enough. So what do you do? Take. His. Balls.’

Following You in Netflix’s global top ten TV shows from the period of April 21 to April 27 is Ransom Canyon with 9,400,000 views.

In third and fourth place are Black Mirror and Adolescence, which clocked up 4,500,000 and 3,800,000 views respectively.

Raw 2025, Special Ops: Lionness, A Discovery of Witches, and Ms Rachel continue the list.

Completing the top ten are new medical drama Pulse and the first season of You.

You is available to stream on Netflix.

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