You Season 5’s Book Milestone Has Hurt Other Adaptations (But Won’t Affect The Netflix Show)

You is based on a book series by Caroline Kepnes, and You season 5 will mean the show hitting a potentially damaging milestone to which it has become immune. Netflix is no stranger to book adaptations, but You is by far one of its most successful. Kepnes’ first book in the series, also named You​​​​​​, was published in 2014, with the show first airing four years later in 2018. Since then, there have been multiple new installments of both the books and the Netflix adaptation.

Netflix’s You is a show that tends to reinvent itself each season, as evidenced by another refreshing of the You season 4 cast. However, the You season 5 cast will once more be led by Penn Badgley as the show’s problematic main character, Joe Goldberg. Joe’s intense, dark interpretation of what it means to love someone is always at the heart of the show’s narrative, and it’s a theme that’s been carried over from Kepnes’ original works. However, while You is ending with season 5, there’s another reason why the final installment stands out from the others.

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You Season 5 Will Officially Reach A Book Milestone That’s Hurt Other Adaptations

Netflix’s You Adaptation has run out of source material

There are currently four published books from Kepnes’ You series. The latest entry, For You and Only You, was published in 2023. So, at present, there are as many You books as there are seasons of the You Netflix show. However, when You season 5 airs, there will then be more seasons of the adaptation than there are of Carlonline Kepnes’ You books. This will feel like a benign piece of trivia for some, but there may be cause for concern ahead of You‘s final season.

There have been other instances where a TV show’s production has outpaced its source material and the quality of the show in question has been hurt by “flying blind.” A prominent example of this would be the TV adaptation of George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones books. By the time the show was adapting Martin’s work for Game of Thrones season 8, there were no more finished books for the writers to look to for inspiration. This was a big factor in what went wrong with Games of Thrones season 8 and why it was so poorly received.

Why Netflix’s You Outpacing The Books Doesn’t Really Matter

The story in Kepnes’ You books isn’t the same as the Netflix show

While You began by adapting Kepnes’ work in a fairly faithful manner, the show quickly moved away from the books’ story. Other adaptations may keep one eye on the source material throughout the creative process, but Netflix’s You only really took the character of Joe Goldberg beyond season 1. Some character names and settings from the books make their way into the show after You season 1, but they’re so heavily altered that they may as well be original concepts.

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Netflix’s You deviating so severely from the books meant that it quickly became its own entity rather than an on-screen equivalent of an existing literary narrative. Opting for this route allowed the show to take greater creative liberties than other adaptations. The choice also meant that the show was no longer reliant on Kepnes’ writing schedule and could move at its own pace. As a result, the fact that You season 5 will mean overtaking the source material becomes nothing more than an interesting observation than an obstacle that needs to be overcome.