Pretty Little Liars. Gossip Girl. Two beautifully melodramatic TV series based on bestselling book series that leave their viewers in suspense. Now that both shows have been off the air for a few years, fans are craving a new plot to wrap them up in a sexy mystery. Well, leave it to Lifetime.
The network released the first trailer for a new original series called You, which stars Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley, Pretty Little Liars’ Shay Mitchell and Dead of Summer's Elizabeth Lail. It looks CREEPY AF, so I’m already intrigued.
You, based on the bestselling book of the same name by Caroline Kepnes, follows Badgley’s character trying to make a girl (Elizabeth Lail) fall in love with him using “the hyper-connectivity of today’s world,” says Variety. It looks like he’s getting a lot of other people in her life involved, too. (It also includes a cameo by John Stamos! Have mercy!)
I’m honestly really curious about what Badgley’s character is capable of. The trailer’s got Penn Badgley kissing Elizabeth Lail, Penn Badgley kissing Shay Mitchell, and Shay Mitchell kissing Elizabeth Lail? What kind of complicated, intertwined, manipulative moves are these people making?
The project is produced by Sera Gamble, who is a writer for Supernatural, and Greg Berlanti, who produced Dawson’s Creek and now works on The CW’s lineup of DC Comics shows like The Flash and Arrow.
It looks like this Lifetime original is different from what we’re used to from the network, with reality shows like Dance Moms and Project Runway. It's definitely more along the lines of the network's cutting-edge, critically acclaimed original UnREAL.
You premieres on September 9th at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Lifetime.