Jenna Ortega’s 5-Part Thriller Series Is One Of Netflix’s Best

Jenna Ortega may be an A-list celebrity, but many people forget she starred in You, which is one of Netflix’s best thrillers. The actress first broke out playing Haley Diaz in the Disney Channel series, Stuck in the Middle, though she quickly shed her “Disney kid” image by becoming one of the horror genre’s best scream queens.

2022 was the year Ortega gave audiences some of her best roles, starring in four movies, including horror hits Scream 6 and X. On the TV side, Ortega teamed up with Tim Burton to star in Wednesday, Netflix’s smash-hit series chronicling the dark misadventures of The Addams Family icon, the morbid and sarcastic Wednesday Addams.

Three years before adopting Wednesday’s deadpan tone and jet-black braids, Ortega appeared in You season 2. The five-season series featuring the murderous exploits of Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), a misogynistic stalker with a penchant for developing romantic obsessions with women only to kill them when they no longer serve his needs, You was saved from early cancellation by Netflix, and it remains one of the streamer’s best-ever shows.

You Is Netflix’s Best Thriller Series

Almost every thriller protagonist worth their salt has a dark side, and most shows in the genre follow them as they try to uncover answers to a disturbing crime while reckoning with the character traits that make them just a bit more monstrous than the average Joe. Joe happens to be the name of You‘s protagonist, and it’s a fitting one because to most of the world, he’s a nice, normal guy.

In fact, it’s his niceness (and good looks and privilege) that makes so many women fall for him. In a world where the dating landscape is cold and impersonal, and many suitors are at best emotionally unavailable and at worst brimming with toxic masculinity, Joe stands apart. He’s warm and chivalrous while also respecting his partners’ agency and independence. He’s a modern-day Prince Charming.

Or so he wants you to think. Beneath Joe’s dreamy facade is a soul as black as night. Joe is a predator through and through. He hunts the objects of his affection like prey, gleefully and bloodily dispensing with anyone who stands in the way of his romantic pursuits. This is twisted enough, but what makes Joe pure evil is that the second his paramours fail to meet his romanticized ideals, he kills them too, and their deaths are often the most brutal of all.

With Joe as You‘s main character, we the audience are witnessing the story through his perspective. The show employs first-person narration, so we’re in Joe’s head along with his darkest inner thoughts, making us one and the same. It’s an unsettling feeling, and this, coupled with our desire to see Joe get his comeuppance, makes You an addictive watch.

Most thriller shows burn out their juicy premises early on, but You lasted for five incredible seasons. Not wanting to be caught at the end of a trail of bodies, Joe often relocates, with each season finding him in a new location.

It’s so easy for him to create a persona as a quiet bookseller, a doting suburban dad, an introspective English professor, and a wealthy philanthropist because he leverages people’s desire to cast him as that quintessential nice guy. Even members of You‘s own audience feel for Joe’s charm — much to Penn Badgley’s horror. It’s not Joe’s crimes that make You so disturbing — it’s that our society allows them to happen.

Who Jenna Ortega Played In You

With Joe constantly moving around, most You seasons come with a brand new cast of characters. Each plays a specific role in Joe’s life, whether that’s the love interest, the love rival, the person who (wisely) suspects him, or the innocent whom Joe wants to protect so he can convince himself he’s a good person.

Jenna Ortega plays the innocent of You season 2, Ellie Alves. Ellie lives with her older sister, Delilah, in the Los Angeles apartment complex Joe moves into. A wise-cracking, scrappy 15-year-old with dreams of becoming a filmmaker, Ellie strikes up a casual friendship with Joe, often teasing him for being out of touch with modern technology and social media.

For his part, Joe fancies himself as a big brother figure to Ellie, much the same way he did Paco in season 1. Joe is no fan of Henderson, the comedian with a bad reputation whom Ellie interns for, and when Henderson shows his true colors, drugging Ellie in an attempt to sexually assault her, Joe doesn’t hesitate to kill him.

Of course, Joe’s care for Ellie only goes so far. Sure, he’ll do anything to protect her — except keep her sister and guardian out of harm’s way. Delilah eventually grows suspicious of her charismatic new neighbor, and after he catches her snooping, Joe locks Delilah in his infamous cage. Though he doesn’t kill her because he’s such a good guy, Joe’s equally murderous girlfriend, Love, has no such qualms and slits Delilah’s throat.

Joe convinces himself that he feels guilty about this, but not enough to risk his own hide by going to the police and getting justice for Delilah. He attempts to make amends by giving Ellie money and helping her set up a new life for herself in Florida. Though Ellie doesn’t know the whole truth about her sister’s death, Joe still lost his savior role in her eyes, and in their last interaction, Ellie tells him to burn in hell.

Why Jenna Ortega’s You Character Never Came Back

In addition to Joe’s pile of murder victims, he also leaves many surviving enemies in his wake, including Jenna Ortega’s Ellie Alves. With Ellie being such a fan-favorite character thanks to Ortega’s excellent performance, many viewers wanted to see her again in the series. While You showrunners Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo certainly tried for an Ortega return, it wasn’t in the cards.

In You‘s fifth and final season, Joe finally has to answer for his crimes. The season features a group of internet sleuths who are onto Joe and looking for a way to make him pay, and the showrunners wanted Ellie to be their benefactor. Sadly, Ortega’s commitments to Wednesday prevented her from taking part, even in a small cameo capacity as one of the many returning You characters to speak out against Joe.

However, if Ortega’s schedule ever opens up and the You creatives are so inclined, Ellie would be an excellent protagonist for a spinoff. With all the trauma she’s faced at the hands of misogynistic predators, Ellie probably has an ax to grind against the systems that allow them to get away with their crimes.

Henderson and Joe have been punished, but they’re just two of many. A potential You spinoff could see Ellie taking on a Joe Goldberg-esque voiceover narration as she goes after terrible men. Whether she kills or gets revenge in other creative ways, it would be a satisfying watch and play perfectly into Jenna Ortega’s wheelhouse. It could even dethrone You as the best thriller series on Netflix.