Joe Goldberg is a fictional character and protagonist of the You book series, written by Caroline Kepnes, as well as the television adaptation of the same name, where he is portrayed by American actor Penn Badgley, by Gianni Ciardiello, Aidan Wallace and Jack Fisher as a youth, and as his inner self by Ed Speleers.

Joe is a serial killer, stalker and former bookstore manager who, upon meeting Guinevere Beck at his workplace in New York, develops an extreme, toxic and delusional obsession with her.

As his troubled marriage with Love falls apart, he abandons his life in the United States and moves to London where he begins tracking down the Eat-the-Rich killer, while managing an infatuation with Kate Lockwood.

Sometime after, she tells him she is currently not fit to care for him and a Child Protection Services worker takes him and sends him to New York State's Irving Group Home For Boys.

Joe is also good friends with his next-door neighbor, Paco (Luca Padovan), a boy who has an abusive home life and is always trying to escape by reading books.

He initially plans to kill Dr. Nicky, but decides to give Beck space after hearing her recorded therapy session and begins dating Karen Minty (Natalie Paul), a friend of Claudia's.

Through flashbacks, it is revealed that Joe killed Elijah Thornton (Esteban Benito) after he discovered that Candace was sleeping with him in order to get a record deal at his company.

Beck acts as if she loves Joe to get him to unlock the glass cage he kept her in and manages to get herself free and locks him in, telling him he is a sick monster who preys on people and abuses his power on them.

At Los Angeles International Airport, he notices a public frenzy surrounding a famous stand-up comedian, Henderson (Chris D'Elia).

Joe later catches Ellie hanging out with Henderson and promises to protect her from the predator, having already secretly installed a control chip in her cell phone.

Forty tells Love he has met a woman named Amy Adam, who turns out to be Candace, who has tracked Joe down seeking revenge.

Joe decides to confess the whole truth to Love, who reacts unexpectedly, luring Candace away from the vault and killing her to prevent her from calling the police.

Love explains that she intends to frame Ellie for Henderson's murder, fake Delilah's death as a suicide, and build a new family with Joe and Forty.

After moving to Madre Linda, Love gives birth to a boy they name Henry but Joe feels unpleasant because he was told it would be a baby girl.

With Joe back into his usual obsessive nature, he starts plotting his move with his new neighbor Natalie Engler, a married woman who lives separately.

Joe, on the other hand, becomes infatuated with librarian Marienne Bellamy, who is in a custody battle over her daughter Juliette with her abusive ex-husband Ryan Goodwin.

Joe recovers and murders Love, gives away Henry to a couple he knows, subsequently faking his death and escaping using the name Nick Jones to France.

Officially entering a relationship with Kate, Joe goes to meet Tom, who recognizes him his true identity as Love Quinn's husband and contracts him to assassinate Rhys.

Luring him with a text from Kate's phone, Joe murders Tom and his bodyguard before preparing to commit suicide out of guilt over Marienne's death and to prevent himself from hurting anyone else.

[2] Kepnes explained that she wrote the novel during a dark period of her life, the year her father died of cancer, and in which she experienced several other personal challenges.

"[4] Sera Gamble, the showrunner and co-creator of the television adaptation mentioned in an interview with Collider, that when envisioning Joe, the main protagonist of the series, she wanted to delve deeply into the root cause of the pathology that shaped his amoral position to justify and rationalize stalking, kidnapping and killing his victims.

Essentially what she's done is taken the classic romantic hero and just peeled back the gloss and sheen and John Cusack with the boombox and she followed it to its logical conclusion.

[8] Prior to the show's premiere, Badgley mentioned his disinterest in playing the character of Joe Goldberg in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, saying that "I didn't want to do it — it was too much.

However, he was strongly convinced by the script and the social commentary around the series, adding that "what was key in me wanting to jump on board were my conversations with Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble, the creators, and understanding Joe's humanity.

"[9] Relaying similar thoughts in an interview with GQ, Badgley again raised his concerns of portraying Joe, noting that he was first apprehensive at the role but later changed his mind, expressing that "no one in any position of authority could ever try to act as though we don't know that sex and murder sells, but how can it work in a different way we've not seen?

"[10] In another interview at The Contenders Emmys 2019 panel, Badgley mentioned that his character was "the hero of his own story...every serial killer is" but added that Joe is "ultimately, the word that’s coming to mind is un-saveable".

Certain reviewers have also highlighted that the series provides an alluring but disturbing insight into the mind and profile of a psychopath, who charmingly manipulates his way through his anti-hero charisma, motives and warped sense of morality, in order to convince the audience "to sympathize with a stalker" and "serial killer".

"[16] Tiffany Kelly from Daily Dot praised the performance of Badgley in her review of the series by stating that he "shines as a bookstore manager and bone-chilling stalker in this surprisingly good thriller.

"[17] While reviewing the first season, Anna Leszkiewicz from New Statesman praised Penn Badgley's performance, by declaring that the "Netflix series You does what it says on the tin – offering surprise twists, drip-fed reveals, a magnetic villain in Joe, the horrible suspense of knowing more than his clueless victims and satisfyingly gory murders.

Praising the two, the team notes that "embodying a sympathetic serial killer is no easy feat, yet Penn Badgley has spent the past two seasons of You making the process appear effortless.