He's a complete sociopath, murderer, and stalker... but that's the beauty of human emotions. We can't help but empathise with the narrator.
It's a notion that has happened through literature for a long time, but it doesn't make it right, and Penn is here to remind you of that.
It all started when Penn started replying to fans on Twitter. One started with, "The transition from Dan Humphrey -my crush- to Joe Goldberg - the guy I'm terrified of- is exceptional . How i actually believed @PennBadgley in both is scintillating."
Penn replied, "That’s actually really interesting, thank you. Maybe part of the transition is actually you—all of us—growing up, or rather maturing in our perception of these toxic norms."
Another fan wrote, "Said this already but @PennBadgley is breaking my heart once again as Joe. What is it about him? 
"
"A: He is a murderer," Joe replied.
One fan who had some real sense, wrote, "the amount of people romanticizing @PennBadgley's character in YOU scares me."
"Ditto. It will be all the motivation I need for season 2," Penn replied.
Penn recently opened up to E! News about the problematic character he portrays, admitting that he was at first uneasy.
"I personally was troubled..." he began. "I understood the appeal, but I was really ambivalent. I was really troubled, and that was also what [executive producers Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble] said was appropriate about me playing him. I remain ambivalent. I'm really questioning why people like Joe so much."
He echoed those thoughts to the 2018 Television Critics Association press tour ahead of the show's debut.
"I personally feel it is a bit of a social experiment. It's a litmus test to see the mental gymnastics that we're still willing to perform on a cultural level, to love an evil white man," he said. "I'm very curious. I'm not nervous, personally, because we shot it already I suppose. I think it'll certainly add to the conversation and it'll create its own conversation, so I'm looking forward to the response."
Moral of the story? Penn is an excellent actor that has successfully made thousands of women lust after his murderous character.
Just don't ask him to kidnap you.
