The first season follows Joe Goldberg, a bookstore manager in New York, who meets Guinevere Beck, an aspiring writer, that he becomes immediately infatuated with. To feed his obsession, he soon turns to social media and technology to track her presence and eliminate any possible obstacles that stand in the way of their romance.

The first season of the American psychological thriller television series You, based on the novel of the same name by Caroline Kepnes, was ordered by Lifetime on April 2017. The 10-episode first season, which premiered on September 9, 2018, was produced by A&E Studios, in association with Alloy Entertainment, Berlanti Productions, and Warner Horizon Television; the showrunners were Greg Berlanti, Sera Gamble and Leslie Morgenstein.