"If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster," -Isaac Asimov
The End of the F***ing World is brilliant.
It really is. It's dark and subtle and blunt but also deeply heartfelt. I watched this story in one massive, exhilarating breath.
However - and if you're a regular, then you saw this coming - it has some problems. If you're here looking for all of the things that TEOTFW does right, then you've come to the wrong place. There are hundreds of other reviews that cover the almost insurmountable good aspects of TEOTFW. This blog post is all about the bad.
You've been warned.
~
The show starts out fantastically. And by fantastic, I mean FAN-F***ING-TASTIC.
TEOTFW jumps off from the premise that James is a self-diagnosed psychopath and Alyssa is a moody and rebellious teen disillusioned with her family life. Immediately, this intrigued me. It seemed like your typical road trip love story with a dark twist. And to a point, it was.
James is established as an unfeeling outcast with a dark and ambiguous past. For a while there, there's this strangely wonderful disconnect because you care for him, but you also hate him because he's kind of an awful person.
Then there's Alyssa. She's tough-as-nails and rude, but also carefree and eccentric. She's the character we identify with the most at the beginning, not just because of characterization or development, but because she shows a full range of emotions, and James is still a bit of a terrible person at this point.
*Side note: Can we just take a moment and praise the storytelling gods that neither James nor Alyssa were manic pixie dream characters?*
I'd argue that Episodes 1 through 4 are the strongest. They carry a subtle emotional weight, while softening the two hardened characters with an incredible amount of interesting tension. And I think I've narrowed it down as to why the rest of the season falters.
There's a moment that perfectly verbalizes the problem. James thinks to himself:
"Having finally murdered a human, I realized something quite important: I was pretty sure I wasn't a psychopath."
After James kills the serial rapist/murderer - and after the aftermath - , the story seems to meander along until they inevitably get caught. It nearly devolved into a generic teen-love road trip story.
And it's because that nearly all narrative and character tension disappears.
The pitch for the story, and what the story hinges on - James being a psychopath and road tripping with this girl to find her father - disappears. Sure, they still try and find her father, but the foundation of the story and what the first four episodes was built upon is torn out from under it. The main concept just falls apart.
After about Episode 4, James subsequently loses about 75% of his character complexity. Instead of being mostly unfeeling and hell bent on murder, he becomes a shy boy with a tortured past (which everyone has seen before). He loses this complexity because now, James has very little to do other than run from the law. More on that later.
The show also loses its dramatic irony, which is what made the first episodes funny in a skin-crawling kind of way. In turn, it loses it's narrative tension. Back when we believe that James is going to kill - or, at least, attempt to kill - Alyssa, it adds a sense of unease and anxiety to an otherwise strong, heartfelt, and darkly funny teenage 'finding yourself' road trip. And that was extremely engaging, interesting and new in an often contrived but well-meaning genre, and I was disappointed when the whole show unraveled from there.
Th show's other main problem is it's focus. At the beginning, James is the focus. While Alyssa is his means to an end, she remains a strong and consistent driving force in the story. However, the picture is still painted that James is the protagonist, while Alyssa is one of the two main characters. (Yes, there is a difference. Look it up. Article #1, #2) I digress.
After James' "goal" is reached (killing someone), he ceases being the protagonist, and the mantle moves on to Alyssa, who still needs to find her dad. However, while well executed, her story arc isn't nearly as interesting as James'.
Ex: "Girl searches out deadbeat dad only to find that he's a deadbeat dad, realizes stuff about life, and falls in love with a boy?" Totally haven't seen that one before. But "teens with emotional baggage embark on a quirky road trip PLUS some psychopathic tendencies and dark humor?" That sounds a hell of a lot more original.
The story tries to tie it back in, making it James' story with the final moments of the show, but it falls flat since we've spent the last half of the season with Alyssa as the focus.
TEOTFW seems to be divided into two equal parts. A dark teen comedy-drama with amazing subtlety and a compelling thread of tension to an almost stereotypical teen love story with the themes of love, deadbeat dads, and quirk. But, like I said, the latter isn't bad, but for a show that starts off so incredibly strong while including the classic elements of the teenage road trip, the last four episodes feel . . . lacking in the dry charm, subtlety, and tension that made the first four episodes so good.
That all being said, TEOTFW is still fantastic. I still highly recommend it. The characters, direction, dialogue, and emotional and humorous dynamics are all wonderful. I can't stress that enough. Days after finishing this show, the story stuck with me, and I expect it to stick with me for a while. However, it stumbles a bit from dissolving character and narrative tension and focus problems.
Objective Rating: 8.5/10 would recommend.
Enjoyment Rating: 9/10 would recommend.
I think I just expected something different. And maybe that's on me, or maybe that's on the show for portraying A, B, and C throughout the first four episodes, but then portraying X, Y, and Z for the rest.
But I digress. In conclusion: watch The End of the F***ing World so we can fangirl about it but also pick it apart together. Think of it as a bonding experience.
~The Wordshaker
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