The end of the f***cking world – a review

Two disturbed teenagers find each other in their ‘strangeness’. The girl (Alyssa) acting out to hurt as many people around her. The boy (James) convinced of the fact that he’s a budding psychopath planning to murder her. Together this modern-day Bonnie and Clyde go on a road trip to find Alyssa's father. With the police on their heels.

Based on a graphic novel  of the same name The end of the f***cking world (TEOTFW ) takes its quirkiness to heart. Often reminiscent of a (rather violent) sequel to Juno (2007) the tales of Alyssa and James bring a strangeness to the table that balances nicely between (hilarious) fantastical and reality.
Like Juno brought a view on teenage pregnancy in which everything and all wasn’t, per-se, abysmal. TEOTFW plays this same light-heartedness for this show's (immensely) troubled teens.

It is the ‘fun’ part of this TV-show that the weird stuff that happens to our main characters during their one week trek are, on their own merit, rather unlikely.
But daily newspapers do inform us that these things do happen somewhere in the world. Alyssa and James just bought a trillion-to-one lottery ticket which caused them to meet a pederast, serial killer and a not-by-the-book police officer in a span of days.

SPOILER: Though I must note here that hitchhiking partially naked is probably a good way to attract creeps in real life too.

But that’s the format you have to accept going into the show. TEOTFW tries to balance between the cruel day-to-day ‘reality’ and ‘happy going’-fiction by letting all the gutter trash tumble over our two heroes and letting them get out (somewhat) clean. This, I think, part of the point is, because they are already damaged.

The running time of each episode does help in this regard. Each episode clocking in at a comfortable 20 minutes is more than enough. It’s easy to bench-watch but at the same time the ‘chapter-vibe’ gives the viewer enough time to digest that which is portrayed.

Criticizing I would argue that in the final three episodes the show start to drag a bit. This has everything to do with the final pieces falling in place. Episode five, for instance, demands the praise and destruction of the father figure to move on to the inevitable finale. This brings a bit of predictability to the table that was wonderfully absent before.

I would argue that the praise and destruction of the father would work better as the end and start of two episodes.

Then the final ending, which is hard not to spoil, makes it all a bit annoying. I understand what the creator wanted to try for. And I certainly give points for trying. But, I argue, it would actually work a whole lot better if the main characters were still pretty much unlikable.

The first rule of storytelling is that people who are on screen the most are still –to some extent- liked by the audience. Now the trick is to balance things out.

Alyssa’s character is constantly making things worse for herself. In the first few episodes she is hilariously unhinged like a chain-smoking petrol smuggler. James then is the darker character who actually has blood on his hands.
It is hard, at first, to like these characters too much. But TEOTFW manages in the end. Manages to such an extent that the ‘ending’ –to me- feels a bit like a copout.

But that’s just part of a creatively written show in which the creators didn’t shy away to show some of the more extreme things that go on in the minds of teenagers.
No not every teenager dreams about shooting down the school in real life. But not all teenagers are Disney-channel perfect either. It’s refreshing every once in a while for a show to come out to counter the Hannah Montana’s and Dog with a blog's of this world. And throughout the craziness of TEOTFW you actually get a rather lovely love story to boot.