*No spoilers included*
Courtesy of Youtube
The End of the F***ing World is a television series that first aired in the UK before Netflix added it to their roster of acclaimed shows and movies. The show is derived from a comic book series by Charles Forsman featuring two young teens. This series has been scored particularly high by critics’ worldwide and has received positive feedback by fans.
I don’t normally binge-watch TV series or shows, but in this particular case, I watched the whole series in one sitting. To be fair, I just finished co-op and was sick for a week so there wasn’t much that I could have done, and I totally deserved a break.
This series was highly anticipated by Generation Z and millennials, because it focuses on important themes such as coming of age, romance, and individuality. I saw the trailer and it immediately caught my attention. For some reason, I expected it to be similar to Moonrise Kingdom, but instead it came across as a black comedy. It was unusual, but intriguing. One of the main characters in the series, James, is a psychopath that likes to kill living organisms and experimenting with pain (he put his hand in a deep fryer when he was just seven). Along the way, James meets Alyssa, a rebellious teenager who wanted to run away to live with her dad.
In the trailer, these two young adolescents run away and fall in love. However, this is no ordinary love story! Think of it as a modern day Romeo and Juliet tale. These young lovers were doomed from the very start, as the authorities try to keep them apart. In this crazy twist of a wild goose chase, a blossoming love between the young couple suddenly becomes entangled with a morbid fate.
It is kind of hard to understand the motives behind the main characters sometimes, but I think that was intentional. Throughout the series, these two teenagers are trying to figure themselves out as well. They both lived complex lives, but when they met each other, their paths changed drastically. It’s hard to say whether they were better or worse off after meeting. This series covers more than just a pair of rebellious teens and young love; instead their pasts continue to haunt them. There are tales of depression, abuse, and emotions bottled up that have yet to be resolved. As the story unravels, their lives get worse and worse. The plot seems bizarre, but there is a lot of symbolism that is played out in the series.
This series is eccentric and definitely not your average show. It’s funny in a satirical kind of way; great if you like dark humor. But it does shed light on issues that affect people globally, issues that most people tend to ignore and overlook. There is more than meets the eye; this series isn’t filled with a lot of action scenes or blockbuster fillers, but instead uses other means to captivate the audience’s attention.
I enjoyed watching this series, but I wasn’t blown out of the waters by it. There were so many questions left unanswered and it left me questioning the morals of the story. I feel like some parts of the show were undeveloped and the director could have reflected more on certain aspects. However, I do hope that there will be a season two so I can find out what happens to James and Alyssa.