*mild spoilers ahead
There have been a good number of movies and TV shows that tackle the concept of the end of life as we know it, whether that be by illness as The Fault in Our Stars or The Bucket List, or by natural catastrophe as in 2012 or The Knowing. These have all built a foundation for the way that we perceive and understand that the public would handle the notion of the world ending or their world ending. I think what’s the most interesting about this show is it’s fresh take on the genre and its ability to inject heart and genuine emotion into a genre that fuels itself on panic and trying to come to terms with life ending. The CW show was a new addition to their line-up last fall, which asks six main characters the age-old question of, “What would you do with your life if you knew it was ending?”
The main protagonists, Xavier and Evie, are two opposites who meet when Evie gets a package meant for Xavier and returns it to him. This begins their opening of the looking glass into each other’s lives and how they live them. Evie is the more uptight, corporate employee type who is concerned with rising up the ranks in her job (although we later find that she is in it to make a difference). While Xavier is the antithesis of Evie, free-spirited, irresponsible, and mostly without personal barriers that would hold him back from living the way he would like. This kind of life gets him in trouble a good bit throughout the show, and he has to pay the consequence for it, much like the rest of us have to. He realizes that he can’t get away with everything because he believes the world is going to end. Oh by the way, he has concocted a mathematically backed theory that a large asteroid will hit the Earth in about 8 months’ time when he meets Evie. He is so certain about this that he hopes to share it with the world so that they will be able to live the lives they’ve always wanted to live.
The characters in the show are diverse, and display a variety of personality traits and quirks as well. There are different love-story plotlines among the six of them, even resulting in a bit of a love triangle for a few of them. Evie’s friends Hank and Kareema act as her sounding board and give her their input and perspective on her life moves and issues. They have her back and all help each other to meet their goals and a lot of character development occurs in this process as they come to terms with who they are and how that fits into their relationships with others. It is also interesting to watch how Xavier’s theory affects the relationship that he has with Evie and the other friends and family in his life. There is some substantial lessons to learn about personal boundaries and values from their interactions and it is much akin to the normal couple bumps that many of us have IRL.
Watching this show was a pleasant surprise and I was glad that it came across my Netflix queue. I highly recommend it for the person who wants to see how characters interact in a pre-doomsday setting while they keep their cool and continue living their lives. They don’t stop and panic in light of yet-to-be proven theory like many of the other movies and TV shows have done. The doomsday plot is thankfully not the only one here and there is a lot of redeemable comedy and heart woven into this charming exploration of life as we know it.
Photo Credit to: thumbnail, body photo