Ben Watches Television : The End of the F***ing World (2017)

* This review contains major spoilers *

I wanted to like The End of the F***ing World.

The premise was seducing : a trouble young woman and a self-aware teenage psychopath plotting to kill her running away together seemed fun and, most important, running contrary to every stupid, cliché and "empowering" coming of age stories studios are trying to force down your throat every now and then. 

But it's not very good.

To be fair, it starts off strong. The End of the F***ing World is only eight episodes of twenty-two minutes each. The original material it was based on it only 136 pages-longs and the show cuts right to the heart of it. Alyssa dreams of freedom and emancipation, James dreams of murder and before they truly get to know each other: BAM! They attack James' depressing father *, steal his car and hit the road together. That got my attention. 

My main issue with the show is..

SPOILERS

....

THERE ARE NO FUCKING PSYCHOPATHS ON THAT SHOW. The most dangerous character gets stabbed in the neck a minute or so after opening his mouth. The End of the F***ing World is not the show the trailer sold me at all and I sincerely believe it's not the show it thinks it is. James is not a psychopath or either is revealed not to be one. The murder dreams and the hand willingly burned in a deep fryer are just symptoms from an emotional blockage related to his mother's death.

So, James is "cured" of his psychopatic state of mind by the love of Alyssa, which is pretty darn cute in theory, right? James wasn't really a psychopath, he just needed someone to care for. Someone that "gets. who he is, yadda, yadda. It could've worked if the personality lying underneath was cool. If James' true self was a treasure waiting to be found. But it's not. James is a pretty boring guy, actually and that leads us to the second problem with this show : unoriginality.

I was onboard with The End of the F***ing World for maybe three episodes and a half. But then, it climaxes when it's not even halfway finished with a confrontation with Professor Koch (a full-fledged psychopath). If that had happened on episode seven or eight, I would've been OK with the show. Narratively speaking, it makes sense to confront your psychopathic impulses if you want to realize you're not one of them and Professor Koch embodies that quite aptly. I mean look at the fucking guy. He looks like he jerks off to dead birds:

The show loses the highway and starts heavily borrowing from popular outlaw stories after that: Bonnie & Clyde, Natural Born Killers, Kalifornia and even Thelma & Louise. Alyssa becomes obsessed with finding her father, thinking he will provide them the love and protection she never had alongside her mother and father-in-law and... and... I have to talk about the father guys. He is perhaps the laziest and most cliché character I've seen on television in recent years, guys. 

How do you recognize a poorly written character? It's simple: if you can predict his entire arc at the second he shows up on screen and you turn out being right, it means no effort was put into him. When I saw Alyssa's father Leslie on screen for the first time, I thought: "Ouh, look at that. A deadbeat father the co-protagonist idealizes, who's going to keep a 'cool dad' facade for two or three episodes before betraying the characters we care about for money." And guess what? IT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS!

Major screenwriting sin here. 

Before I leave you guys, I got to give credit where credit is due: there is actually some good writing in The End of the F***ing World. The relationship between the two cop ladies is smart and just underplayed enough to remain fun throughout. I'm not going to spoil that for you in case you decide to give the show a try, because it's actually one of the things that made me stick through it. And, you know. Eight episodes of twenty-two minutes each isn't all that long to get through. 

So,  The End of the F***ing World has a clever and intriguing premise, it's somewhat stylish and it suffer from a terrible case of bad screenwriting. I wouldn't bother if I were you, but since it's easily bingeable in a day, I'll leave you be the judge of it. If I had a dollar every time I heard: "I'd be a killer writer, if I could find a strong, marketable idea" I'd be rich today, but this perception is nothing more than a myth. A good premise will get people interested in what you do, but if you don't deliver, they will call you out.  

The End of the F***ing World is a great example of a great premise and a lot of wind.

* That dude is something else. Perhaps the best performance in the entire series. If pure fucking despair had a face, it would be that guy. Remember the name, Steve Oram.