Binging with Becca By Becca Smeltzer
Hello Everyone! Welcome to Binging with Becca! In this month’s episode
we’re going to talk about…
The End of the (expletive) World.
Based on a comic book series of the same name, The End of the (expletive)
World is a coming of age road journey that follows James and Alyssa. This
dark comedy/drama was originally aired on Channel 4 in England, but was
later picked up by Netflix and gifted to us Americans just the way we like it,
all at once, without commercials, and on demand.
The show opens up to James introducing himself in a very straightforward
manner, “Hello. I’m James. I’m 17 and I’m pretty sure I’m a psychopath.”
James has always wanted to punch his dad in the face (which is just sad, his
dad has the best jokes), has a nasty habit of killing animals, and has decided
on a plan to kill something bigger… much bigger.
The moment he reaches this decision to kill another human, we are
conveniently introduced to Alyssa (my spirit animal). She’s the new girl in
school, hasn’t seen her dad since she was eight years old, and sometimes
feels like an alien when she looks into the sky for an extended period of time.
James thinks she could be interesting to kill, so pretends to fall in love with
her to get close enough to do so.
Early into their relationship, Alyssa’s step dad gets under her skin in a very
serious manner, so she does what any not-so-level-headed teenager would
do … heads over to her boyfriend James’ house and tells him they should
leave their “shit-hole” town. Now. After a brief moment of consideration, in
which James realizes that he isn’t in a terribly huge rush to kill her, he agrees,
punches his dad in the face, and steals his car. And so our journey begins…
They decide to travel to Alyssa’s dads place, somewhere on the coast
of England. Along the way they meet some absurd and totally relatable
characters. There is a kid named Frodo who works at a convenience store
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and hates his life and job so much he locks his boss in the bathroom and
helps the main characters steal some supplies for their journey. There are
two lesbian detectives who struggle to balance their work and personal lives
in such a real-to-life kind of way (why is work calling me while I’m trying to
eat brunch? Crap. This is probably really important. Damn, I have to answer
this phone and let my waffles get cold), a mall cop who is just trying to do
his job, but geez kid, what’s wrong, why are you stealing bras, do you want
some apple juice and crackers while I decide whether or not to file this report
about the crime you’ve just committed? Or the man who sells weed to kids,
but they’ve got to get it from someone, I guess this guy’s probably the best
source out here and he’s got a boat so be cool, he’ll probably take us out for
a ride later today.
Along the journey someone does get murdered, and James may or may
not be the one responsible. James also solves a murder. James really does
live in the grey zone of morality during this whole saga. A waitress does get
screamed at by Alyssa, but goodness it’s so funny it’s hard to be mad at the
girl for her complete lack of consideration for wait staff and what they put
up with on a daily basis. She also throws a chicken kiev at someone’s head.
James lies about his sexual prowess because he knows it’s important to be
confident when chicks ask you about that sort of thing. The duo plays laser
tag, gets into a car crash, and gets makeovers together. It’s an enthralling
adventure to watch and incredibly difficult to describe without giving anything
of importance away.
At only eight episodes long, The End of the (expletive) World is a perfect
sick/rainy day watch. By the end everything is tied up into a perfect little
bow and it’s hard for me to see where Season Two will pick up when it is
released… but I’m excited to find out. If you want to know whether or not
James finally kills Alyssa, you should put down this magazine and pick up
your remote control, because I am definitely not going to tell you. I give this
show fifteen chicken kievs to be thrown at tv series much worse than this one.