The End Of The F***ing World

When I lived in Germany in 2006 and 2007, we didn’t even have a TV.  Can you imagine?  There was a living room and we would sit in there and have conversations.  I drank quite heavily then.  On the wall was a big poster for the film Trainspotting.  You know, the one that carries at the top of it the following quotation from Empire: “Come in Hollywood… your time is up.”  I’ve just finished watching The End Of The F***ing World, and this is the sentiment that broke into my tiny mind when I was giving a moment’s thought to how I might write about it on here.

So let’s go through my reasons for this in agonising detail.  We’ll do the basics first.  It’s funny, but only if you can laugh at things that are uncomfortably dark.  It’s based on a graphic novel, but I’ve never heard of it.  I am glad that it was made into TV though, and that people kept talking about it in front of me and saying I would love it, especially as the episodes are only short and there are just a handful of them.

It’s about two disillusioned teens.  I’m not really going to recount the initial plot – just go and watch the first episode as it’s neatly packaged up and opens things perfectly.  It’s a boy and a girl, but the hook is that the boy identifies as a psychopath, so it follows (apparently) that he wants to kill the girl.  That’s a bit of narrative tension for you.  Jessica Barden plays Alyssa and her sardonic responses are an absolute joy.  The only thing more joyful is the way she says sh in most words.  She calls a lot of things “shit” and there is such delicious and deep sibilance in the sh that I have the most amazing time listening to it.  Alex Lawther’s James is also spot on.  You won’t be able to help sympathising with a psychopath, such is his raw human edge.  Both leads have internal monologues that we as the viewers can hear.  Being party to their conflicting thoughts is a very reliable source of humour.

Supporting our young lovers, the rest of the cast twinkles with British talent.  Gemma Whelan brings law enforcement with a heart, but you might know her as Lara Greyjoy in Game Of Thrones.  She also featured in an episode of The Crown, so I’m now declaring her a new national treasure for abilities in character acting, alongside Michaela Coel from Chewing Gum.  Her partner, played by Wunmi Mosaku, gives her the best and subtlest side eye throughout almost all of their exchanges.  Finally, Nighty Night legend Felicity Montagu enjoys herself guest-starring in some hilarious petrol station scenes.  Yes, I said it, hilarious and petrol station in the same sentence.

Right, as well as the actors, I want to talk about the writer, mostly because I used to be obsessed with her in a slightly stalkerish way which I think is fine to reveal to everyone here.  Charlie Covell was in the same year as me at university.  There was a drama competition for each college’s first years to submit a 30-minute play for judgment.  It was called Cuppers.  These were simpler times, ok.  My college’s submission, which included me playing a political advisor (I think; I didn’t really understand it) got nowhere.  Covell, however, and the production of The Maids starring her, got to the final.  I went along to watch it and was immediately transfixed.  She’s since cropped up in a number of TV shows, both acting and writing.  I’m just really excited about what she’ll do next, because it will all be brilliant.

These are the first two reasons, then, why Hollywood’s time is up (if we go on this show and this show alone): the acting and the writing.  But, in addition, there’s everything else.  I don’t really know if I mean the cinematography or the production design, but let’s just say that it’s all of it.  Somehow, this show, set in a UK as viewed through the eyes of jaded, depressed teens, makes our miserable country look undeniably cinematic.  Every location, building, interior or bloody petrol station fits in with a tone that is at once stylised yet completely plausible.  Even driving a car around, one of the most tedious things you can do in your average commuter town, takes on an element of the big screen.  Feast your eyes on it.  Normally, in films, the UK is twee and nostalgic and ye olde mock Tudor.  In each episode, it looks like a place where films can happen.

This only comes a cropper in later episodes when some of the action moves to a static home.  The characters sit about outside on sofas, surrounded by sun-drenched fields.  It looks really American because, as we know, you can’t really have your sofa outside in Britain; when it’s not raining, it’s drizzling.  I’ve just spent about two minutes googling whether the original book is American but I’m still not sure.

But look, everyone, the UK seems to have made quality TV rich in visuals and storyline on a level with the US.  Take that, Hollywood powerhouse of boxset manufacturing.  It might only be eight episodes, but sometimes you don’t need 22 hours in a series (I’m looking at you, How To Get Away With Murder).  By giving us less, we will always want more.  It’s a bit like Girls.  I’m taking quality over quantity, though it’s probably not the end of f***ing Hollywood.