“The End of the F***ing World” — coming to Netflix this Friday, January 5 — is really, really so much fun to watch. Based on the award-winning graphic novel of the same name, the series pairs outcasts James (Alex Lawther) — a self-professed budding psychopath — and Alyssa (a delightful Jessica Barden) — foul-mouthed, rebellious and bored — for your standard coming-of-age road trip that is anything but.
Together they escape their boring, everyday lives, and seemingly uninterested parents, in search of that intangible, always out of reach feeling of belonging. And they find it in each other, eventually. But they find a lot more than that too.
“The End” covers somewhat familiar territory — angsty young adulthood with a twist, casual criminal activity — but in a way that is equally delightful and dark: It’s the “Misfits” school of young adults behaving badly to a killer soundtrack. As the series progresses, James and Alyssa seem no less on edge, in that way that teenagers and young adults so often are. But their rebellious antics are slowly given context — and their overwhelming feelings of crippling angst (so much flipping angst!) and oh-my-god-what-are-we-doing start to make more sense.
The supporting characters, while not as exciting as the central pair, are essential. Especially Gemma Whelan, gracefully transformed from her aggressive, no nonsense role as Yara in “Game of Thrones” into an overeager detective named Eunice who feels all the feels.
It’s a chaotic, violent and very funny, and these babies grow up in front of your eyes over the course of eight 20-ish minute episodes. People are murdered! Dogs are killed! Rapists are exposed! Cars are stolen! Alyssa goes blonde and it really works! It’s brilliant, really.
With “The End of the F***ing World,” your weekend binge is set. Are you along for the ride?
