THE END OF THE F***ING WORLD SEASON 2: A F***ing Solemn But Inessential Addition

Channel 4 and Netflix’s co-production that adapts Charles Forsman’s graphic novel The End of the F***ing World could’ve ended with the season 1 finale, which is how the graphic novel concludes. Beyond pure adaptation, season one of The End of the F***ing World was a suitably cruel, deliberately deadpan glimpse at teenage misanthropy and destructive love.

When Netflix procured the rights to show the series in the U.S., showrunners Jonathan Entwistle and Charlie Covell were amazed by the series’ success. Willing to take another leap, the showrunners return with a second season to a series that seemed to complete its run. Looking at the recent second season of Big Little Lies, it’s fair to say that any perceived limited series can be reanimated for another go-around. And like every other sequel, the second season of The End of the F***ing World isn’t as memorable, but it is a tempting continuation.

Season 1 Overview

With each episode clocking in around 20 minutes, Alex Lawther’s self-diagnosed sociopathic character James was an inscrutable entity, convinced he must be a natural-born killer because he doesn’t feel and he doesn’t care. In the midst of looking for his first victim(s) at his high school, James runs into Alyssa (Jessica Barden), a capricious and choleric young soul, just as frustrated with the world as James is. Planning to murder Alyssa, James is thrown off when Alyssa impels him to venture on a cross-country road trip to nowhere.

On the road, James and Alyssa end up squatting at a vacant, opulent house, unaware that the house belongs to Dr. Clive Koch (Jonathan Aris), a murderous professor who tries to rape Alyssa — but James, hiding beneath the bed, sticks a pen in Clive’s neck, resulting in a messy and bloody murder that was pretty much done out of self-defense. And James is surprisingly repulsed by the murder, proving James may not be a psychopath like he originally thought. Is it the end of the world for these troubled souls yet? Not quite; Alyssa and James fled the crime scene and hid out at a trailer home owned by Alyssa’s dad, Leslie (Barry Ward). Despite every effort to clean Koch’s home of evidence, the pair left behind a wallet, which would later be traced back to them.

Alyssa finds herself comfortable at her father’s trailer, but a distrustful James doesn’t feel the same way. One day, Detective Eunice Noon (Gemma Whelan) comes by to warn them the feds aren’t far behind. Now awfully flustered, James tells Alyssa to blame him for everything and to persuade law enforcement that she was held hostage. James then hits Alyssa with a rifle, knocking her down, and giving the SWAT team a chance to catch her while he ran for the ocean. The season ended when a single shot rang out, a bullet aimed straight for James as he’s aimlessly running near the ocean, leaving viewers in the dark of James’ fate. It was the perfect ending, so why are we coming back to these characters? Simple, viewership and profit.

Where Are The Characters Now?

The first series came out of nowhere for international audiences, but the series’ future was gnomic. Netflix fans wanted to know whether the 8-episode run was the end product and if James and Alyssa’s odd relationship was a bleaker and more contemporary reiteration of Romeo and Juliet, in a sense that the stony-hearted world and the hostility of their families caused their love to implode. But like I stated before, no limited series is free from expansion. So Netflix, in a f*** that moment, packages season two in a similar format as season one, and tedium kicks in full gear.

The first episode of the second season lays out the introduction of Bonnie (Naomi Ackie), a cryptic and flinty university librarian raised under the draconian law of her mother, who coerces her to study capital cities and eat lipstick. Failing academically, she recoils to a life of utter vacuity. And because of her mother’s tutelage, she learned ill-advised lessons about love, and ends up believing severe punishments go concurrently with proving one’s love. Bonnie sparks an affair with a beguiling professor, one we know all too well, Dr. Clive Koch. Unaware of his deadly proclivities but suspicious of other women taking him for themselves, Bonnie channels her jealously into murder, and she ends up in prison. Bonnie, for once in her life, procures hope for the future, primarily because Koch still sends her love letters in prison, which inveigles her that she is his one and only love. But we know Koch’s well-kept secret, iniquitous hobby, and his awfully bloody fate. Koch died from the hands of James after trying to rape Alyssa, and Bonnie comes out of prison with a thirst for vengeance.

Two years after the events of the first season’s finale, James’ well-being was kept sealed until it couldn’t be any longer before viewers lost interest. So an episode-and-a-half later, James describes the last moments of the finale with morbid comprehension: “A doomed love story. A perfect tragedy. And then I didn’t die.” So James is alive. He survived the gunshot. His recovery was physically arduous, but his sweet-natured father kept him company, swore to him he’ll be a better father. James ended up getting probation after the judge ruled Dr. Koch’s murder an act of self-defense, and he started attending to his father’s fractured relationship, determined to make it work. Woefully, James’ father died from a heart attack, and James, living in his junk car, decides to find Alyssa when he’s sent a death threat.

Somewhere upcountry, Alyssa currently lives a serene life with her mother (a convincing Christine Bottomley) and Aunt Leigh (a modestly effective Alexandria Riley, a commander of softened empathy). Alyssa works as a waitress at Leigh’s diner and is soon-to-be-married to beefcake Todd (Josh Dylan). Like James, Alyssa receives a death threat in the mail, but she doesn’t alert the police or anything, she just carries on. One night, working in the mostly vacant diner, she sees a parked car that’s been at the storefront for quite some time. Deploying quick fury, she goes to face the unmasked culprit, only to discover it’s James. James and Alyssa, out of sheer instinct, embark on a journey to nowhere, reestablishing their love and picking up a hitchhiker along the way, which just so happens to be Bonnie, another unsettled soul, but this one is aching to kill them both for eradicating her only love.

A Matured But Ultimately Needless Addition

Season 2 is, more or less, an intensely solemn addition to The End of the F***ing World story. In terms of conceptual growth, the second series exhumes new purpose but treads familiar territory. The fashion in which the first series concluded, gratified those fans finding value in the painful outcome of James and Alyssa’s tragic tale of love. This newest effort to vitalize James and Alyssa’s love renders a neater end to their romance, for better and for worse.

After a full 20-minute episode expounding the enigmatic new face of the series, Bonnie, James is recovering from the gunshot and trying to start fresh with his father, whereas Alyssa is getting married to a man who wears a clueless face and a well-knit body. Brimming with a newfound brio for life — which is instantly crushed by his father’s passing — an emotionally wounded James is directionless, living in his car and debating whether or not to visit Alyssa after being sent a death threat. Initially, one would think James would visit Alyssa immediately after being released from the hospital, but a letter of malice secures him in shackles. As it turns out, Alyssa’s spiteful mother confronted James in the hospital, bludgeoning him to write a barbed letter to Alyssa, and James vowed to stay away…until now. A threat sends James to face Alyssa, discreetly hoping he’ll develop the courage to tell her how much he loves her.

Alex Lawther’s engaging performance as James is just as effective here. With a soft voice, broad puppy-dog eyes, a rugged demeanor (a grubby, wrinkled suit), Lawther is impeccably tailored to play James. After proving his self-diagnosis as a sociopath erroneous during the first season after killing somebody, he ditches his killer instinct this time around and offers his assistance to Alyssa once more. When Alyssa is adamant that she’s getting married and James should leave, James leaves. But it isn’t long until Alyssa stumbles in front of James’ car, fitted in a begrimed wedding dress, and demands James to drive her out of here.

Jessica Barden’s compelling performance as Alyssa is comparatively strident and outspoken, masking her feelings for James based solely on James’ harshly worded letter he wrote to her two years back. Now situated in a scruffy wedding dress and her marital status left vague, James and Alyssa are trying to evade reality again. Another road trip commences, another killer is on the loose, another person is brutally killed and a romance is rekindled. Season 2 is closely associated with the first in regard to plot machinations, even so, the characters are more susceptible to scrutiny in this second outing.

In the first season, James convinced himself he was a psychopath, but that was an extension of grief fairly triggered by his mother’s death. Then he killed someone (in self-defense, I must reiterate) and started generating feelings for Alyssa. The second season showcases James in a more lovestruck glaze, muttering about, struggling to get those three prominent words out. In the second season, James is in more control of his emotions. Lawther’s portrayal is simply too engrossing and peculiar to ignore. Now overflowing with warm, fuzzy feelings of love in the second season, it doesn’t foolishly misprize the complexion of James through treacly, teen-centric yearnings. James is still very much a captivating lead, still faintly emboldened by teenage misanthropy.

Alyssa hasn’t really changed in the context of how she acts. Alyssa still assumes an insouciant attitude and relaxed comportment, radiating whetted stares and detached grimaces (we love her for that). However, beneath Alyssa’s impenetrable exterior, she’s weathering PTSD from the Koch incident. Despite being categorized as self-defense, Alyssa watched as Koch’s blood splattered on her face and clothes. One of the greatest merits of season two is Alyssa’s trauma and how she’s dealing with Koch’s murder, even a couple of years into the future — predominantly because trauma doesn’t have an official expiration date, and mental hardship commonly goes unsaid or unexplored. Alyssa’s hardened external shell is counterbalanced by her voice-overs that broadcast her inner feelings. Overall, Alyssa’s growth is admirably mature and dignified.

Whereas last season was a deliciously depraved and zany love story that concludes tragically (leaving a lasting effect), this season is about emotional rebirth, and how James and Alyssa validate their love when the past won’t let go. However, as Bonnie arrives on the scene with a hunger for revenge, tension is punctured by the fact we know she won’t go through with it.

Measured Tone & Atmosphere

The End of the F***ing World has always felt like a concoction of genres and periods by how the series is configured. In a myriad of ways, the series feels like it could take place in the 70s, 80s or 90s, and in any setting that contains endless stretches of woodlands and secluded diners/gas stations. James, Alyssa and Bonnie are mainly in isolation, forced into tight corridors, which should amplify the suspense but scarcely achieves such strength. Bonnie, played by an expressionless Naomi Ackie, harnesses the fury that comes from love, still, there’s not much unpredictability to Bonnie’s approach.

The killer soundtrack — ranging from Nancy Wilson (“You Don’t Know”, “How Glad I Am”), Frank Ifield (”My Special Angel by The Vogues”, ”Say It Isn’t So”), The Kinks (”I’m Not Like Everybody Else”) and Bettye Swann (”Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye”) — is compiled by distinct tunes that contribute to the slick, offbeat style of James and Alyssa’s story. Principally framed in close-up shots that foreground the multitude of faces this deft cast has in store, the emotional moments are formally captured, directly in contrast to the informal humor that also hints to distress. The tonality is heedfully balanced between dark hilarity, blunt dialogue (“I was a homeless orphan on the run with a married woman. I had to focus on the good”) and emotional truths, coexisting well to the first season’s structure.

Together, James and Alyssa still have rollicking chemistry that’s measured in drollery and brisk exchanges. For example, when Alyssa brings James’ car to a halt, she hops in and commands James to drive away from here. Silence fills the car until James casually asks, “How was the wedding?” Alyssa also responds casually, “Yeah, it was fine.” On a whole, the dialogue is keenly eccentric and tonally acceptable. Alongside Ackie’s Bonnie, Jessica Barden’s Alyssa is also rather blank and frank in presentation. Bonnie and Alyssa react similarly, implying emotional resonance that is eventually outlined in a later episode, but it’s not enough to justify the character. During this short-lived season, a new character comes aboard to further accentuate the need for more teenage rage when there isn’t any real need for it. All roads lead back to James and Alyssa’s love, which was slightly more powerful when all roads ended after the original 8-episodes.

The End of the F***ing World Is Not The End Of The World…

Albeit the second (and most likely final) season of The End of the F***ing World isn’t as impactful or satisfying as its daring predecessor, it’s a harmless epilogue that sketches a creamy outcome for these perturbed characters. So it’s not the end of the world, but it’s not a crucial send-off either.

Have you seen season 2 of The End of the F***ing World? Did you like it? How does it compare to the first season? Let us know in the comments!

Seasons 1 & 2 are available to stream on Netflix. For U.K. viewers, Seasons 1 & 2 are available on Channel 4. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XvFO83LXBE