The End of the F***ing World: End of the Teen Drama

The End of the F***ing World, a brand new Series you've probably come across on Netflix recently whilst skipping through trying to find something good to watch. The name probably caught your eye - as it did for my 14 year old sister, and a good friend of mine. After my little sister told me it was 'just really weird' and my friend said it was 'so amazing, you need to watch it' I decided to give it a go.

Now I am prone to watching a good Teen series, I am actually currently writing my dissertation on Teen Dramas and how they've evolved. With this in mind, I thought I would give this programme a go and to be frank, I wish I didn't.

It starts off with you learning about the two quirky teenagers it's based on, James who believes he is a psychopath and Alyssa, an over the top teenage girl who's every other word is a curse word. For me, I felt very uncomfortable watching this, and spent the whole first episode on edge, knowing I didn't like the programme but not putting my finger on why. After some thought I came to some conclusions.





As already stated, Alyssa swears a lot. Too much. When you learn about film you are always told that if you're a student and you put swear words in your script your film will most likely look like a terrible student film. I believe this is the case for this show. The overuse of curse words leads me to two different theories, the script may be very poor or Alyssa's character doesn't have enough depth and meaning. To me the lines feel like their being used for shock purposes, to make the character seem cool. Instead it's left the character depthless, non believable (what teenagers do you know talk like this?) and leaving the actor playing Alyssa to look like she just can't act. I know this isn't the case, having seen her performing a very believable role in the short Sweet Maddie Stone (2016). So why does she come across as flat and irritable in this show?

I love both American and British shows, but it is easy for anyone to see that they are very different, they have different cultures after all. This show is British, you can tell by the accents, the sarcasm and the humour. Brits love weird comedy. However, they have tried an American style for the show, with the houses even looking slightly American (who has a garden that big in England, we build houses on top of one another!) I love the idea of British shows trying different routes to become successful internationally, and the cinematography within this show was beautiful but this again left me on edge. Perhaps this is something that will grow, and as British shows try more American ways they will create something more successful but for me, I think they've got a good way to go till they hit that mark.

It's no surprise that Teen Shows are getting darker, with what's happening in reality at the moment. Shows such as Riverdale and 13 Reasons Why show darker themes, setting life lessons for their younger audiences whilst being entertaining. Therefore it's nice to see a British show trying to follow suit.


Now, I know I don't love this programme but I'm so happy that the British TV is creating new shows for different audiences, hopefully there will be many more to come. As for this programme though, I don't think I'll be watching it again or waiting for a second series.