CRUSHING: The graphic novel-turned-tv show The End of the F***ing World both touches and disturbs the audience by dark events interrupted with heartfelt romance.
By Isabel Morehead, Staff Writer
The End of the F***ing World promises from the beginning that it won’t have a happy ending. With a twisted love story between a self-diagnosed psychopath and the girl he plans to murder, it seems unlikely that the pair will survive the show, let alone live happily ever after.
The main characters of the show are James and Alyssa, two teens from the south of Britain, who are fed up with their dull lives and sub-par parents. This resonates with teenage audiences, many of whom are depressed and looking for a way to find meaning in their lackluster lives. Many teenagers feel bored with their repetitive lives and wish for something major or life-changing to happen, which makes the anarchism of the show so appealing. The End of the F***ing World assures its audience that you can make your life interesting and that you can find connection and love in a seemingly apathetic world.
James is a self-diagnosed psychopath who wishes to move up from murder of animals to “something bigger”—Alyssa is the something bigger. She is a brash, foul-mouthed anarchist who dreams of running away with James and living outside of the law. The pair begin their Bonnie and Clyde-esque crime spree by stealing James’ well-meaning but dumb father’s car, after James knocks him out with a punch to the face. The seriousness of their crimes escalates when James and Alyssa break into a rapist’s home (unbeknownst to them); James kills the man after he assaults Alyssa, and they haphazardly try to cover their tracks. James quickly realizes, after actually killing a person, that he is not, in fact, a psychopath. The show’s end is consumed by the crime, the death, the sadness, and more importantly, James’ realization that the most important things in the world are the people in our lives who give the world meaning.
Despite the dark tone of the show and the disturbingly violent events that take place, the bond and development that is witnessed between the two is genuine and heartfelt. Despite confessing that he believes he is a psychopath at the beginning of the show, James realizes during the course of his adventure with Alyssa that he just needed someone like her to wake him up and show him that he is capable of emotions, such as love. James believes he is a psychopath because he says he doesn’t feel anything; when he was nine, he plunged his hand into a deep fryer full of oil, disfiguring his hand in order to feel something. This emotional apathy, as we learn later on in the show, is a result of James witnessing his depressed mother commit suicide. “I was very good at feeling absolutely nothing,” James said after the incident. After his adventures with Alyssa and after she brings him out of isolation and into the world, he begins to feel things again. Being with her makes him realize that he isn’t in fact a psychopath, but an emotionally traumatized teen who coped with his grief by turning his emotions off for a while.
The heart-wrenching last line of the show reads: “..I think I understand what people mean to each other.” At its core, the show is a love story— a love story about two deeply disturbed teenagers who find comfort and meaning with each other, which is what makes the show so appealing. It taps into the universal desire for love and connection and promises that no matter how messed up you are, even supposed psychopaths can find love.