The End of the F***ing World
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Its a fantastic episode, but it succeeds in spite of its central conceit.
Even reading back what I just wrote, my eyes glaze over.
Meanwhile, my patience for media about disaffected white guys is exceptionally low.
(Step it up, guys, get affected!)
And the bar for British dark comedy has been set insurmountably high by the pitch-dark and pitch-perfectFleabag.
Also, Christ, is that internal-monologue voice-over?
For starters, the performances are absolutely fantastic.
James has a dad named Phil (Steve Oram), who seems fine-to-nice and whom he hates irrationally.
James does not like his dads middling jokes, but he does like killing animals.
The sequence when we learn this fact is so unblinking that its what jolted me from my I-do-not-expect-to-like-this stupor.
When Alyssa is ignored by the other girls at school, she marches over to the solitary James.
Are they any good?
), and Alyssa promptly gets the pair kicked out by swearing at the waitress.
James is legitimately intrigued.
Has there ever been a pretend romance onscreen that hasnt progressed into a real one?
James takes Alyssa back to his house, which she deems weird.
(James informs us that he does masturbate once a week for health reasons.)
Later, sitting on the roof of his house, Alyssa asks James to eat her out.
They make an appointment for the next day.
The next morning, James is ready with his knife, but she doesnt show up.
Alyssa finds herself alone in the kitchen with Tony, who creepily offers her a beer.
When Alyssa snaps at him, Tony tells her to leave if thats the way she feels.
The teenage detachment drops away and real emotion takes over as Alyssa hurries to Jamess house.
Alyssa interrupts his reverie by suggesting they run away together.
James considers this idea.
On their way out of Jamess house, he punches his dad in the face and steals his car.
And so, our … heroes?
… run off together.
Genre shows arent all that impressive in and of themselves anymore.
Im genuinely excited to see where it goes.
Thats the beginning of something very new.
