James and Alyssa are back, but sadly I wish they weren’t
Even though The End of the F***ing World was quite possibly my favorite show of the last decade, part of me dreaded a second season, worried that it would cheapen and negate the sheer perfection of Season 1. And another part of me was excited to see James (Alex Lawther) and Alyssa (Jessica Barden) again, believing that just having them together was enough of a premise to make any plot enjoyable, and hoping against hope that writer Charlie Covell could pull this off.
Well, now that the second season is here, I’m supremely disappointed and really wish it didn’t exist at all, despite the two incredibly charming actors still being charming and funny and endearing together (when they’re allowed to be). This whole season is entirely a writing problem and a profound disagreement between myself and Covell over what makes this show work and what should be the focus of it, IF you’re going to have more than that one perfect season. First of all, the entire first episode is about a new character, Bonnie (Naomi Ackie), who narrates her backstory in the first season voiceover style, and who we soon find out is one of many spurned lovers of last year’s murderous psychopath Clive Koch (Jonathan Aris). She herself is mentally unwell and also a killer, who sets out on a quest for bloody revenge against the kids who murdered Koch.
None of this is necessary or interesting however. It feels like a contrived plot to force some kind of murder angle onto the show so that James and Alyssa face another gruesome threat, but it plays out like the kind of lame movie sequel that figures it needs a recycled plot of the original. Bonnie wastes a lot of screen time (an episode where she holds Alyssa hostage in a diner feels like it moves at a snail’s pace) and every moment that she’s there you’re just wanting to get back to Alyssa and James and are annoyed at her for interrupting.
New girl Bonnie is not a good addition
As for Alyssa and James, I have a serious problem with Covell’s writing. She is clearly far more interested in the character of Alyssa than in James, and makes a decision to focus all of this season on the effects of PTSD that Alyssa has been suffering in the two years since that fateful road trip. This results in pulling back on the love story between the two of them altogether and even though they reunite onscreen, this time around they aren’t really a couple. In fact, Alyssa is overly hostile and downright mean to James for nearly the entire season, and the choice to sacrifice their weird, unique romance for exploration into Alyssa’s psyche instead (while James simply pines for her from afar) is a huge, fatal mistake. Covell is so not interested in them being together that she still, again refuses to even allow them to consummate their relationship (which was something that actually happened in the original graphic novel, one of the few changes made to the first season adaptation). This is utterly inexplicable, given Lawther and Barden’s chemistry and the fact that both of them are still so wonderful onscreen together when allowed to be. It’s such a missed opportunity that the halfhearted resolution in the season’s final scene makes for a far more unsatisfying ending than the dark ambiguity provided by the first season fadeout.
I had wanted to see these two characters together again, but not if the writer refuses to allow them to be together. This whole project feels like it was forced on Covell, who had no genuine desire for them to reunite, so she came up with a rehashed killer plotline and turned the focus on Alyssa alone, sacrificing the relationship, which is what made the show in the first place. It pains me to be so let down by something I so badly loved. It makes me want to take over, to continue the story in a way that lets us have what we should have had, rather than this half-assed, uninterested attempt at fulfilling a contractual obligation.
Grade: C
A disappointing follow-up to a perfect season of television
