The End of the F***ing World Season 2 Review: Working Through Issues

The End of the F***ing World season 2 review, without spoilers

Dealing with personal demons is not easy. It might be the death of a loved one, a history of sexual abuse or the plain feeling of being lonely in an isolated world, and life is hard without human connection. Growing up without love is harder, especially when the past is something you have to carry. That, in short, is what The End of the F***ing World is about in its second season.

The series was adapted from the comic by Charles Forsman, first published as mini-comics between 2011 and 2013 and later as a graphic novel by Fantagraphics. Jonathan Entwistle created the show and Charlie Covell wrote it. Season one followed Alyssa and James, two teenagers with mundane lives and near-psychopathic teenage personalities, on a Bonnie-and-Clyde style road trip that became a search for themselves. Season two premiered on Channel 4 in the UK on November 4, 2019, with Netflix releasing it internationally the next day.

Without spoilers, the second season keeps what made the first one work. There is a killer soundtrack in the spirit of a Wes Anderson or Quentin Tarantino film, plenty of teenage angst and apathy, and hard subjects such as murder, trauma and sexual abuse. Some low-key town and country scenes sit next to occasional explosive moments. And yet again, there is another murder, and another murderer.

Where the season expands is in aftermath. Alyssa deals with what happened to her and pushes the reset button on her life. A lot has changed in the two-year gap, and some characters remain emotionally stunted and stuck, partly because of the damage in season one. A new character gives more depth to part of the first season's backstory, and secrets and lies come to the surface. In effect, the characters finally talk about their problems, or try to.

A quick season one recap

For anyone arriving late: James, played by Alex Lawther, is a teenager who believes he is a psychopath, and Alyssa, played by Jessica Barden, is the classmate he first sees as his intended victim. The two set off together and the plan changes. What began as a murder fantasy turns into a Bonnie-and-Clyde style journey, and by the end of season one the pair are bound to each other by something they cannot easily name.

The show works because its leads play it without winking. Lawther and Barden are awkward, funny and sad at the same time, and the dark premise never turns the characters into jokes. That balance returns in season two, now with consequences attached.

Bonnie, the new threat

The season begins with Bonnie, played by Naomi Ackie, an ex-con who was in love with Clive, the professor James killed in season one to protect Alyssa. Her history comes out quickly. She was a victim, manipulated into believing that what happened between her and Clive was normal, in denial or ignorant of his crimes, and eager to play the jealous girlfriend because nobody else loved her. She decides to take revenge on the people she believes murdered Clive.

Ackie won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for the role, and the second series took the BAFTA for Best Drama Series in 2020. The honors fit. Bonnie is both frightening and pitiable, and the show never lets one cancel out the other.

Alyssa after the road trip

Alyssa is still spontaneous, yet hurt and traumatized by the events of the first-season finale. She has relocated her whole life, works as a waitress, has a boyfriend and even gets engaged, because why not. She is a girl feeling more and more distant from the world and doing things to feel something, anything, besides the pain that still haunts her.

The line that sticks says that people do all kinds of things when they feel bad about themselves. It is the season's thesis, and it applies to nearly everyone in the cast.

James is alive

Major spoiler: James survived. Tape evidence cleared him, though he was paralyzed for a long while. His father helped with the recovery and the two bonded, and then his father died of a heart attack. James now carries his father's ashes in a jar and struggles to let go, and he tries to reconnect with the one other person who loved him, Alyssa. He is not a psychopath, yet he is still awkward.

Roles are reversed this season. Both characters face issues of attachment and a loss of identity and humanity after the madness of season one, and the show asks what comes after a story that was meant to end.

Why a second season works

Sequels to a tight first run often fail by repeating it. This one avoids that by changing the question. Season one asked whether two damaged kids could find each other. Season two asks what they owe themselves after the fact, and it answers with scenes that are quieter and more uncomfortable than the road-trip highlights of the first run.

The soundtrack, the dry humor and the sudden bursts of violence are all still present, so the season feels like a follow-up and not a reset. Yet the structure is different: the characters spend less time running and more time standing still, which is where their problems live. That shift is the best argument for making the season at all.

The End of the F***ing World season 2 at a glance

• Release: November 4, 2019 on Channel 4 and All 4; Netflix followed on November 5.
• Episodes: eight, bringing the show to sixteen across two series.
• Cast: Alex Lawther (James), Jessica Barden (Alyssa) and Naomi Ackie (Bonnie).
• Source: the comic The End of the Fucking World by Charles Forsman.
• Honors: BAFTA for Best Drama Series (2020) and Best Supporting Actress for Ackie; a Peabody Award for the show in 2019.

Is season 2 worth it? The final take

Plenty of viewers see the second season as an unnecessary rehash of a perfect series. That view misses the point. Almost being raped, almost dying and watching your father die is a lot of trauma to unpack, and both characters need to address it. This season sits in the dirt with them and takes the damage seriously.

That is rarer than it should be on television. The show portrays traumatized teenagers realistically, shows broken people making mistakes without excusing them for entertainment's sake, and treats consequences as real. Life is hard, and it does not wrap up the way viewers would like. A number of fans wanted the story to end after season one, but ending there would have been the easy way out. Owning up to your problems is the harder choice, and the season makes it.

Parts of the season are hard to watch because they are honest. The scenes in which Alyssa tries on a normal life, with a job, a boyfriend and an engagement, are both funny and painful, since the viewer can see the effort behind each choice. James has a mirror-image problem: he is carrying a jar and a grief he does not know how to put down. Neither of them is a villain, and neither is cured by the end. That refusal to tidy things up is the show's strongest quality.

The reviews agree. Rotten Tomatoes lists 92 percent for the second series from 37 reviews, and Metacritic gives it 71, generally favorable. Critics praised the writing, the soundtrack and the performances of Alex Lawther and Jessica Barden. Writer Charlie Covell had said before the season aired that there would be no third series, and the finale reads like the conscious end it was meant to be.

Verdict: excellent. Some of the closing lines are poetic, and the finale is worth reaching. It is a nice epilogue and a sendoff, and the show does not need a season three.

A steady, patient hold on its characters' pain is the first impression the season leaves, and it survives a second viewing.

For newcomers, the order is simple: watch the first season, then this one, and expect the two to feel like one long story told in two moods. The second moves slower on purpose, and that patience is its signature.

Sources

• The End of the F***ing World, Wikipedia — season 2 cast, crew and episode list