If you’ve seen any trailers for The End of the F***ing World, you probably thought that it was just an over dramatic portrayal of the lives of two angsty teens. These were my original thoughts when I first found out that the two main characters were a boy that self-proclaimed himself to be a psychopath and a girl who seemed to have a lot of anger issues. But this modern day British Bonnie & Clyde tale of two misunderstood kids, now on the run, covers so many important topics that are often avoided in today’s series. Between the two rough, yet vulnerable, main characters, Alyssa and James, and the realistic ambience throughout their journey, this show has a lot to offer to viewers in its first season.

When we are first introduced to Alyssa, she’s the new girl at school who naturally wants to fall in line with the popular people. One of the first scenes she’s in, she’s sitting at a lunch table with the “popular” girls, all of which are not talking to each other, but texting instead. She eventually receives a message from a girl sitting right next to her and becomes so angry that she smashes her own phone to the ground for no reason. She leaves the table and walks over to James, who she then confronts with an insult, and the start of a weird relationship between the two of them is born. This scene itself shows the virtual world that most of us have resorted to, and the interference of this world with reality and the intimate bonds we form with other people. James says he doesn’t have a phone either and Alyssa is intrigued by his apparent weirdness.

“I understand actually. I don’t trust people who fit in.” - [Alyssa talking about James]

A thing that made this show really interesting is all the dialogue between the characters and then the inner thoughts we could hear from them either when they were by themselves or during the conversation. All of the things that the characters were actually thinking, that you usually wouldn’t be able to hear in regular tv shows, adds to the discussion of how people nowadays would rather say what they know people want to hear, rather than how they feel. Even though Alyssa had a lot of inner thoughts that she kept to herself, she also contradicted this point by angrily yelling things that she knew she shouldn’t, out loud, to offend people and make it seem like she was a bitterly angry person. A lot of her thoughts throughout the show actually proved that she was just as scared and unsure of what to do just like any other kid her age. The person we portray outwards onto others, may in fact just be a disguise for all of the confusing things we feel on the inside.

“James Voiceover: Alyssa seemed to know what she was doing. I figured that if I just did what I was told, then it might be all right.”

“Alyssa Voiceover: I don't know if this is the right thing to be doing. I'm just thinking about what people on the TV do when they've done this.”

A big message that I didn’t expect to come out of this show, due to the dark humor and the sometimes ridiculous moments in the plot, is the very clear message about sexual assault and consent. After Alyssa walks in on James getting assaulted in the bathroom by the man giving them a ride, she defends him and later has a talk with James.

“You know that if people wanna do stuff to you, you don’t have to let them.” - [Alyssa to James.]

With all of the allegations and movements against sexual assault that are going on in the film industry recently, more and more public figures are coming forward and making it clear that we do have a voice and we need to speak up in any situation that we feel uncomfortable. These scenes in The End of the F***ing World reinforce the idea that we always have the choice to say no. At one point in the show, Alyssa is about to have sex with a person she just met (Topher) and then decides that she doesn’t want to anymore. Topher goes on to say that that’s unfair, and that he thinks she’s amazing. Alyssa responds with, “Well, then, respect me changing my mind and fuck off, please.” (GO ALYSSA, *Queen* of consent). This is such an important thing for viewers, especially young adult viewers, to understand. No one ever deserves to be violated and should be guilted into doing something they don’t want to or don’t understand.

This show accurately portrays some of the ways teenagers deal with the inner struggles of abandonment and traumatic experiences, among other issues. The emotions mainly expressed by Alyssa are a lot of unnecessary anger and annoyance that she takes out on either people. James on the other hand, lacks emotions altogether and seems indifferent to most of the things going on around him. But just like I mentioned earlier, we get to see a lot of what is going on psychologically with the two characters when we can hear the voice overs of what they’re thinking. Alyssa seems like an unbothered person on the outside, but just wants to belong and be loved like anyone else. At one point in the show she seems fine, and all a sudden in the next moment she says in her mind that she “needs to cry” and locks herself in the bathroom to do so.

A lot of what we see from James is the numbness he feels from the past events in his life. We later find out that when he was younger, he witnessed his own mother commit suicide right in front of him. This traumatic event, along with some other psychopathic tendencies he experiences in his mind, have so far given him the ability to avoid feelings, until his adventure with Alyssa begins.

The unplanned trip James and Alyssa take ends up becoming a mission to visit Alyssa’s father who abandoned her at a young age. When they finally reach his location, things seem to be looking up for Alyssa, now that she has a dad that “cares” about her back in her life. Right when she thinks that her dad has actually changed and truly loves her, she finds out that he has another, younger kid whom he has also abandoned and refuses to support. This scene unfortunately shows that some people never change, no matter how much they promise they will. We eventually just have to let go of the toxic people in ours lives, in order to make room for people that truly care about us and accept us for who we really are.

“You shouldn't just make people if you're gonna abandon them because they think they've done something wrong their whole lives.” -[Alyssa to her Father]

The opening to this show had me a bit scared, due to James’s psychopathic tendencies and some of the gruesome parts in the beginning. To any person who has read all of the spoilers in this article and still wants to watch the show: there are a lot of triggers and graphic violence to be aware of before viewing that I haven’t discussed in this article.

But, if you stick with the series, you’ll find that James and Alyssa are actually just two scared kids, trying to make their own choices about who they are and who they want to be. I guess that's why it's “The End of F***ing World.” A lot of things seem like they are when we are trying to figure out things for ourselves. Some may even say this story is actually a love story, but not your traditional love story.

James and Alyssa’s bond with each other, which seemed to be doomed at first, eventually formed into the kind of love that they both desperately needed in the end. Not even love necessarily, but the powerful connection you can have with another human being who cares about you, might just give you the chance to feel things again that you didn’t know were possible. It also gives you purpose- the purpose to make someone else feel something powerful too.