Why did ‘The End of the F***ing World’ get cancelled?
The offbeat, darkly comic British series End of the F***ing World carved out a niche on Netflix after debuting on Channel 4 in 2017. With its minimal cast, wryly observed insights into psychological dysfunction and profoundly unconventional approach to teen romance, the show served as an antidote to the glamour of other streaming series.
It’s a story about the weirdos at school unapologetically aimed at those same weirdos, which refuses to enact the staid cliches of out-of-place kids finding their place among the rest in the end. Instead, the damaged protagonists transcend the unsympathetic environment of “normal life” and go it alone, together. At first they believe they’re destined to mirror the cruelty that the world has shown them, yet they end up bringing out the humanity in each other.
Wannabe teen psychopath James, uncannily played by Alex Lawther of Black Mirror fame, initially thinks he’s going to kill love interest Alyssa. Alyssa, in turn, can’t seem to help her self-destructive behaviour. And their nemesis during season two, Bonnie, is hunting them down because she’s convinced she was in love with her former abuser Clive Koch, whom James has killed to save Alyssa from being raped.
In the process of falling for Alyssa, James realises his empathy for other human beings and living things, to the point that he can’t even kill a dog already suffering terminal injuries. Alyssa learns that she needs to show herself love and care before lashing out at the world or ending up at the mercy of others. And Bonnie comes to understand the futility of vendetta in place of confronting your own personal demons.
A picnic table cliffhanger?
The second season finishes with a beautifully crafted conversation between James and Alyssa, in which Alyssa admits she heard James confessing his love for her in an earlier scene, and feels the same way. “Really?” James asks, incredulous at the idea of being loved back.
“Yeah,” Alyssa confirms. “But I need a lot of time,” she adds. “And some psychological help. And I owe my mum about ten grand. But yeah.”
She gently takes his left hand, which is badly scarred from an incident of self-harm he inflicted as a child after his mother’s suicide. “I love you too,” he tells her.
“Yeah don’t go on about it,” she jokes drolly. The season closes with this picture perfect image of the two damaged but healing young heroes sitting at a picnic table, looking out over a remote valley.
So, what’s next?
Viewers are left wondering whether the two really get together, and whether it works out between them. And what happens to Bonnie. Three years ago Alex Lawther teased us with the suggestion that a third season could be on the way at some point. But he implied that we might have to wait a while, saying the last thing he heard is that the show’s creator, Charlie Covell, would return to it in a decade’s time.
In reality, Covell had already put paid to any suggestions there’d ever be a new season on the way. Back in 2019, she told Radio Times, “Yeah, that’s done.” Her reasoning was that the open-ended but satisfying resolution to Season 2 was the right place to stop. “I think to try and eke more out would be wrong, I like where we’ve left it.”
And so, The End of the F***ing World’s third season hasn’t been cancelled, either by Netflix or by Covell herself. It was never intended in the first place. The show’s brief lifespan might have many fans wanting more. But some things are best kept short and sweet.