The Ending of the F***ing World Vs TEOTFW

Let's talk about what I know about The End of the F***ing World and the little bit I know about it's original graphic novel!

So I have literally just finished Netflix 8 episode-long season one of The End of the F***ing World and I am weirdly surprised by what it included, but it was also exactly as I expected? Does that make sense? 😨

The End of the F***king World follows James, a potential psychopath with a catalog of animals he's murdered and is now looking to add something a bit more human sized. Then there's Alyssa, an angry at the world teen with her fuse always burning close to explosion and levelling on the possibility of falling in love with James. Sweet and twisted, right? Not the half of it. With terrible parents and a don't-give-a-shit-attitude, Alyssa and James drive into no direction in particular dreaming of freedom, rebellion or in James' case, what's the best way to murder Alyssa. During this road trip they come across disaster after disaster and turn into a Bonnie and Clyde/Sid and Nancy criminal couple, by trying to survive each problem that comes their way. 

This show certainly didn't hold anything back, with constant profanity and the mental flashes of James' subtle psychosis. However, the show also has what can only be defined as the 'Skins' element and atmosphere, portraying teenage sex as awkward as it can be, sudden drops into sexual darkness and abuse, as well as the favourite TV family member; the drug dealer. 

The End of the F***king World stars Jessica Barden and Alex Lawther, not necessary names that jump out at you like they might start to do after the airing of this show, but many of you will recognise their faces; Alex Lawther from another rough and entertaining episode of Black Mirror, a role that must of helped cast him for James, it just makes sense! And Jessica, this is one I was weirded out by and excited for, excited because I wanted to see what else she could do and even see more of her under the character, because I have always know her and loved her as Justine from gothic series Penny Dreadful. 

Jessica actually played Alyssa in the TV film version of The End of the F***ing World, alongside Craig Roberts of Submarine fame in 2014.

Right, the comic book-I have not read it in it's entirety; I know blasphemous of the blog itself! However, I have done my research and suuuuuuuper wanted to talk about this show while it's still fresh in my head. 😆 The graphic novel, which you can now get in hardback I believe, is by Charles Forsman, first published in 2013 and traditionally goes by TEOTFW, which stands for...well, duh...

There are many subtle and major changes from novel to screen and I do think it'll be a case of what one you devoured first on whether you'll accept the changes for the better or not. For one the comic is set somewhere in the United States, whereas the show is set in England; however this is not always a bad thing, the novel of High Fidelity was British and set in England and then John Cusack set and filmed it in Chicago.

Taken from https://giphy.com/gifs/john-cusack-say-anything-better-off-dead-YOOrseSZB3qTK

Other differences include things like;

• There is a lot more emphasis on James having a knife in the show, in the book he was more of strangler/smash with a rock kind of person, in fact to my belief the stabbing of the rapist happened with the rapist's own knife. Also, did I mention there's a rapist?
• Speaking of this character, this man, although name and occupation is in the show, it's not in the comic and the only thing we do know is that he is part of a murder cult.
• More characters have been added and the murder cult, at least at this point, seems to not exist in this version of the story line.
• In the show James tells us that he put his hand in a deep fat fryer and we see throughout he has an fully scarred hand, in the novel however, James puts his hand in the garbage disposal and loses a couple of fingers. 
• Other minor differences are as small as the way James and Alyssa change their hair to disguise themselves from the police and the duration of all the events are shortened way down in the show.

There are some matching shot for shot parts in the show that mimic the illustrations in the comic which is cool and both media's contain this quick element, with flashes and mentions, not going on too much about too much and always keeping room for blood and running. It's also strange because with some of the choice differences you can't even say that it was left out due to being too twisted or gory, because the show definitely isn't afraid of that, so? Maybe just another conference of people who have their reasons, unheard by audience ears. 

Taken from http://www.obrigadopelospeixes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/tumblr_p29mrh8Qcr1qk7bkio1_540.gif

Are we hoping for a season 2? I really enjoyed the season, although I will say it began to lose me a little in the last quarter, I enjoyed the growing, the killing and abstractness of it much more to the running and closing off. But even then, we were giving an ending, ALMOST symmetrical to that of the comic, but it's one that fits in the definition of both end and cliff-hanger.....so which is it? Or has it committed its perfect circle?

It's difficult to give a full winner of this fight, but I would say that it depends how deep and what kind of deep you want to go; the show certainly has it's moments, but it also has it's tweaks and more time taken by other characters. The comic book is all out, dark but the quirkiness is self made rather than given visually.

So, considering this is a 'depends who you are' situation much stronger than the other reviews I have done so far, I'd say it's worth a look into even if you don't love it. In this case, I would go with the comic book first; purely to create your own world that's ending in the midst of the torture and love of James and Alyssa and then watch the show as a sort of younger sibling that idolises its older one. 

TEOTFW (TV)                 TEOTFW (BOOK)

                    😵😵😵                         

The rating system is currently out of 5 dizzy faces 😵

Top images taken from:

https://www.dramaqueen.com.tw/images/video_poster/2017/2017101215480112131c5f332161fd770da0681dba70bbb435.jpg

http://somoscultura.mx/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/TEOTFW_Hardcover-471x600.png