'Carol and the End of the World' review: Existential dread has never been so sweet
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The world is ending! What do you do? Do you spend your last few months living it up, traveling everywhere you've always wanted to go and taking risks you'd never thought to take? Or do you go about your daily routine as if nothing is amiss?
In Dan Guterman's (Rick and Morty) new animated series Carol & the End of the World, most people take the former route when faced with the oncoming apocalypse. But quiet, middle-aged Carol Kohl (voiced by Martha Kelly) prefers the latter — even if that makes her an outsider in a world that just wants to party until the end.
However, when Carol stumbles upon a new opportunity that will keep her life as mundane as possible, she begins to learn more about who she is and what she wants from life. Her journey of self-discovery and the bonds she forms make for an apocalyptic TV show that is sweet and surreal, melancholy yet surprisingly comforting.
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What is Carol & the End of the World about?
As Carol & the End of the World opens, a green planet hovers above the Earth, getting closer every second. In seven months and 13 days, it will make impact. The result will be total annihilation.
With such a clear expiration date in mind, society has thrown away life as we know it in favor of everyone accomplishing their wildest dreams. There are no more jobs and no more money. There's a line to climb up Mount Everest. People walk around naked in public. Who needs clothes when you only have months left to live?
While her fellow humans embrace hedonism, Carol just wants to go about business as usual. Yet what once was considered normal is now abnormal. Carol's parents (voiced by Beth Grant and Lawrence Pressman) worry that she visits Applebee's instead of adventuring like her sister; she lies and tells them she's finally taken up surfing. Her bank begs her to stop calling them, reminding her that any debt has been absolved. Her reaction to that great news is not one of excitement but of ennui.
Amidst all the partying, Carol discovers a new safe haven: an office full of worker bees just like her. What does Carol's new job entail? Who knows! This office, with its performance reviews and corporate jargon, is nothing more than a distraction from the outside world — so much so that it's aptly named "The Distraction." It's a place where lost people can expend their energy, a bizarre capitalist space that makes a bland balm for the infinite choices of a dying world. Still, it's under these fluorescent lights that Carol begins to carve out a community for herself.
Carol is a protagonist unlike anyone you've seen on TV.
Armed with Kelly's soft-spoken deadpan, Carol is less the kind of hero who bursts off your screen and more the kind of protagonist who slowly worms her way into your heart. Here is someone who's never known what she wants from life, only to suddenly be faced with an infinite amount of choice. The apocalypse and the cult of carpe diem that has risen from it are clearly overwhelming for Carol. She's not the kind of person who parties or makes spontaneous decisions, no matter how much those around her may pressure her.
There's an aching loneliness to Carol's earliest scenes. "Let loose!" you want to yell at her. "Time is running out!" But would letting loose truly make her happy? Or are we just trying to get her to conform to the latest trends in a collapsing society?
Carol's road to fulfillment is a winding one, paved with small pleasures like homemade banana bread and office tchotchkes. Slowly but surely, she makes connections with her fellow office workers, like Donna (voiced by Kimberly Hébert Gregory) and Luis (voiced by Mel Rodriguez). Their office friendship snowballs into impromptu tanning salon trips and quests to honor a lost coworker. Watching Carol, Donna, and Luis bring each other out of their shells is a beautiful thing, and a reminder that joy can come from anything, big or small.
Carol & the End of the World isn't afraid to take risks — or get existential.
Over its ten episodes, Carol & the End of the World broadens its horizons from just Carol. One installment sees her and her sister Elena (voiced by Bridget Everett) take a soul-baring hiking trip. Another juxtaposes Carol's parents' experience on a doomsday cruise with a road trip between a former hookup of Carol's and his angsty son. We get trippy, sometimes horrifying, dream sequences, as well as satire about corporate America.
There's plenty of heaviness, too. After all, we're dealing with the end of the world here! Every episode sees characters grapple with their own mortality, or worry that they've wasted their lives. Carol & the End of the World approaches this more serious material with a sweet, soft hand, reminding you that it's as valid to enjoy the comfort of routine as it is to take a bigger risk. Really, the two should coexist.
Carol & the End of the World is particularly effective when it comes to depicting these routines, be it the commute to and from work or the simple act of addressing a coworker by name. The latter makes for an especially impactful scene, as Carol's friendly greetings shake fellow workers at The Distraction out of their stupor and into a place of greater communal support.
As a new year rolls in and makes us reevaluate our lives and what we've done, Carol & the End of the World is the kind of TV gem that will simultaneously acknowledge and alleviate your existential dread. It's a weird and wonderful delight that Netflix has billed as a miniseries, but that I selfishly hope we get more of. The world may be ending, but there's still more of Carol's story to tell.
Carol & the End of the World is now streaming on Netflix.
Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association, as well as a Tomatometer-approved critic.
