‘Carol & the End of the World’ Review — A Joyous Animated Netflix Series

The Big Picture

• The animated Netflix series Carol & The End of the World explores characters living in the shadow of the impending demise of all life on Earth.
• The show teases out grand observations about life itself and makes a surprisingly strong case for Applebee’s being our only hope for salvation.
• The series follows the unassuming main character of Carol as she finds purpose, connection, and community at the end of the world.

You, me, and everyone we will ever know is going to die. This is hardly a cheery way to open a review of an animated comedy series, but that is the only place to begin with Netflix’s Carol & the End of the World. Created by Dan Guterman, who has worked on shows like The Colbert Report, Community, and Rick and Morty, it is a series about death. More specifically, the impending demise of all life on Earth via an incoming planet that is hurtling towards us and will destroy everything in just seven months. Good thing we are not facing any sort of similar predicament ourselves that recent works have attempted to tackle. Oh wait…

The series initially almost resembles Lorene Scafaria’s 2012 dramedy Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, which was met with rather mixed reviews upon its release despite having a rather audacious if still slightly sappy ending. Each has an eye for silly gags while being tied up in the more profound. What distinguishes Carol & The End of the World and makes it superior to any points of reference is the layered way it teases out grand observations about life itself. Oh, and the surprisingly strong case it makes for why Applebee’s might be our salvation. If that sounds ridiculous, it honestly kind of is in a way the series occasionally loses a handle on while remaining wonderful at the same time.

What Is ‘Carol & the End of the World’ About?

At the center of all this is Carol, voiced by a pitch-perfect Martha Kelly, who is taking this whole end-of-the-world thing quite differently than seemingly almost everyone else. She isn’t partying like there is no tomorrow or embracing her hedonistic desires. Where everyone else is completely ignoring traffic laws, she is still stopping her car at lights. However, this is not a common occurrence as she spends most of her time watching television by herself. When she does leave her home, it is mostly to go visit her elderly nudist parents, who are in a throuple with their live-in nurse, or to spend time alone in the abandoned Applebee’s (just normal things). Where others are looking to live the last chapter of their lives to the fullest, Carol is merely coasting to the finish line. When she meets a man who also remains similarly lost, it seems like the series may be going down a more conventional path where this will be what brings her purpose. However, this proves to be a glorious misdirect that sets the stage for what is an expansive journey where Carol will make many more unexpected discoveries and find out what it is that she really wants in her life just before it is about to end.

This type of necessarily straightforward, spoiler-free description not only doesn’t fully encapsulate the often gleeful strangeness of Carol & The End of the World, but it falls short of what life itself is often defined by. Our days can often be both mundane and surreal, defined by the rituals we go through while trying to find meaning in the midst of it all. For Carol, she ends up discovering a “workplace” where she can go to fill her days that would otherwise be spent at home alone. It is an absurd thing that raises a whole litany of questions. What is their job even actually doing? Why waste your days at an office job when there is so little time left? It is then you realize that, while Carol & The End of the World brings these questions into more absurd focus, the same quandaries could be put to anyone living today just as easily.

The series is non-judgmental in how it explores this, frankly presenting Carol and all the people she’ll come to know without reducing them to jokes, while also making clear just how lost we all are along with them. The animation is itself occasionally plain, with the office she works at feeling almost drained of life despite it being exactly where she finds it. This is then juxtaposed with the more creative character designs as well as the moments of whimsy that the series invites us to get lost in the longer it goes on. Even a journey just for some toner for a printer takes on incredible significance before ending in one of the show’s most effective punchlines. It is one of the far too rare works of animation for adults. It still has its own distinct tone and sentimentality that, while occasionally out of balance in some sections surrounding Carol’s parents when they go on a boat, soars when the focus is back on her.

‘Carol & the End of the World’ Sets Up the Possibility of More

Throughout Carol & the End of the World‘s ten-episode season, we accompany the delightfully unassuming Carol as she finds everything from a motorcycle to what it is that gives her purpose and connection where you might not otherwise expect her to. Without tipping off anything too much, as there is a truly great one-two punch of a penultimate and final episode best experienced with no information, she really begins to spread her wings. Where she ends up is distinctly her and, while part of the show’s very best joke it set up in the beginning, is also oddly beautiful.

That it all concludes rather abruptly seems to be hinting at the possibility of more, but it may just be that such is life. We live and, if we’re lucky, we find community before we expire. Still, while I’m not saying I would die for Carol — as she probably would not want anyone to — it would be wonderful to see more of her before she, as well as all of us, meet our inevitable end.

Rating: 8/10

Carol & The End of the World is now streaming on Netflix in the U.S.

WATCH ON NETFLIX