Carol & the End of the World

Available on Netflix

Fans of Rick and Morty may be a little underwhelmed by this mini-series from one of its most celebrated writers, Dan Guterman, but that’s not to say that there’s no value to be found in Carol & the End of the World.

Described by its creator as a ‘love letter to routine’, the show is centred on the painfully introverted Carol (Martha Kelly), a middle-aged woman who struggles to find meaning in her life as Earth prepares for an unpreventable apocalypse. That is until she finds a job at a mysterious accountancy firm that is seemingly unperturbed by the coming Armageddon, a place where outsiders such as Donna (Kimberly Hébert Gregory) and Luis (Mel Rodriguez) can persist with the everyday while those outside fast track the completion of their respective bucket lists.

Like Rick and Morty, the humour of Carol & the End of the World is often misanthropic and subversive, with episodes often centred on concepts that would ordinarily be considered unworthy of intensive examination, such as the contents of a lost property room or the clandestine desires of Somali pirates. Still, this is a far more meditative experience that is almost brazenly content to progress its narrative at a pace that is leisurely enough to be misconstrued as being uneventful.

Viewers that persist with Guterman’s show will be rewarded, however, with a viewing experience that does remind you of the reassurance that can be found in routine, a feeling that was perhaps most keenly expressed when COVID-19 restrictions were eased. Like then, the culmination of an extraordinary event can be enough to make us better appreciate the dull embrace of the ordinary, and this odd show seems to understand that on an unusually profound level.