All the Different Pursuits in “Carol & the End of the World”
I remember scrolling through my Netflix home page — as one does — over a dinner of leftover bolognese that I had created on a quiet Christmas with my partner and my cat a few days ago. It was my best bolognese yet, by the way.
Just before the beginning of 2024; and we all know how 2023 went, so morale was low. Coming across the preview that automatically played and hearing the familiar and deadpan Martha Kelly, my interest was instantly piqued. I could have recognized that drug dealer from Euphoria anywhere. I pressed ‘play’ almost involuntarily upon glimpsing the animation style. It was reminiscent of Bojack Horseman with a little Adult Swim twist: Carol & the End of the World.
B whipped his head to me and scoffed. “This looks depressing, Zachary,” having used my last name in reprimand. Indeed, one could tell right away it was about the whole world discovering a planet named “Keppler” was headed in a collision course towards Earth and would make its strike in just over 7 months’ time. A beguiling plot for the melancholy — I was seated.
I shushed him, “Let’s just give this 15 minutes.” It was our rule for experimental, don’t-know-anything-about-it finds. We ended up watching the whole pilot before B decided it wasn’t for him, but I begged to differ. Sure, the humor is deadpan, though I found it to be a comforting brevity to such a bleak situation. And here, we were given a Carol Kohl who was yearning for the last bit of normalcy the world had to offer. One of the very first things that made her smile was a letter from her credit card company; hoping to pay a credit card bill, she was disappointed when it was a sincerely written letter from the company’s CEO telling all of his cardmembers that they were no longer in debt.
The constant pressure to “free oneself” surrounded Carol — everyone was doing something, always partying, traveling, exploring new hobbies. Such a contradiction to see a character so weighed down while witnessing an incredibly unanimous carefree zeal everywhere else. This alone could have hooked me, because I cannot stand being made to feel the way I know Carol had been feeling — and it’s such a specific emotion, though I can’t quite name it. But the real retention for me was watching her discover an accounting firm at the end of the pilot — a shining beacon of regularity. Carol’s eyes lit up with hope and my smile grew.
This limited series is compiled of multiple vignettes, such as a massive cruise, stories of objects in a lost & found, and a road trip to the Niagara Falls. While the stories navigate the potent doom and mania of a terminal 7 months, we get wonderful nuggets exhibiting soothing and much needed human connection. I think most people want to approach this with a comedic lens, and I’m not saying that’s wrong, but I am saying this made me tear up more than laugh — not because of how sad it can be, but because the stories are a reminder of what we already have.
While Keppler looms in the sky above, it’s hard not to see it as a visualization of what’s to come from us — a lingering despair to which many shut their blinds and carry on ignoring for the sake of effervescent happiness; a happiness that is deemed as “freedom.” It made me think a lot about that word: freedom, and what it means to be free. Despite the vastly different tales throughout the series, the one thing that ties them all together is the desperate search and commitment towards each other. The true happiness is found while sharing experiences, memories, and feelings with the ones around you. And it’s the crippling isolation a character can feel that drives this realization home. Why can it be easy to admit loneliness, but so hard to come to terms with the need for community?
And what has truly taken freedom from us, to the point where we feel in doom’s shadow that is what we must seek — what is freedom? Perhaps, collectively, all we’ve ever wanted was to feel accepted, to spend time with loved ones, and to choose how we want to spend the time that has always been limited to us. Surely, this freedom brings ultimate happiness. And, yes, Carol & the End of the World puts a time stamp on all of our deaths, but in a way nothing has really changed. We all will still die, we all still have each other, yet all of the other commitments — financial, mainly — are gone. The series shows us how much we tend to alienate ourselves, thinking that is normal, and can even inflict punishment on one another in pursuit of connection. The trepidation to form friendships is the sad reminder that only we have been in the way of our own freedom.
But the inspiration comes from the fact that if only we are the problem, then we have it in ourselves to be the key — the solution to everything. We do not have endless time; we never did. And these vignettes challenge us to look at ourselves and ask each other what is it that we really care about? It certainly isn’t business, money, or capital. No matter how much we try to avoid saying this, it has always been love.
