You, Me and The Apocalypse (NBC, Thursdays, 8/7C) is a ten-episode dramedy that follows an incredibly disparate group of people through the last thirty-four days before a giant comet strikes the planet, turning humanity into the latest version of the dinosaurs (i.e.: extinct). The series – a US/British co-production – melds both countries senses of humor beautifully and sets that humor against some disturbingly grounded drama.
The series premiere, Who Are These People?, sets up three distinct arcs featuring six characters whose last days on Earth will lead to even more characters – all intriguing and each with their own story.
We begin in Slough (rhymes with OW!), England, we meet young but stodgy bank manager Jamie (Matthew Baynton), who loves his daily routine and knowing that everything will be the same every day – and Dave (Joel Fry), his free spirited flatmate who constantly pestered him to shake things up (and delights in messing about Jamie’s three-minute egg-timer mini-hourglass).
We learn that Jamie’s love of routine stems from losing (literally) his wife seven years ago while on their honeymoon. That love of routine is shattered when he’s arrested for cyberterrorism.
The there’s Rhonda (Jenna Fischer), who’s in jail convicted of hacking the NSA but clearly no hacker – she’s taken the fall for her genius 14-year old son, Spike (Fabian McCallum). On her first day, she’s saved from a beatdown by a white supremacist with a swastika tattooed on her forehead – Leeann (Megan Mullally).
YOU, ME AND THE APOCALYPSE — “Who Are These People?” Episode 101 — Pictured: (l-r) Jenna Fischer as Rhonda McNeil, Megan Mullally as Leanne — (Photo by: Ed Miller/WTTV Productions Limited)
Finally, we come to Sister Celine (Gaia Scodallaro), who simply does not fit in at her Italian convent and whose Mother Superior has arranged for a job interview for her in Rome – with the foul-mouthed Father Jude (Rob Lowe), the current Devil’s Advocate. Their job is to argue against the canonization future saints – until word of the comet comes down and they are hastily reassigned to investigate the Second Coming of Christ.
Each episode opens with the same visual sequence – the comet racing through space towards Earth, before cutting to a very peculiar group of people in some kind of shelter deep beneath Slough, watching the final BBC newscast in the seconds before impact. Do not miss this section of the show – each week the narration is different and, every time, hilarious.
You, Me and the Apocalypse is not an easy series to describe. The comedy is very British in its tendency to go dark very quickly, but also very American in its odd couple pairings of characters and its unexpected tendency towards the obvious. Its drama (despite the impression you might have gotten from NBC’s TV spots, the series is a lot more than a fast-paced romp) is much deeper and darker than you’re expecting – the coming apocalypse leads to the expected every man for himself kind of behavior, but a Presidential announcement that all the world’s greatest minds are working on a solution settles things down a lot.
At first, some characters seem like devices – Dave seems to exist only to poke at Jamie’s stodginess, for example. But as the series progresses (five episodes were mad available for critics), we learn more about them and they become essential presence for who they are.
Even the most minor characters have something unique to contribute to the story – and even the worst things that happen to the major characters serve to set other wheels in motion – Jamie’s arrest and interrogation, for example, leads into a whole ‘nother cycle of adventure.
YOU, ME AND THE APOCALYPSE — “Who Are These People?” Episode 101 — Pictured: Matthew Baynton as Jamie Winton — (Photo by: Ed Miller/WTTV Productions Limited)
Baynton is terrific as Jamie. He has a similar kind of presence to David Tennant in the way he inhabits every minute and can shift from bored to irritated to full tilt hysteria in a heartbeat. Fry’s Dave is mellow personified.
Lowe seems to relish his smoking, drinking, cussing Devil’s Advocate – he is almost gleeful throughout. Scodellaro’s Sister Celine is prim and inexperienced neither stupid nor willing to suffer fools.
Fischer makes Rhonda both a loving mother and hopelessly lost in the prison community – she’s out of her depth but full of hope. Mullally goes full tilt gonzo as Leeann, embracing the character’s unique and repugnant mindset while letting just enough humanity through that we can never quite hate her.
Even the efforts of the American president – and a very strange little man who heads up the osbcure division that actually plans for these kinds of apocalyptic situations – fit in around the edges of the show adding depth to both the comedy and drama in a way that grounds the show and gives it just enough added reality to hold everything together.
Who Are These People was written by series creator Iain Hollands (Beaver Falls) and directed by Michael Engler (The Big C) and may be the most fun I’d ever had at the apocalypse before I saw the next four episodes.
As much fun as the premiere is, it’s just setting the stage. Subsequent episodes ramp up every facet of the show and it only gets better from here.
Final Grade: A