Drama
A Man in Full
Talent and intrigue ultimately can’t cloak the truth about this vulgar, crass and graphic drama on Netflix.
If no one’s willing to go all Armageddon on Kepler-9 c, then the world needs to come to terms with the fact that humanity is about to be wiped out.
When the world realized that the giant planet was on a collision course with Earth, most came to terms with the fact that they only had a little over seven months to live. For the most part, people have abandoned their jobs and spend their remaining days doing all the things they’ve always wanted to do. Kepler-9 c has made every man and woman keenly aware of how precious their remaining time is—and how they really want to use it.
“There isn’t a single person out there who doesn’t have it,” a reporter says. “The hunger to do more, be more, live more. We all have it!”
Well, everyone except Carol.
Carol wanders around her home aimlessly, unsure of why the imminent extinction of humanity means that anything has changed. While she gets postcards in the mail from friends and family who are seeing the world, Carol’s just wishing she could experience the subtle comfort of an Applebee’s again.
There are more people like Carol out there. Sure, they’re harder to spot amidst all the night-long dance parties and public orgies, but they’re there, if you look for them. People who still find comfort not in checking off their bucket lists, but people who would rather just continue their schedules in numb monotony.
Carol spots a cluster of them. They continue to work on the 19th floor of an abandoned office building—a makeshift accounting department full of faces crunching numbers and brewing coffee, peacefully ignoring the days going by. Carol quickly falls in with them. And, for a while, Carol’s quite happy, even if everyone is too busy pushing papers to learn anyone else’s name.
But then that feeling of meaninglessness begins to gnaw at Carol again. No…no, she realizes, structure and work aren’t what made Carol happy.
And so, she introduces herself to a coworker.
Because above all else, Carol wants connection. And soon, the others will realize that it’s exactly what they want, too.
In Carol and the End of the World’s premiere episode, one character relates a fear of garbage trucks he had while growing up.
“I used to imagine someone getting trapped inside, yelling out for help, but no one would hear it,” he says. “They would just keep adding more and more garbage, bag after bag, compacting it until it was so compact it became impossible to even scream.”
If ever there was a quote to describe having to wade through the oversaturation of gross content in adult animation, that’s it.
It’s no secret that Plugged In is often critical of adult animated shows. They almost always stand above muck and grime on flimsy stilts crafted from sex jokes, gruesome death and over-the-top swearing.
And while Carol and the End of the World isn’t quite as bad as the rest of them, it’s by no means clean. Most people in its world have devolved into purely hedonistic lifestyles. We see plenty of naked characters and lots of sexual situations, including sex scenes of both the hetero- and homosexual variety. And swearing is present, even if it’s not as frequent as some other adult animations we’ve reviewed.
So for some, that’s all you’ll need to know about this show.
But it would be unfair of us to end our review here. We’re left in a position where we cannot fully knock Carol and the End of the World, since it attempts to address serious messages and issues in ways that Plugged In cannot ignore.
If you recall our BoJack Horseman review, you’d find us in a similar situation, praising the show for its messages about meaning. Such it is with Carol, who, like BoJack, would probably be asked by a bartender about the long face.
The reality is that Carol and the End of the World is a story about dealing with depression. Whereas everyone else apparently has it all figured out (or, at least, so they think), Carol feels that she’s all alone in trying to dig up meaning in a world that’s about to come to an end. After all, whether Kepler-9 c blows up the planet now or never, who cares? Aren’t we all running out of time anyway?
Were I pitching the show, this is where I’d inject the gospel, since apart from God, yes, everything is meaningless vanity (see Ecclesiastes 12).
Instead, we find messages about finding community and connection. Yes, connections that will literally burn up and be no more come Kepler-9 c, but they’re still shown to be important nonetheless. They make us love and be loved, care and be cared for and help us recall the inherent value we have as creatures made in the image of a loving God.
And that makes me upset at Carol. It could be a pretty great show with some nice messages were it not for its many content issues. But as it stands, while they might not be the end of the world, they distract from the point the show it trying to make.
Carol struggles to find meaning at the end of the world, going through the motions in a depressed state—before she stumbles upon a still-functioning business.
We see many animated men and women fully naked. Carol’s parents, Bernard and Pauline, are naked every moment they’re on screen. The elderly Bernard’s male caretaker kisses both Bernard and Pauline. People are seen passionately kissing. Carol kisses a man, and the screen fades to black as they engage in a one-night stand together.
A preacher tells people to repent and seek salvation before the world ends. Another man claims that finding meaning equates to living your life the way you want. At a costume party, a man and woman are dressed as a priest and nun. A couple characters view Kepler-9 c in an almost reverent manner. A man describes Carol as a “miracle from God.”
People drink wine, beer and champagne.
The f-word is used four times, and the s-word is used once. We also hear one use of “a–”, “b—ch” and “d-ck.” God’s name is used in vain four times.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
Talent and intrigue ultimately can’t cloak the truth about this vulgar, crass and graphic drama on Netflix.
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