A Murder at the End of the World

This thriller is Marling/Batmanglij at their most accessible, if at the expense of surprise. It’s another showcase for Corrin, an actor who only gets more interesting.

A Murder at the End of the World may tackle climate change, technoethics, misogyny, and true crime, but it feels lackluster thanks to overlong, navel-gazing episodes.

It’s definitely a lot, and whether the show works for you ultimately depends on how you feel about the whole Marling-Batmanglij Experience.

Beyond its first two episodes, “A Murder at the End of the World” just isn’t thrilling. Twists and turns fizzle into bland exposition dumps.

Two episodes in, and it’s starting to feel like this show would’ve been much better as a two-hour movie, where we, theoretically, move things along a little bit. [The score is the average of grades for the first two episodes.]

Beware: it’s grindingly slow, uneven (most of the retreat group members are barely pencilled in), and the overall atmosphere is so oppressive that you find yourself hoping for another brutal murder to lift the mood. For all that, I felt compelled to watch to the end: it’s beautifully acted (Owen is downright unnerving), and the story, while conducted at a maddening pace, is atmospheric and deeply intriguing.

This 7-part series is undeniably ambitious in the unique manner in which it tackles “end of the world” concerns, but it sags narratively far too often, content to spin its wheels instead of filling out a potentially fascinating cast of characters.

Riffing on the idea that the culprit is never obvious, it culminates in a genuinely surprising reveal. It often grips, but if you miss it the world won’t end.