- Network: Netflix
- Series Premiere Date: Dec 15, 2023
Critic Reviews
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Carol & The End Of The World is funny, yes, and there’s plenty of absurd slapstick; but at its core, this is a patient, meditative series about what it means to be a person living among other people: where we put our attention, what we owe each other, and, most of all, what we owe ourselves.
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With tremendous voice work by “Baskets” star Martha Kelly, “Carol and The End of the World” is a beguiling spin on existential dread, surreptitiously celebrating nonconformist thinking in presentation and spirit, even as it plops down our out-of-place leads within a beacon of convention.
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It’s easy to imagine someone being turned off or bored by the series’ measured pace, the flat affect of some of the voice performances, or even its plaintive sensibility. But anyone able to vibe with the series’ unique wavelength will likely find themselves moved by its celebration of patchwork communities, especially those of colleagues from very different walks of life.
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Yes, seeing Carol’s elderly parents in the buff, doing the things that throuples do with their burly aide Michael, is funny. But it’s also poignant; even at their advanced age, Carol’s parents are doing the things they never got to do simply because it’s everyone’s last chance. But Carol’s desire for maintaining her routine makes us like her all the more.
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It is one of the far too rare works of animation for adults. It still has its own distinct tone and sentimentality that, while occasionally out of balance in some sections surrounding Carol’s parents when they go on a boat, soars when the focus is back on her.
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Guterman and his fellow writers, Kevin Arrieta and Noah Prestwich, let the story wander here and there, and their epiphanies can be small-bore; if you’re not on the show’s wavelength, you may find it aimless or mundanely sentimental. But it has a shaggy, slightly ethereal charm and sympathetic characters whose varied reactions to the end of the world ring largely true.