A Murder at the End of the World is like a journey through the looking glass. Alice has escaped the dark hole only to end up in another, scarier world. Just like her adventures in wonderland, the rich in this world are indeed all crazy. FX has given us a mystery with more twists and turns than a Monte Carlo road.
Like almost every television show this season, A Murder at the End of the World is flashback heavy. Our protagonist Darby Hart (Emma Corrin) has a lot memories to trudge through as she moves on to a new murder mystery. Hart is the daughter of a Coroner. She learns at dad’s side from an early age.
Hart is also a writer. Her first book is all about finding a serial killer. Using the internet as her guidebook and inspiration, she joins forces with Bill Farrah (Harris Dickinson). The two sleuths do indeed catch the murderer. The flashbacks deal mostly with their shared journey. Looking through the glass darkly, Darby has many disturbing and unsettling moments to think about.
The Show
The mini series starts with Darby reading an excerpt from her first book. Fast forward and she is attending meeting of great minds in Iceland. There she meets Lee Anderson (Brit Marling) a hero of hers. Lee was a master hacker who was “doxxed out of existence.” She is another “Alice” type character who has her own memories of looking through the glass darkly.
Lee is married to multi-billionaire Andy Ronson (Clive Owen). *A thinly disguised fictional version of Elon Musk perhaps?* Once she arrives at the snowbound hotel, Bill shows up. Late for dinner, he pretty much ignores the woman he shared so much with.
The Rest of the cast
Other members of the 1% elite includes Sian Cruise (Alice Braga), Liu Mei (Joan Chen) and Javed Khan as Rohan Ravjit. Raúl Esparza is the unlikeable David Alverez and Pegah Ferydoni is Ziba.
Darby is helped by Ronson’s AI assistant Ray (Edoardo Ballerini) as she works to figure out just why she was invited. The young crime investigator/author is not really Alice in Wonderland at all. However, her journey through the looking glass is darker than most of her new colleagues.
Everything else
This seven episode mini series written by Marling and Zal Batmanglij is a brilliant showcase for all the cast. Every one of the actors brought their A game to the show. *Kudos to Owen for his venting rage, the man has spit coming out of his mouth as he bellows his dissatisfaction.*
Ray, as the omnipresent AI assistant moves seamlessly from helpful to creepy.
This is a brilliant and moody piece that made a one night binge enjoyable. Everything about this works. Corrin knocks this one out of the park.
The show itself has a body count that is not too high and there is no real gore to be seen. The language level is a cool PG-13 and there is a minimum of nudity. Hulu is streaming it right now so head on over.
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