You, Me, and the Apocalypse: Ending the World with a Laugh

I am a big fan of movies and TV shows that joke about the end of the world. It's easy to be dramatic about Armageddon, but turning the situation into a comedy requires real talent. Thankfully, creator Iain Hollands has delivered with You, Me, and the Apocalypse, a ten-episode series that looks at a disparate group of people across the world who get up to all kinds of adventures once they find out the Earth will be destroyed in thirty days by a comet. The show opens with everyone holed up in a bunker in Slough, watching the comet about to strike. Then the series unravels the tale of how they all got there.

The show is a collaboration between Sky 1 and NBC, so it features a brilliant cast of well-known British and American actors. The star is Mathew Baynton as Jamie Winton, an unassuming bank teller who lives in Slough. His wife disappeared a few years ago and he is still trying to find her, though he is mostly resigned to his boring life with his friend, Dave (Joel Fry) and doting mother, Paula (Pauline Quirke). On the other side of the world, we have Rhonda (Jenna Fischer), an unassuming librarian who has been sentenced to life imprisonment for treason against the United States after she hacked into the NSA. Of course, Rhonda has no idea how to work a computer, but she is taking the fall for her teenage son, and is now in prison, befriended by a white supremacist named Leanne (Megan Mullally). When word of the apocalypse strikes, they are able to break out of prison in the ensuing chaos and try to get to their families before it's too late.

Then we have Father Jude (Rob Lowe) and Sister Celine (Gaia Scodellaro) in Vatican City. They are tasked with finding the Messiah, as the Bible has promised the Second Coming of Christ before the apocalypse. Jude is a cynical, foul-mouthed priest, which is precisely why he has this job, as the Vatican needs someone with a low tolerance for BS. Celine is extremely intelligent but has been cloistered in a convent all her life, so while she is surprised by Jude's antics, she's just glad to finally travel and see the world before everything is destroyed. And back in Washington, we have an entire conspiracy involving the American President and Operation Savior that is designed to dupe the entire world.

That is only a sampling of the story lines involved. The joy of the show lies in getting introduced to the expansive supporting cast and finding out how they are all connected. Even though you know they all end up in one bunker, it is still amazing to get to the final episode and find this beautiful tapestry of weird relationships that have woven together to give you the answer to "how did we all get here?" You, Me, and the Apocalypse is extremely funny, brilliantly written, full of twists, turns, action, drama, and dark surprises, and will leave you gasping at the end of every episode. I have no idea if it will be returning for a second season (frankly, I don't see how it possibly could). But I urge you to watch this season, as it is an audacious and completely bonkers ten hours of must-see TV.