TV Review - No Tomorrow

Corinne Brinkerhoff created this series with Scott McGabe and Tory Stanton. McGabe and Stanton only did a web series prior. Brinkerhoff has a better rap sheet. She worked on The Good Wife and Jane the Virgin. This series leans more toward Jane the Virgin and more has the tone of that romantic comedy. It's more silly and goofy with caricatures than in-depth characters at this point. Brinkerhoff adapted this show from a Brazilian series called Como Aproveitar O Fim Do Mondo. Not surprising, Jane the Virgin was also adapted from a foreign TV series, and in a lot of ways the two are similar. Both center around a smart, quirky and awkward girl who finds herself in an unlikely love triangle after one of the two men wanting to be with her introduces a ridiculous premise.

Tori Anderson (The L.A. Complex and Killjoys) stars as Evie Covington, a twenty-something woman in Seattle, Washington, who works at CyberMart, a company that seems patterned after Amazon. She heads up the Quality Control department. She's blonde with long-flowing hair. She's somewhat neurotic. She's beautiful but she's a bit timid when it comes to certain things.

Joshua Sasse (Rogue and Galavant) co-stars as Xavier, a very handsome, almost too handsome, British guy who is very much a sexy hipster. He meets Evie at a farmer's market and charms her. Eventually, he tells her about his theory that the Earth will be destroyed in about nine months, or about the length of a broadcast TV season. He believes an asteroid will crash into the planet and destroy everyone on it, if not the whole thing entirely.

He says he tried to inform the government and warn people but no one believed him. As a result, he developed a bucket list and now he plans to do everything on that list before the apocalypse. He wants to live his life to the fullest or like there's no tomorrow from which the title of this series is derived. Evie doesn't believe his theory and thinks him somewhat crazy but she's so attracted to him and he's so winsome that she decides to indulge him and even develop a bucket list of her own.

Jesse Rath (Being Human and Defiance) also co-stars as Tim. He's the complete opposite of Xavier. He's not outgoing or winsome. He's quiet and reserved, a bit of a dork for lack of a better word, not a sexy guy. Yet, he was Evie's previous boyfriend. Despite breaking up, he still has feelings for Evie and wants her back, thus the love triangle.

However, Brinkerhoff doesn't make him as viable an alternative as the ex-boyfriend in Jane the Virgin. Brinkerhoff uses the character of Tim as just a recurring gag. The love triangle isn't much of one. The focus will be on Evie and Xavier's relationship. As such, things get problematic.

If this series isn't cancelled, I doubt that it will end with an asteroid destroying the Earth. Therefore, the title is a misnomer because there will be a tomorrow. While it might seem exciting or fun, the message of living life like there's no tomorrow is actually problematic. It leads to reckless behavior, and even harmful behavior.

It starts with Xavier's list. His bucket list is very narcissistic and selfish. If he were dying of some incurable disease, being selfish would be understandable. If he truly believes the world will be destroyed, his selfishness is only horrible. One example is in the second episode. Xavier somehow manages to break his friend Jesse Jameston, played by George Basil, out of prison.

Xavier isn't biologically related to Jesse but thinks of him as a brother. He wants to spend time with Jesse despite Jesse being guilty of either embezzlement or corporate fraud. Xavier justifies the prison break by arguing that Jesse isn't a violent criminal. That is less the concern than the fact that Jesse is guilty. He might not have been violent but he did commit the crime. There are some people in prison who didn't commit a crime and who were falsely convicted. Yet, Xavier doesn't give a damn about them.

In 2005, NBC premiered My Name Is Earl, a comedy series about a man who develops a list after a near-death experience. His list was to atone for past misdeeds. Therefore, that show is about helping others, altruism. This show is about pretty people, especially pretty white people, helping themselves for absurd reasons.

At the end of the second episode, Xavier does do something altruistic for Evie's father, but it was him throwing stolen money at a minor problem, which is a more spiritually empty act than what was intended. It also does nothing to lift the series out of this white privileged hole that it's dug for itself.

The second episode does open up the potential for depth. It's revealed that Xavier's mother has died and before she passed, she tried to get her son to jump off a cliff but he didn't do it. That cliff jump then becomes on his bucket list. Regretting things he should have done with his mom is a good enough motivation for Xavier to have, not this stupid asteroid theory.

It's doubtful that this show will end like Lars Von Trier's Melancholia (2011). Either Xavier will be proven wrong or as having some kind of mental disorder or delusion. If that's something the show wants to address, it should address it early. The one thing that Tim should do is investigate Xavier, either his mental health or his asteroid theory, confirming or debunking it. Until the show addresses and confronts it, and not skirt over it, the show is spinning its wheels.

Like Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Boyfriend, or any comedy series, this show has wacky or at times one-note, side or supporting characters. Jesse is a waste but Dierdre, played by Amy Pietz (Caroline in the City), is Evie's boss and she has a crush on Hank, played by Jonthan Langdon (Game On), Evie's friend and co-worker who is an adorable, teddy bear of a black man. The storyline between Dierdre and Hank could be interesting but that remains to be seen.

Two Stars out of Five.
Rated TV-PG-DLS.
Running Time: 1 hr.
Tuesdays at 9PM on CW.