No Tomorrow for Responsible Behavior

Written by PTC | Published September 11, 2016

This quirky comedy is premised on selfish and reckless behavior. Evie is a naively upbeat young woman who feels stifled by her dead-end job and her family’s insistence that she marry her shy, geeky boyfriend Timothy. Then she has a “meet cute” with Xavier – a ridiculously handsome, muscular, and accomplished “bad boy” and world traveller who is apparently independently wealthy, paints, plays guitar, and rides a sexy motorcycle. (He even has a British accent, yet!) Naturally, Timothy can’t compete with this fantasy demigod, who possesses only one tiny quirk: Xavier believes the Earth is going to be destroyed by an asteroid in eight months, and wants to fulfill his every dream and fantasy before then. He convinces Evie to join him; and the effect of her choices soon ripple out to affect her life, her family, and her co-workers. Content on No Tomorrow is mildly edgy in a supposedly cute way. Allegedly clever dialogue like “Suck my wiener schnitzel!” abounds. Xavier’s “apoca-list” consists mainly of various women he wants to sleep with, while Evie wants to go braless and “Stop shaving. Legs. Vagina. Mustache. Everything.” To force her into singing before a crowd, Xavier strips in public, ending up nude with only his hands covering his crotch; and Evie and Xavier are shown having wild sex on multiple occasions, despite just having met. Though it does contain some sexual dialogue and activity, No Tomorrow’s message -- “Live for today. Do whatever you want, no matter who gets hurt in the process” -- is insidious. When her longtime boyfriend Timothy proposes, Evie’s reaction is to run out and have sex with a man she’s just met…then tries to convince Timothy to hang around, just in case the new relationship doesn’t pan out. Similarly, Xavier does whatever he wants, no matter how adversely it affects others, rationalizing his utterly selfish behavior with the excuse that “the world is about to end.” No Tomorrow aims for the same kind of off-kilter, over-the-top comedy as Jane the Virgin and My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend; but unlike those shows, No Tomorrow features an unbelievable premise and characters devoid of a moral compass, who laud self-centered anarchy over responsibility and caring about others. While a comedy and not a serious drama, No Tomorrow portrays selfish behavior as charming and quirkily romantic, instead of dangerously reckless and harmful to others. No Tomorrow premieres Tuesday, October 4 at 9:00 p.m. ET on CW.