nenasspot
belgium
Ambitious and on a limited budget, still manages exactly what it sets out to do!
"Till the world ends" was an extremely ambitious project that, despite a limited budget, really landed on its feet in the end. I'll split this review into the categories MDL gives (apart from rewatch value, because I just don't do that).
STORY: 8/10. I am a big fan of the apocalypse/dystopia genre, so it was really refreshing to see! Without any immediately obvious plotholes, it's a wild ride that follows a cast of easy-to-love characters. Once you look a bit deeper though, it becomes clear that (I think partly due to the limited runtime) characterization took a little bit of a backseat on this one. The relationships between the characters are written really well and are easy to recognize and empathize with. But individual characters' thinking was a bit more unclear to me. The ways in which most of them made decisions and were flipflopping between options so easily was a bit annoying. But I can write it off as: "These guys are about to die in the literal apocalypse, so I think I can forgive them."
ACTING: 9.5/10. I want to congratulate the whole team that worked on this series with the result, but especially the actors really knocked it out of the park. Despite the aforementioned flawed characterization, the cast was able to portray some actually real and human-feeling people here. I was especially impressed by Best and Michael, who really made me choke up at some times. Being able to empathize with the characters is so essential to one's enjoyment of a show, and the cast absolutely made that possible. The emoting this cast did... I'm really impressed.
MUSIC (+effects): 7/10. There was an obvious limit to the OST used, but I think the choice for mainly instrumentals was a really good one. Those were atmospheric and whoever was responsible for editing these in, did a great job at using them to enhance, not distract. OSTs can be quite annoying if it's the same one or two vocal songs over and over again, so using mainly these instrumental ones made it more lowkey, which works really well for a suspense-focused series. Speaking of suspense: I am sO impressed by the special effects. It's often one of the first things to cut down on when on a budget, but it's obvious there was a story to be told that necessitated them, and they worked GREAT. Also, the moon was super pretty...
I think I forgave this series a lot of things that I wouldn't if this was another series. However, I do that because the team behind this one obviously had a clear idea and were passionate about it. "Till the world ends" is really unique in its field, and I think that's why it deserves to be given some slack.
STORY: 8/10. I am a big fan of the apocalypse/dystopia genre, so it was really refreshing to see! Without any immediately obvious plotholes, it's a wild ride that follows a cast of easy-to-love characters. Once you look a bit deeper though, it becomes clear that (I think partly due to the limited runtime) characterization took a little bit of a backseat on this one. The relationships between the characters are written really well and are easy to recognize and empathize with. But individual characters' thinking was a bit more unclear to me. The ways in which most of them made decisions and were flipflopping between options so easily was a bit annoying. But I can write it off as: "These guys are about to die in the literal apocalypse, so I think I can forgive them."
ACTING: 9.5/10. I want to congratulate the whole team that worked on this series with the result, but especially the actors really knocked it out of the park. Despite the aforementioned flawed characterization, the cast was able to portray some actually real and human-feeling people here. I was especially impressed by Best and Michael, who really made me choke up at some times. Being able to empathize with the characters is so essential to one's enjoyment of a show, and the cast absolutely made that possible. The emoting this cast did... I'm really impressed.
MUSIC (+effects): 7/10. There was an obvious limit to the OST used, but I think the choice for mainly instrumentals was a really good one. Those were atmospheric and whoever was responsible for editing these in, did a great job at using them to enhance, not distract. OSTs can be quite annoying if it's the same one or two vocal songs over and over again, so using mainly these instrumental ones made it more lowkey, which works really well for a suspense-focused series. Speaking of suspense: I am sO impressed by the special effects. It's often one of the first things to cut down on when on a budget, but it's obvious there was a story to be told that necessitated them, and they worked GREAT. Also, the moon was super pretty...
I think I forgave this series a lot of things that I wouldn't if this was another series. However, I do that because the team behind this one obviously had a clear idea and were passionate about it. "Till the world ends" is really unique in its field, and I think that's why it deserves to be given some slack.
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