I Watch TV: Two Weeks To Live

Two Weeks To Live

At the age of 6 Kim (Maisie Willians, though she does not play her 6 year old self) saw her father killed in what was a characteristically complicated gangland noir plot. Her mother Tina (Sian Clifford, recently in another Sky comedy-crime show Hitmen as the accountant) then takes her away to a cabin in Scotland where they live off the grid. Tina teaches her that the world outside is on the brink of disaster, giving her mints that are pollution pills and presenting pop culture as her own wisdom and poetry. Their only films are VHS copies of The Shawshank Redemption, Home Alone 2, Terminator 2 and Braveheart, all choices that reflect through the show.

Fifteen years later Kim leaves to fulfil some of her list of things to do (make friends, wear high heels, watch She’s All That, avenge her dad). She runs into Nicky in her Dad’s pub* on the south coast. After expounding some of what she knows about the world (pollution, disaster etc) Nicky’s brother Jay plays an internet prank, creating a fake apocalypse news report suggesting they have just two weeks to live. She accelerates her schedule, going to kill her Dad’s murderer. Inevitably things spiral rapidly out of control.

There’s a handful of good jokes and some good action scenes. The actors are pretty good, which is just as well as other than the set-pieces it’s a bit pedestrian. Every time there was a shocking twist or cliffhanger I could see behind the curtain and they didn’t work for me. The “South Coast” (part of the area that “Southern Counties Police” are responsible for) was mostly shot in Margate and Westgate, which are local to me. It’s always good to see people on the TV walking down the grim, grey looking seaside locations I’m familiar with.

Watch This: Some violent fun and funny violence
Don’t Watch This: If a naive, even innocent murderous young woman being constantly fooled sounds depressing
* The one he drank in, he didn’t own it