Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Two Weeks To Live’ On HBO Max, Where An Isolated Young Woman Seeks Revenge On Her Father’s Death

Dark British comedies have been a recent hallmark of streaming TV, whether it’s a comedy set against a bleak backdrop like Derry Girls or an outright black comedy, like The End Of The F***ing World. So a comedy about a woman taking revenge on her father’s death seems to fit right into that genre. That’s the idea behind Two Weeks To Live, which HBO Max imported from the UK’s Sky One network.

TWO WEEKS TO LIVE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “NORTH OF ENGLAND”. A huge jeep pulls into a cafe parking lot, and a young woman dressed in outdoor gear gets out.

The Gist: The young woman, Kim Noakes (Maisie Williams, Game Of Thrones), is a bit isolated and not aware of how the world works, as we find out when the cafe owner rooks her for 20 quid. In the bathroom, she talks to the waitress, who also happens to be the owner’s wife, about how he talked to her. The waitress exits the bathroom to a bloody scene, and when she tries to catch up to Kim, the young woman tries to drive off with a catchphrase, but blows both things.

We cut to the South Shore. Kim goes to the pub where her parents went on their first date. What we see in flashbacks is that, when she was younger, Kim witnessed her father get stabbed to death. She toddles in on heels she’s never worn, and immediately starts drinking with brothers Nicky (Mawaan Rizwan) and Jay (Taheen Modak). As Nicky gets to know her, Kim tells her story, and we see her survivalist mother Tina (Sian Clifford) in the woods of Scotland find the note from Kim, telling her that she had to go out and experience life.

Cutting to Kim and the brothers hanging out, it’s obvious that the three have gotten to know each other a bit over the past few weeks. Nicky seems to be enamored with her eccentricities like her “smog pills” and other survivalist habits, and they talk to each other about how their fathers died. During this talk, Jay creates a fake news clip that says that the world will end in two weeks. When Kim sees it, she accelerates the long-simmering plan she had to seek revenge for her father’s death.

The brothers chase Kim to a massive house, where she scales the fence. She’s after crime boss Jimmy Davies (Sean Pertwee), whom she saw killing her dad. When Tina finds the drawings of Davies’ tattoos and jewelry she made, and the news clippings, and knows she has to go after her daughter.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Two Weeks To Live can fit right in with other dark British comedies we’ve seen of late, namely The End Of The F***ing World.

Our Take: Written by Gaby Hull (who wrote We Hunt Together, another dark British show of recent vintage), Two Weeks To Live smartly keeps its story more or less focused on Kim and her desire to revenge her father’s death. It’s smart for a couple of reasons, the first of which is Maisie Williams’ appealing performance.

She plays Kim as someone who has mostly lived in isolation — Kim and Tina occasionally went into town on supply runs — who is curious about the world but not dumb about how to operate in it. Her lack of knowledge is around the edges, like how to walk in heels or which bill is the 10 pound note. She still has enough wherewithal to intrigue Jay and Nicky, so that the three of them become fast friends. She’s been taught by her mother how to handle herself, handle some pretty sophisticated weapons, and focus in on an objective, but she still will poke her eyes while trying to put on sunglasses and isn’t entirely sure how to work the clutch on her jeep. Even after the first episode, we see that Kim contains multitudes, and that’s a good start to the series.

The other reason why that focus is smart is because we don’t yet know a lot about any of the other characters. Jay and Nicky just seem to be a couple of young bros who just happen to like Kim’s vibe. Tina is a survivalist who lost her husband a couple of decades ago. Jimmy is a scumbag that looks like he’ll be on the other end of a bullet from Kim (though with Pertwee playing him, we’re expecting that he’ll wriggle out of that situation). Outside of an extended scene where the brothers discuss Nicky’s singlehood, the brothers just seem to be there for Kim to play off of.

Because the idea is that Jay’s trick is going to set some things in motion that he never intended, this dark comedy has the potential to go in so many directions. But to resist the urge to go in so many directions right from the start is something that has to be tough for a writer to resist. So the fact that we have a solid idea of who Kim is at the outset is more than enough for us.

Sex and Skin: Nothing.

Parting Shot: As she points her gun up at Jimmy, Kim says. “Hello, Jimmy. Remember me?” Jimmy’s response? “Uhhhhhhh…..”

Sleeper Star: Of course, we’re curious to know more about Clifford’s character Tina. She had to have a reason why she kept her daughter in isolation, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens when she returns to civilization to find Kim.

Most Pilot-y Line: Jay to Nicky: “You’re never going to get anywhere because you have shit clothes, a shit haircut, and a dick like a burst balloon.” Wow, way to prop up your brother, bro.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While Two Weeks To Live needs to deepen a few other characters, it set up its story very well in its first episode, aided by the fine lead performance of Maisie Williams.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Two Weeks To Live On HBO Max