From Poker Face to A Haunting in Venice to Only Murders in the Building, murder mysteries are a hot genre right now, and Hulu just debuted a new offering with A Murder at the End of the World. The series, whose first two episodes can now be streamed with a Hulu subscription, comes to us from Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, creators of the gone-too-soon Netflix series The OA. Critics were able to screen the mystery series ahead of its release, and they seem impressed by the genre-defying project.
Co-writer/co-director Brit Marling also stars in A Murder at the End of the World, alongside Emma Corrin, Clive Owen and others. The plot is a classic murder-mystery set-up: Eight guests are invited to a retreat at a billionaire’s remote but spectacular estate, and one of them ends up dead. Amateur detective Darby Hart (Corrin) gets to work as the body count rises. Matt Roush of TV Insider rates it 3 out of 5 stars, noting that few of the characters are fully developed, but the series boasts an ending that would make Agatha Christie proud. The critic writes:
[A Murder at the End of the World] at times succumbs to streaming bloat, with several episodes going well past the hour mark. And yet there is considerable tension waiting for the next snowshoe to drop, and it’s impossible not to feel those And Then There Were None-style shivers as the gathering hunkers down, fearing the worst as a storm rages outside, trapping and isolating them.
Coleman Spilde of The Daily Beast disagrees with the above criticism of character development and says the FX on Hulu series succeeds in spite of its supersized episodes. A Murder at the End of the World is the rare case where the surplus of characters, convoluted plot and distinct setting are used to its advantage, Spilde says, writing:
The show is a damn fine original mystery, bucking tired genre tropes. It’s genuinely suspenseful and delightfully gripping, eliciting gasps and squirms in equal measure throughout its seven parts. For once, those moments don’t simply appear tacked onto the end of an episode to fool viewers into thinking that what they’ve just seen has been surprising enough to hit play on another installment. A Murder at the End of the World understands the importance of coherence, retaining its slow drip of secrets to become one of the best mystery series in recent memory.
Aramide Tinubu of Variety says to label the Hulu series as simply a murder mystery would be doing an injustice to its social commentary, particularly in the way it examines misogyny and power dynamics. In Tinubu’s words:
A massive puzzle of a series, the beauty and innovation of A Murder at the End of the World is its ability to merge two starkly different environments and, with it, two contrasting versions of Darby. There’s the 18-year-old who was slowly coming into herself and the 24-year-old woman determined to expose the truth no matter how sinister it may be. While the mystery is a central component of the story, Marling and Batmanglij’s latest spellbinding series is all about power. It examines who gets to wield control over others, and how unfettered ambition can quickly become a virus.
Judy Berman of Time offers a few “small complaints” about the show — too-long episodes, pacing issues in the middle and an overly somber tone — but it’s hard to be too upset with Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij’s thoughtful inquiry into artificial intelligence and surveillance capitalism in the framework of a whodunit. Berman continues:
A Murder at the End of the World is a tricky title. It might refer to a murder in a remote location or a murder amid the literal End Times. In the case of FX’s smart, stylish new drama, it’s a true double entendre. The plot works on multiple levels, too. Set up as a classic cozy mystery, the detective story grounds an investigation of technology and enterprise in the age of climate apocalypse. Are the world’s wealthiest innovators saving humanity or hastening our demise?
Brandon Yu of The Wrap also talks about everything A Murder at the End of the World is trying to accomplish — including much of the series flashing back to Darby’s past with fellow retreat guest Bill (Harris Dickinson). But as other critics have pointed out, Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij make it work. Yu writes:
One wouldn’t be alone in thinking that all sounds like a lot for a seven-episode miniseries. And yet, the strikingly ambitious work manages to grab onto an armful of genres — it’s a small-town true crime drama, a whodunnit murder mystery and a sci-fi parable with scope — and deftly coheres it all into a bracing, cinematic and propulsive thriller.
From the reviews, it sounds like this is a series to watch if you liked Poker Face and other recent offerings in the mystery genre, but it also offers thoughtful commentary on everything from A.I. to wealth and power dynamics.
The series has garnered a rating of 82% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, so if you’d like to check this new series out, the first two episodes are available to stream now, with new offerings coming each Tuesday. Also be sure to check out what else is new and coming soon to Hulu, as well as our 2023 TV schedule for all the television and streaming premieres through the rest of the year.
