The latest series to come out of FX is “A Murder At The End Of The World”, which is a new seven-episode mystery series that takes place in a modern but remote hotel in Iceland, which is owned by a reclusive billionaire who has invited a small and select group of special guests from around the world for a summit to discuss the future of the world (and as you’d expect, AI is also involved!).   One of the special guests is a Gen Z amateur sleuth and tech-savvy hacker named “Darby Hart”, who is played by Emma Corrin.  As you might expect from the title, someone gets murdered at the hotel, which sets Darby on a path to try to uncover who may be the murderer in the hotel, as she doesn’t trust anyone there.

With each episode coming in at over an hour a piece, this show takes its time in setting out who Darby is, with flashback scenes being used to explore Darby’s life before going on the trip.  These flashback scenes are pretty vital, as, on the whole, Darby is a very quiet character and doesn’t really talk much to other guests and with these flashbacks, we can see how she has always stood on the sidelines, due to her helping her father, who works for the police as a pathologist. 

It’s during her younger years that she becomes interested in tracking down the murders of “Jane Doe” victims and writes a book about her experiences, which puts her on the billionaire’s radar as someone of interest.     This early training in investigating dead bodies and working out how they died, but more importantly, trying to track down who did it, sets her up as a modern-day detective.  If you’re a fan of serious murder mysteries like Agatha Christie, this series should be right up your street.  I do really enjoy a good murder mystery, though I usually prefer them to be a little more light-hearted, like “Death On Paradise” or “Knives Out”.  The whole idea of bringing together a group of talented individuals gave me vibes of “The Menu” or “Glass Onion”, so it wasn’t a new idea, but it’ll be interesting to see where the show goes in the future.

The show is beautiful to watch. The Icelandic location looks stunning. Just this hotel standing alone in a valley covered in snow, with no one around, really sets this show up as being an isolated place, so you know that one of the people in the hotel is behind it.    The hotel setting is very clean and modern, but it also feels a little squashed, and I did have that feeling, like with many shows and films right now, where the cast is incredibly cut back due to production restrictions during the pandemic, so the location feels a little lifeless. 

Since this is a modern murder mystery, Darby is also a talented hacker, who uses technology to her advantage, which is very useful in one of the most modern and technological hotels in the world that a tech billionaire owns.   While it’s a nice modern twist on a murder mystery, it is also a little convenient and a little cliche, that she’s also able to hack into anything she wants with ease, but it’ll be interesting where the story goes in later episodes, because having only watched two hours of this seven-hour show, there must be much more to this story than meets the eye.  While the extended runtime allows for a deeper story, with more character development, it also feels a bit sluggish, as, in a movie, the entire thing would have been wrapped up in this same time! 

I enjoyed watching the first two episodes of “A Murder At The End Of The World”, and I’m really glad the show is being released weekly, because they are very long and slow episodes.  When the first one finished, I didn’t jump straight into the next episode; I waited a couple of days, because it didn’t grip me enough to want to keep going.  I’m not sure if this was dropped all at once, if I could binge it, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Overall: “A Murder At The End Of The World” is an interesting murder mystery series that gets off to a bit of a slow start, but I’m certainly intrigued to see where the story goes.  Emma Corrin’s Darby is a very odd character, very subdued, very quiet. She’s not exactly the life of a party or a character that jumps off the screen, but I’m hoping as the show moves on, we get to know this character much more and her character starts to connect better with me.   There’s lots of promise with this show, but it might take a few episodes to get properly going.

Rating – 4 Out Of 5

The first two episodes of “A Murder At The End Of The World” will be released on Tuesday, 14th November 2023, on Hulu in the United States, Star+ in Latin America and on Disney+ around the world.

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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