In the US: Tuesdays, 9/8c, The CW
“Who would you be with if you knew tomorrow was your last day on Earth?” is a common-enough “What if?” question. No one ever asks, “Who would you be with if you knew the next seven seasons were your last days on Earth?”
And that’s basically the issue with No Tomorrow, in which uptight American girl Tori Anderson falls in love at first sight with carefree non-American Joshua Sasse, who’s only as carefree as he is because he thinks the Earth is going to be hit by an asteroid in eight months’ time. Now, Anderson is delightful, Sasse is surprisingly unirritating, and the first episode was a lovely bit of joy, marrying heart and mind, in the middle of a pilot season full of stupidity and misery.
But they’re still here. They’re not going on a round the world cruise. They’re not canoeing up the Amazon. They’re not even robbing banks together.
They’re here. In Seattle still (I think). Anderson’s still stuck in her dead-end warehouse job, with her dead-end warehouse work colleagues. Sasse is still trying to convince the world an asteroid’s going to hit while romancing Anderson.
It’s the morning after the night before, basically. The honeymoon is over. The in-laws are here now and everything’s settling down.
Apart from Sasse’s accent. Sasse, a posh Brit whose accent landed somewhere in the mid-Atlantic in the first episode, has slowly been heading to other parts of the Commonwealth. By episode two he was about 30% Australian and by episode three he was about 50% Antipodean, sometimes Australian, sometimes a New Zealander. This is despite having a house covered in Union Jacks and dartboards.
Even the other characters are noticing it: “This British guy came in… or maybe he was Australian. I don’t know,” one said in episode two. Neither do I, cobber. Neither do I.
It doesn’t help that everyone has such atrocious bucket lists, too, with Anderson’s consisting of things like ‘put out a fire’. I guess if you only have a CW budget, that makes sense, but even for a character who’s supposed to be a bit timid, that’s poor.
Fortunately, bucket lists are only a minor part of the show and the b-plots at Anderson’s company and with her family are avoidable, even if they’re five steps away from shouting ‘O Captain, my Captain’ and standing on their desks at times. For the most part, instead, No Tomorrow remains a very, very odd couple romantic comedy, with Anderson and Sasse getting to know one another and bring the best out in each other. That still remains a little bit of joy each week in among the cynicism of the rest of 2016’s regularly scheduled programming.
No Tomorrow is a little bit too lightweight, divorced from reality and almost telenovela-like at times to be truly recommendable. But once you remove all the cruft from it and do your best to blank out whatever accent Sasse is trying to do, you’ll have a genuinely likable couple of leads in a genuinely lovely romantic comedy. That may not be enough to keep you watching, but it should warm you in the winter nights.
Barrometer rating: 3
Would it be better with a female lead? N/A
TMINE’s prediction: Will probably make it to a second season but I wouldn’t like to bet on it.
