Xavier Holliday (Joshua Sasse) is an Aussie hunk with a washboard stomach and shoulders broader than the Grand Canyon. He wears a floppy knit cap (even in the summer) and a scruffy beard, sporting Buddhist prayer beads around his neck and turquoise and silver rings on his fingers. He drinks batch-brewed “sour beer” that is an acquired taste, shops for rutabagas at the farmers’ market, and has a guitar and amp prominently displayed in his boho-chic apartment. He doesn’t have a man bun, but he should. He’s sort of like The Most Interesting Man in the World’s douche-y son. He the kind of fantasy guy who couldn’t exist in real life, and is absolutely irresistible – until he shares his belief that the world is coming to an end in eight months and 12 days, when it will be hit by an asteroid the size of Mount Everest.
Xavier is compelling, but he’s not the star of No Tomorrow, the CW’s new romcom. That honor belongs to Evie (Tori Anderson), who works a dead-end job at an Amazon-style online warehouse but seems perfectly content with this uninspiring life. That is, of course, until she meets Xavier and falls under the sway of his half-opened plaid shirts and comely thatch of chest hair. Then he reveals his 233-slide presentation about the end of the world and his “apocalist” – essentially his bucket list of adventures and sexual conquests he wants to accomplish before the world ends.
Naturally this throws Evie’s life for a loop and she questions her devotion to her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Timothy (Jesse Rath), who is so timid that no one can hear a word he says. But we all know that she’s going to fall for the sexy bad boy and that he’s going to help her learn to carpe the diem like she’s one of the impressionable schoolboys in Dead Poets Society.
Both leads are so charming (and, let’s face it, attractive) that watching them fall in love while going on dune buggy trips and stripping naked in public is quite a lovely ride. But we’re never quite sure if Xavier is charmingly bohemian or completely unhinged. The very end of the episode makes this question quite explicit, just as Evie has decided to help him complete his bucket list if he helps her finish hers.
This plot twist is designed to give us a reason for tuning in week after week because, honestly, the premise seems more like a movie than a show that can go the distance over numerous instalments, especially when the will-they-or-won’t-they story of the central couple is concluded in the pilot episode. Scott McCabe, Tory Stanton and Corinne Brinkerhoff adapted No Tomorrow from the Brazilian show Como Aproveitar o Fim do Mundo (How to Enjoy the End of the World), so there is at least some precedent for where the series can go.
No Tomorrow isn’t as obvious a slam dunk as the CW’s other boundary-pushing, female-driven comedies Jane the Virgin or Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, but if you enjoy both or either of those shows, this is a delightful companion. It’s as loveable as Xavier despite his (and its own) flaws, but I suspect most of the audience will be like Evie, ready to fall in love but nervous about what this may mean further down the road – that is, if the road lasts more than eight months and 12 days.
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No Tomorrow debuts on Tuesday 4 October at 8pm EST on the CW
