Five Reasons You Should Watch ‘You, Me and the Apocalypse’

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You, Me and the Apocalypse is NBC’s new dark comedy about the impending destruction of Earth and the group of misfits stuck in the middle of it. It’s not all doom and gloom though. Here are five reasons why you’ll be entertained by this end of days series when it premieres on Jan. 28.

Apocalypses Are so on Trend


The end of the world is always relevant, but there seems to be an abundance of apocalyptic stories on TV right now. Colony, Divergent, The 100, The Walking Dead, and The Shannara Chronicles, for example, are all shows that deal with a small group of survivors fighting an oppressive force, struggling in a wasteland where life and humanity are threatened. Heavy.

Then there’s The Last Man on Earth, so apocalyptic comedy on the small screen is also a thing. You, Me and the Apocalypse is the latest addition to that genre. Instead of taking place in the Armageddon aftermath, You, Me and the Apocalypse focuses on the 34 days before a comet is about to crash into Earth like a meteoric wrecking ball. The story follows the biggest group of nutjobs you can imagine, and you’ll watch them criss-cross paths, check off bucket lists, race towards an underground bunker, and generally deal with the inevitable end of the world in the most outrageous ways.

Rob. Lowe.

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Rob Lowe has been a comedic scene stealer in most of his recent roles: an overconfident television lawyer on The Grinder; a self-possessed movie star on Californication; and an optimistic state auditor sporting 2.8% body fat on Parks and Recreation. Now he’s rocking a clerical collar and enjoying the heck out of it. On You, Me and the Apocalypse, Lowe is Father Jude Sutton, a priest — but a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking, hard-drinking Vatican priest. He runs the office of the Devil’s Advocate, charged with disproving miracles and background checking alleged saints. He’s a devout man who likely doesn’t always practice what he preaches. Man of the cloth or not, if there’s anyone you’d want to spend the end of the world with, it’d be Rob Lowe — fun, versatile, ageless Rob Lowe.

A Wacky Cast of Characters

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An edgy priest is just the beginning. There are the twins Jamie and Ariel (both played by Matthew Baynton), one a stuck-in-a-rut bank manager and the other a cyber terrorist; Dave (Joel Fry, Game of Thrones), Jamie’s slacker housemate and best friend; Scotty McNeil (Kyle Soller), an astrophysicist in the government’s apocalypse planning department, the Special Situations Group; General Gaines (Paterson Joseph), Scotty’s boyfriend and the no-nonsense head of said Special Situations Group; Rhonda (Jenna Fischer, The Office), a former librarian and now wrongfully convicted prisoner; and Leanne (a barely recognizable Megan Mullally), a neo-Nazi convict who latches onto Rhonda and channels the brazen lunacy of a next-level Tammy Swanson. When and if they all make it into that bunker, it will be like the craziest, most trainwreck-iest version of Big Brother ever.

Oh, and Mr. Mullally, aka Nick Offerman, shows up in the trailer sporting a double barrel shotgun and a pink dress, so there’s that.

Transatlantic Humor

"You, Me and the Apocalypse" is a bold, adrenaline-fueled, hour-long comedic drama about the last days of mankind. When the news is announced that a comet is on an unavoidable collision course with Earth, a hilarious chain of events is set in motion as an eclectic group of seemingly unconnected characters begin to intersect in unexpected ways.

The show already aired in the UK and was picked up by NBC for domestic broadcast. The original name of the show was Apocalypse Slough, but NBC changed it for American audiences, who would likely be unfamiliar with the English town and how to pronounce it. (For the record, it rhymes with “now”. Get it, Apocalypse Slough?). Name aside, comedic greats from both sides of the pond, along with a blend of dry humor and sight gags, prove You, Me, and the Apocalypse combines the best of American and British humo(u)r.

It Has Heart

On the surface, You, Me and the Apocalypse just seems like an absurd comedy. However, the characters are more than one-note jokes: Rhonda went to prison because she took the fall for her son, Jamie still pines for a wife who left and broke his heart, Father Jude and a nun find a kinship that transcends faith. These backstories give the comedy a little more heft and make you root for all the characters despite their obvious flaws and idiosyncrasies. At the end of the day, and especially at the end of the world, we all strive to make meaningful human connections, even if there isn’t a bunker involved.

Which characters would make it into your Apocalypse crew? Vote here.


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