7 Things The Squeamish Should Know Before Watching Netflix's End Of The F***ing World

Netflix has another hit on its hands with The End of the F***ing World. Originally released on the UK's Channel 4 and based on a graphic novel series by Charles S. Forsman, End of the F***ing World debuted internationally exclusively on Netflix this month.

The show follows James (Alex Lawther) and Alyssa (Jessica Barden), a pair of troubled teenagers who run away together to escape their miserable home lives. But there's one thing Alyssa doesn't know: James, who's apparently a psychopath at 17, is planning to murder her.

If that sounds dark, well, yeah. Here are seven other things you should know before you dive in.

This show isn't for the faint of heart. James has violent fantasies of which the audience gets frequent glimpses. It goes beyond hallucinations of blood pooling on the floor and a hand gripping a bloody knife, too. S*** definitely gets real in this show.

Many people these days have become desensitized to violence in movies and TV, but that doesn't always extend to violence against animals. One of the reasons James knows he's a psychopath is he has a nasty habit of torturing small animals, including cats, in the woods. The show doesn't get too graphic with that, but it's enough to make some animal lovers uncomfortable.

Even beyond the violence against people and animals, The End of the F***ing World goes to some dark places. Specifically, there's one scene of sexual violence that many viewers are likely to find disturbing.

This may go without saying, but James and Alyssa are not healthy, well-adjusted teenagers. We're used to seeing troubled teens in movies and on TV, but usually not to this degree. Watching two young people systematically ruin their lives over eight twisted and darkly hilarious episodes is like to make you squirm.

There's a subset of viewers who will have the most trouble with a late-season scene in which a dog dies. It doesn't happen in the way you'd think, if you've been clicking through this list, but it's one of the saddest things we've seen on TV so far this year.

One thing that becomes clearer and clearer as The End of the F***ing World builds toward its finale is how deeply these characters were affected by their parents. James's mom isn't around (for reasons that would be a spoiler to explain) and his dad is kind of a buffoon, while Alyssa's stepdad is a borderline abusive dickhead. No matter how you feel about these two, the show will have you wondering how many of your own problems you can actually blame on your parents.

Whether you're expecting James and Alyssa to go out in a blaze of glory, or for the two to somehow find happiness, The End of the F***ing World won't end the way you expect. Charles Forsman, the author of the original comics, told Vulture that "the people at the top are still talking" about the possibility of a second season, so suffice to say the sordid story of runaways James and Alyssa might not end here.