Showtime Orders Dark Comedy ‘The End’

Showtime has picked up 10-episodes of “The End,” a half-hour dark comedy series for 2021 starring Harriet Walter (“Succession,” “The Crown”) and  Frances O’Connor (“The Missing,” “Mansfield Park”). The logline: three generations of a family live with separate but intersecting obsessions – trying to figure out how to die with dignity, live with none and make it all count.  A coproduction between Sky UK and Foxtel Australia, the series was created and written by Samantha Strauss and is directed by Jessica M. Thompson and Jonathan Brough. 

O’Connor plays Dr. Kate Brennan, an Australian-based specialist in palliative care. Euthanasia is a hot-button topic in Kate’s field of work, and she is passionate in her opposition. On the other side of the world, Kate’s mother Edie Henley (Walter) feels just as strongly about her right to die. Kate has little choice but to ship Edie out from England and deposit her in Australia’s Gold Coast in a nearby retirement community – Edie’s worst nightmare. While Kate struggles with her own problems, her children, one of whom is a teenage trans boy, are trying to work out who they are and who they want to be. 

The production company behind “The End” is See-Saw Films (“Top Of The Lake,” “State Of The Union”), and it is executive produced by Rachel Gardner, Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, Emile Sherman and Iain Canning alongside Strauss. Endeavor Content handled U.S. and international sales.