What do you get when you cross a medical drama with a zombie flick? Something a lot like The End of the World, a show whose dark, twisted DNA owes more than a little to the horror genre. Speaking of dark, twisted DNA, the show revolves around a virus that not only kills its victims, but has the nasty side effect of making them want to kill others. This would be grim enough, but the show also goes a step further, suggesting that the virus is merely a particularly gruesome manifestation of the vindictive self-centeredness lurking in all of us. The infected folks do nasty things, but the uninfected folks are often worse, with the show trotting out an alarming line-up of cowardly bureaucrats, backstabbing academics, corrupt businessmen and murderous moms. There are a few “good” folks in the mix, but even their motives are frequently suspect as they try to sort out who should live or die. All this makes for gripping viewing, in a train-wreck sort of way, but the unrelenting darkness made it hard for me to really engage with the characters or their world. Some of this may have been due to the unexpected cut in the show’s length, as plot was prioritized over character development, but much of it stemmed from its deep pessimism about human nature. Certainly there are plenty of examples of people behaving badly in times of crisis, but I’d like a drama to leave me with more than “most humans suck” as a final message. Because, really, do you want your audience rooting for the virus?