Welcome To The Crevice – As the first episode of Totally Completely Fine begins, a young girl Viv (Thomasin McKenzie) sits in the bathtub and contemplates killing herself. Before she can pull the hairdryer into the water, a message from her brother stops her. He tells her that their granddad is dead. Viv rushes out of her flat so she can meet her brother. Once she does, Hendrix hugs her. Viv learns that their granddad died in his sleep. When they found him, he had a big smile on his face. Viv suspects they just said that though. He is worried about her because she tends to let her emotions out in unhealthy ways.

Viv asks what they’re doing here anyway since she thought the will stuff would happen after the funeral. He says John likes to compartmentalize his mourning. Hendrix wants to make sure she sorted out everything with John, but she likely hasn’t. After John joins them, they go inside and meet Wilkinson (John Noble). He tells them that their granddad decided to divide the assets equally between the three of them. There wasn’t much money, but there were items of value. Hendrix (Brandon McClelland) will receive Fred and Ginger which were his beloved golf clubs. John will get Walt’s zero gravity heated shiatsu massage recliner chair.

As for Vivian, she is now the custodian of his Cliffside property near Dalton’s Crevice. John doesn’t understand how that is dividing things equally, but Wilkinson says Walt wasn’t considering monetary value. John claims Walt sometimes made bad decisions. He isn’t sure Viv is capable or deserving of looking after a property right now. She is broke and burned down his food truck last week. John gave her a job out of the goodness of his heart. After the thing went up, she legged it. Vivian denies that because she tried to put it out, but John reminds her that she didn’t even call him. He thinks it’d be best to sell the property and give him the proceeds.

Vivian doesn’t think they should sell his house. John says he was the one who cared and the one who visited Walt. Viv says they can’t crap all over his final wishes just so John can buy a stupid van. John says this is about everything, including Viv being irresponsible. Hendrix doesn’t want to get involved in their argument. Later, Vivian meets Wilkinson so she can look at the house. She looks through her grandpa’s stuff which includes a drawer full of buttons and another full of doorknobs. Vivian also finds pictures of the family. There is also a certification of completion for Vivian’s group development courses.

She is given the keys before they go outside to look at the view. Vivian walks to the cliff’s edge and looks over. Wilkinson reads her a letter from Walt. Once Wilkinson leaves, Vivian goes inside to clean up. She calls old friends in hopes of getting them to come over, but no one is interested in visiting. Vivian has a flashback about being in the vehicle with her parents. She gets drunk and tries to stay busy. Later, she sees a woman in a wedding dress running towards the cliff’s edge. She approaches the woman who says she is going to kill herself. Vivian learns that she left her boyfriend at the altar although she didn’t do it on purpose. Amy doesn’t know what he is going to think when she isn’t there.

She realizes her parents are going to be so angry. Vivian takes her down and says she is smart to get out of a commitment that didn’t sit right with her. She tells her to have some self-respect, own her decision, and get on with it. Vivian reluctantly agrees to take the bride inside with her. She ends up going to sleep in Vivian’s bed. When someone knocks on the door in the morning, Vivian wakes up next to Amy. Anna from number ten and Dane want to say hello. Vivian apologizes for the mess, but Anna says it was chaos when Walt was there. The street is very tight-knit although it was difficult to know someone like Walt. Anna thinks it is impressive what Viv is taking on and explains she is going to need time when they come knocking.

Anna tells her that Walt got at least one suicidal person each week. She does a street newsletter so she’d like to get a POV piece on Viv. Amy comes in and tells Anna that she was having a breakdown on the ledge before Viv talked her down. Anna shows Vivian her piece about Walt calling him The Guardian of the Crevice. She suspects Walt saved up to 200 people by the end. He would invite them inside for a nice chat. Once Vivian realizes that Walt set her up, Anna reveals that Dane has a PhD and used to help Walt with this stuff. Dane thinks she needs advice with digging into person’s heads because she is dismissive and rude. Vivian throws them out.

Vivian gets ready for her grandfather’s funeral. Amy tells Vivian about seeing her guardian angel and how it led her to a new life here with her. Once Vivien arrives, John tells her they’re hanging out pamphlets. He also brought his boyfriend Alejandro. Viv wants to ask John about the house, but he tells her it can wait. As she goes inside, she is surprised to see Ritchie there. He reveals the weed they smoked on the day she burned down the food truck was laced. Ritchie hugs her and possibly puts something in her pocket. Vivian sits down with Hendrix who remembers Ritchie P from one of the dating shows. She tells Hendrix about the house, but he doesn’t seem to know anything about the suicidal people.

When Vivian speaks to the crowd, she mentions that Walt took them in when their parents had an accident. She tells them what he did for her and how he was a remarkable person sometimes. Vivian confesses she is mad at him today. She begins talking about the house and how people throw themselves off the ledge. He keeps throwing her in the deep end although she keeps telling him that she can’t do things like this. After letting out the anger, she admits she is sad that he is actually gone and that she pushed him away. The saddest part of all is having to let him down one more time. John follows her outside to accuse her of ruining his funeral before drugs fall out of her pocket.

She denies it being hers and being high. John tells Hendrix to go back inside because he wants one day that she doesn’t ruin. As Viv walks back home, she gets drunk and remembers the accident. Amy tells her that Walt was building some kind of tea room. Viv wants to sell the place until she learns that there is another suicidal person outside. Amy tries to stop her from leaving and convince her to help the man. She tells Viv that she thought she could keep going because Viv kept going. She asks Viv to finish the pergola for him. If she still hates it, she can sell it for even more. Vivian goes outside and convinces the man to come in with her.

She shows him how putting the trash out helps her sometimes. In the morning, Vivian wakes up and pushes Amy off the bed. She goes over to Dane to say she thinks she might need his help. He agrees to come over Tuesday. On her way back, she sees the bird Amy was talking about before rushing inside.

 

Totally Completely Fine

The opening episode of Totally Completely Fine showed a lot of promise with an interesting story based on true incidents. Thomasin McKenzie is good for the role and everyone else did an okay job in the opening episode as well. Depending on how the story plays out, this could get really good and deeply emotional. However, the episode created a lot of concerns that this may not be nearly as good as it could’ve been.

For a series like this, it would’ve been nice if the subject matter was taken seriously throughout and that didn’t happen. The jokes and quirkiness of the characters diminished the serious nature of the show. Totally Completely Fine is still unique and interesting, but more emphasis should be placed on the situations of the suicidal individuals because that is what will set the show apart from others.

The dumb jokes and silly characters should’ve been refined. A lot of serious shows do this though because viewers may not like the serious subject matter. Unfortunately, the story would’ve hit much harder and mattered a lot more if Totally Completely Fine didn’t have such a juvenile feel. The opening episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Totally Completely Fine can be found on Reel Mockery here.

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