Sunday, March 1, 2015

Review of a Scripted TV Series: The Last Man On Earth

On March 1st, 2015, Fox gave us the premiere of The Last Man On Earth, a scripted comedy about a guy who is, well, the last man on earth.

The show began with an interesting premise - a guy finds himself alone in the world after everyone else has disappeared. We don't see any dead bodies, so I guess we have to assume that everyone just vanished into thin air or something. During the first episode, Phil, the main character, begins to go crazy, talk to balls and things of the sort. Then, right before he kills himself, he sees smoke in the air. He follows the smoke and realizes a woman lives at the camp. He then passes out.

Phil awoke to a beautiful woman kissing him, but it turns out that was a fantasy, and it was in fact Carol, a less attractive and very nitpicky character, giving him mouth to mouth. Instead of a happy meeting, the pair butt heads. For example, Carol corrects Phil's grammar and wants him to pause at stop signs, even though nobody else exists in the world.

Carol is all about rules, which is a stark opposition to Phil's desire to ignore all rules because nobody exists to enforce them. Carol makes it her job to fix Phil, and much to Phil's chagrin, Carol moves in next door.

Carol, after an argument, tells Phil that the pair were chosen to repopulate the world. Phil was against the idea, and Carol (very graphically) made it known that she also doesn't want to copulate with Phil. Phil walked away.

Carol tried to get Phil to help her plant vegetables. He refused in favor building a large Jenga tower. Then he stole the tomatoes.

Carol gave in and used an outdoor toilet like Phil's, and she admitted that she gave up on growing vegetables and getting running water indoors. If she was using reverse psychology, it was effective, and Phil went on a mission to get water for them. He built a water system for their vegetables, to Carol's surprise. She then invited Phil over for dinner, and the two began to make peace. Even though Phil did a whole lot of bragging about his accomplishment.

Carol and Phil decide they need to consider reproduction, and Carol says she won't lay with Phil until they're married. After an argument, Phil walks outside and screams into the air. He walks back in and agrees, then gets down on one knee and proposes to Carol. (Her middle name is Andrew, by the way.) She's thrilled and accepts.

And then the episode ended. And I felt somewhat unfulfilled.

My thoughts on this show:

The hour long premiere was a bit much. The producers could have probably accomplished this episode in a half hour block. The show is funny, though, and Carol is a big part of that, with her method of saying "tom-ah-to" instead of saying tomato and her phrases like "son of a bee sting".

Do I see this show lasting more than one season? No. Not at all. I could definitely do without this show. I'm not sure if I'll continue watching it. It's okay but definitely not earth shattering. And really, the entire first episode can be summed up like this: This guy thinks he's the last person on earth. He hangs out with inanimate objects until he meets a girl. Unfortunately, she's weird, but choices are clearly limited. They fight, they make up, and they realize they've got to reproduce or the world is over. The end.

No comments: