Love Me Too? | Last Man On Earth: ‘Sweet Melissa’ Review

<p>When we last left or doting last man on earth&comma; Phil Miller <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;last-man-earth-raisinballs-wedding-bells-review&sol;">was a happily married man<&sol;a> driving off into the Arizona sunset to a happy home of raisin ball casserole with his blushing bride of five minutes&period; What could possibly go wrong&quest; Enter Melissa Sharp &lpar;no&comma; SHART&rpar; – or at least&comma; that&&num;8217&semi;s what Phil would like to do&comma; by all accounts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3><strong>Some Spoilers Follow<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>These past three weeks have seen Phil endure as a reasonably likable everyman surviving the series&&num;8217&semi; variety of sometimes silly&comma; sometimes heavy-handed end times questions&period; Natural selection&&num;8217&semi;s then the most awkward question the series&&num;8217&semi; posed&period; As little more than a dopey man-child when it&&num;8217&semi;s come to women&comma; my sympathies for Phil&&num;8217&semi;s wavered considerably&period; It was a rather amusing idea to assume that only a slacker should survive the upheaval of the apocalypse&comma; but that he should so quickly change his mind on monogamy to guffaw over the literal second woman he&&num;8217&semi;s seen in two-years &lpar;not counting porn&rpar; is a stretch&comma; even for Phil&period; If he didn&&num;8217&semi;t like it&comma; you didn&&num;8217&semi;t have to put a ring on it&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d like to think&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;Last-Man-On-Earth-Sweet-Melissa-Home-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignleft wp-image-79498 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;Last-Man-On-Earth-Sweet-Melissa-Home-BagoGames-300x174&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Last Man On Earth 'Sweet Melissa' Home BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Add January Jones&&num;8217&semi; Melissa to the mix and you have another odd wrench between Phil and Carol&&num;8217&semi;s already odder relationship&period; Clearly designed as the hot&comma; sultry&comma; &&num;8220&semi;perfect&&num;8221&semi; other woman to Carol&&num;8217&semi;s nagging wife&comma; Melissa&&num;8217&semi;s a simple plot-device by design&comma; but she&&num;8217&semi;s hardly sweet – not so sweet as to overlook the googly-eyed man gaping at her&period; Nor do I buy her being the type to bemoan being soooooo &&num;8220&semi;horny&&num;8221&semi; to the blatantly horny husband sharing a beer with her&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s enough to make me think she&&num;8217&semi;s got some ulterior motive&comma; if not to be the push-up bra on a stick waved in front of Phil&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; Phil and Carol have developed into something of an interesting study for a couple who consummated their vows with baked beans at hand&period; Will Forte and Kristen Schaal seem to be slipping into the role of your all-American married couple effortlessly&comma; as troubled as it is&period; I dare say that I buy them together more than I do Melissa and in their own&comma; delightfully awkward&comma; way complete each other&&num;8217&semi;s neurosis&period; A broken door&&num;8217&semi;s about the best analogy for their marriage they&&num;8217&semi;ve got&comma; for lack of any other subtlety&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s effective enough of a metaphor to sell the relevance of their relationship&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As has been the case <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;the-last-man-on-earth-series-premiere-review&sol;">since its premiere<&sol;a>&comma; <em>Last Man on Earth<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s skewed humor is as hilariously evident as ever&comma; winning dialogue and all&period; We can thank the ladies for that this episode as well as an available razor kit&period; I never thought it before&comma; but Will Forte&&num;8217&semi;s mug does look a bit Quentin Tarantino-ish&period; Can&&num;8217&semi;t unthink that now&period; Meanwhile&comma; Phil continues to dream up more weirdness&comma; this time from a sexy escapade of infidelity thrown in with the series&&num;8217&semi; ever-present bathroom humor&period; And yes&comma; Carol&comma; the saying is &&num;8220&semi;hold your breath&period;&&num;8221&semi; Yes&comma; it <em>is<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I am&comma; however&comma; beginning to question the extent of which the series&&num;8217&semi; logic is hampering any real survivalist element to the series&period; Phil’s utter inability to fix a darn door&&num;8217&semi;s about as understandable as his ability to procure a Wilson Phillips-head screwdriver – which is silly in a city of abandoned hardware stores&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;Last-Man-On-Earth-Sweet-Melissa-Trio-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignright wp-image-79497 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;Last-Man-On-Earth-Sweet-Melissa-Trio-BagoGames-300x174&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Last Man On Earth 'Sweet Melissa' Trio BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For all of its original strengths&comma; I can&&num;8217&semi;t help but worry over the series falling into the formula of another by-the-numbers sitcom&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s odd enough complaining about too many characters in a cast of three thus far&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s going to be challenge for the series to devise too many more dilemmas with so many heads &lpar;maybe&rpar; working together&period; By its very nature&comma; the &&num;8220&semi;Will he or won&&num;8217&semi;t he&&num;8221&semi; question isn&&num;8217&semi;t a particularly attractive one for Phil as it applies to keeping it in his pants with Melissa&comma; and I&&num;8217&semi;d hate for the series to hinge on such a simplistic outcome when it&&num;8217&semi;s relied on such unorthodox solution&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Sweet Melissa<&sol;em> was another genuinely entertaining episode of <em>The Last Man on Earth<&sol;em>&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s hard to ignore the series&&num;8217&semi; withering comedic energy&period; Even by the standards of its thirty-minute time-slot&comma; this week&&num;8217&semi;s cliff-hanger felt especially cut short as well&period; If it&&num;8217&semi;s any consolation&comma; it looks like next week&&num;8217&semi;s going to be another double-header probably addressing just where our last threesome on earth is headed&period; Might our last man on earth have to be our last polygamist too&quest;&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Last Man On Earth<&sol;em> airs Sunday nights on FOX at 9&sol;8 Central&period; Catch all the latest episodes at <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fox&period;com&sol;the-last-man-on-earth">FOX&period;com<&sol;a> and all the latest reviews here at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;knight-living-dead-dark-souls-prepare-die-edition-review&sol;">BagoGames<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;