The Last Man On Earth: Series Premiere Review

<p>The year is 2021&period; The place is Tuscon&comma; Arizona&period; Immobile cards and empty homes litter the planet&period; Two years after we&&num;8217&semi;re told a virus wiped out almost all of humanity&comma; the jungles of American suburbia are wild and untamed save for the sole survivor wallowing amidst it&period; Meet Phil Miller – the last man on our earth who&&num;8217&semi;s survived for reasons unknown both us and him&period; The planet earth&&num;8217&semi;s now just one big playground and he&&num;8217&semi;s just living in it&period; Alone&period; Forever&period; Maybe&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Spoilers Follow<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>No&comma; this isn&&num;8217&semi;t the preview to a gloomy zombie apocalypse&period; Straight from the minds that brought us last year&&num;8217&semi;s genius hit of <em>The Lego Movie<&sol;em>&comma; <em>The Last Man on Earth<&sol;em> is humanity&&num;8217&semi;s last laugh if it were embodied in an every-bro who just didn&&num;8217&semi;t care – or does he&quest; By day&comma; Phil &lpar;so cleverly named after creators Phil Lord and Chris Miller&rpar; likes driving vehicles into abandoned stores&comma; filching priceless paintings from museums to hang in the empty mansion he&&num;8217&semi;s squatting in&comma; and generally busting things up&period; By night&comma; he’s a lonely sad praying for some company&comma; female company in particular&comma; a castaway in an urban jungle&period; He&&num;8217&semi;s even got the &lpar;sports&rpar; balls to prove it – with whom he so reluctantly passes the time with&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-Alive-in-Tuscon-Margarita-Pool-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignleft wp-image-78613 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-Alive-in-Tuscon-Margarita-Pool-BagoGames-300x188&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Last Man on Earth 'Alive in Tuscon' Margarita Pool BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"188" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>These opening scenes were often beautifully thoughtful and equal parts comedic in the desert spaces we&&num;8217&semi;ve so commonly come to know as <em>Breaking Bad<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s grim territory&period; The eerie uninhabited atmosphere of <em>The Last Man on Earth<&sol;em> lends itself to a kind of visual slapstick in the style of a silent-movie comedy and a smart one at that&period; With his wide-eyed aloofness and forlorn gaze&comma; Forte makes for a marvelous one-man show&period; His best scenes recall the loneliest moments out to <em>I am Legend<&sol;em>&comma; romancing mannequins and steamrolling beer cans&comma; only it&&num;8217&semi;s just one part somber and three-fourths hilarious&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The show is forever leaps and strides ahead of itself at all times&period; No gag ever lasts longer than you&&num;8217&semi;d like it too and beneath the bravado&comma; its existentialist crisis is thoughtfully apparent&period; Phil&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;re shown&comma; is a man who lives life like theres on wrong way to use a margarita-filled kiddie-pool in one of the show&&num;8217&semi;s clever visual cues to his accumulated insanity&period; Just when I began to tire of its antics twenty minutes in&comma; <em>The Last Man on Earth<&sol;em> goes the extra-mile to add another to its end-of-the-world party of one&colon; Carol&comma; played by <em>Gravity Falls<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi; impossibly endearing Kristen Schaal&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-Alive-in-Tuscon-Phils-House-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignright wp-image-78614 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-Alive-in-Tuscon-Phils-House-BagoGames-300x174&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Last Man on Earth 'Alive in Tuscon' Phil's House BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Carol is arguably where problems start for both Phil and the show&period; For the first half of its double-episode premiere&comma;<em> The Last Man on Earth<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s a brilliant physical comedy&semi; an excellent short film&comma; really ended poignantly with Phil&&num;8217&semi;s finding a companion&period; That Schaal&&num;8217&semi;s Carol should be that girl of his dreams is rather smart in theory – she&&num;8217&semi;s a hopelessly neurotic busy-bee dreaming of saving humanity and Phil&&num;8217&semi;s a devil-may-care slob invested in completing the world&&num;8217&semi;s largest Jenga tower &lpar;It never gets that large&rpar;&period; In essence&comma; they&&num;8217&semi;re the perfect odd-couple to be rearing the rest of humanity if Phil could ever commit&comma; if their relationship didn&&num;8217&semi;t feel like a peculiar dead-end&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More than that&comma; Carol&&num;8217&semi;s an uptight rule-follower&comma; or to put it as bluntly as the show seems to desire – a nag&period; She wants him to clean up after himself&period; She insists he use proper grammar&period; To Carol&comma; it seems&comma; a dangling participle is as naughty as Phil pulling down his pants to let something else dangle in front of her&period; And she demands that if Phil wants to win her hand&comma; he better put a ring on it&period; Carol is&comma; in short&comma; a character to be ridiculed as much as Phil&comma; but with Phil as the comedian&comma; it seems odd not to make her the sensible straight man&period; We can thank Schaal&&num;8217&semi;s impeccable wit that Carol frequently rises above the stereotype&comma; but I&&num;8217&semi;m beginning to wonder how long it&&num;8217&semi;ll be until this &&num;8220&semi;boys will be boys&&num;8221&semi; gets tiresome fast&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-Alive-in-Tuscon-Playing-Ball-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignleft wp-image-78617 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-Alive-in-Tuscon-Playing-Ball-BagoGames-300x174&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Last Man on Earth 'Alive in Tuscon' Playing Ball BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At the same time&comma; I can&&num;8217&semi;t help but appreciate<em> The Last Man on Earth<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s adventurous spirit in a genre that just last week I&&num;8217&semi;d have thought impossible&period; Its scripting questionable and its casting to perfection&comma; I do hope that the show lasts long enough to see the notion of a post-apocalyptic comedy succeed – so long as it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t outlast the warm welcome I&&num;8217&semi;d give it&period; Though I&&num;8217&semi;m not completely sold on it as a franchise&comma; the mere idea of <em>The Last Man on Earth<&sol;em> is unparalleled genius&comma; but the more would certainly be merrier in a world just about Phil&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The <em>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&sol;full-episodes">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;