2 out of 5

Created by: Will Forte

covers season 1

A show about the last man on Earth?  How will they sustain such a topic for a full season?  …Not having viewed any trailers for the show or read much about it prior to its premiere, this was a question on my mind – and I’m sure on others – and part of what had me tuning in.  The possibilities of a darkly humored show with involvement from Lego Movie guys Phil Lord and Christopher Miller was a draw as well (and was probably publicized with that in mind…), and the first episode did indeed seem to offer some interesting potential for some pretty bleak material that could allow for creative heights – imagined worlds and friends for the lead, let’s say – and an avenue for Will Forte to do the “comedic actor shows he can act” bit and shuffle out of his man-child routine.  …And then another character shows up.  Once the “Last” pledge is broken, you can sort of guess at the gag, that Forte (as Phil Miller) will hope for some hot female companionship and find, instead, Kristen Schaal as Carol, playing up the dowdy and annoying as much as possible.  Forte immediately runs back to his normal shtick, and the show immediately settles into a more traditional sitcom Odd Couple format, just with a post-apocalyptic background.  But the jokes remain the same.  Even more so when variations on this same gag repeat, and the title of the show becomes completely irrelevant.  “Last Man” isn’t unentertaining – though it’s a bit grating to be focused on a character so sniveling and foolish we can only sympathize to a certain degree – it’s just a high concept wasted on completely standard humor.  Add a laugh track and clean up the dirt and you could exchange it for any given comedy on any channel.