Whatever overarching story The Last Man on Earth is trying to achieve – redemption story? an anecdote about why civilization ultimately fails? – it’s not doing a great job translating that into captivating, or even funny, material. From a beautiful, haunted pilot has sprung an ugly, short-minded series, traits that are once again on full display in “Moved to Tampa,” the latest episode of the show to turn itself into Phil Miller Is The Last Man on Earth Any Woman Should Sleep With.
What’s worse is how the ugliness spreads from Phil to Todd in this episode. At this point, Phil’s needlessly selfish behavior is unexpected. Todd’s sudden insecurities with Melissa? Not so pleasant. As with Phil, the show’s done a poor job informing what kind of person Todd is, beyond material suitable for punchlines (He can milk a cow! He drives the kind of race car a skinny white guy would drive!) – so when the kind, innocent, intelligent man suddenly turns into a pathetic, desperate, and vindictive jerk, “Moved to Tampa” simply re-establishes its same uncomfortable rhythms while its main character is trapped up on a billboard. Turning Todd into the insecure overweight guy completely ruins him: now he’s petty and jealous all the time, unable to express himself and be comfortable in his own skin – and these problems begin even before New Phil arrives in town.
At first glance, New Phil appears to be a promising new direction for the show, but as an opposite reflection of Phil’s personality (and physical appearance), New Phil doesn’t offer us anything in the way of a character. He’s just Not Phil, which makes every woman in the room want to sleep with him – including Erica and Gail, who apparently weren’t too turned off by all the lying and manipulating Phil had done to them not days earlier. While it’s nice to see everyone not putting up with his crap, it seems The Last Man on Earth is falling into a pattern with both its male and female characters: the males, who initially seem like genuine, flawed people, turn out to be ugly, superficial harpies; by the same token, females are driven by an insatiable sex drive, most of their conversations (even with each other) ultimately boiling down to figuring out who is sleeping with whom, and how that may or may not be going. They’re not really people of their own, just a personality trait or two – which aren’t consistent, either; all of a sudden, Carol’s a chef! – thrown on an attractive face and a lot of suggestive glances. The few times either gender is being honest, it’s doing the obvious and putting down Phil.
This really isn’t a formula for consistent storytelling: this entire season might as well be re-titled How Some Jerk Tried To Get Laid, and nothing would’ve changed. After a brief glimpse of hope in the closing moments of last week’s episode, “Moved to Tampa” takes that interesting idea – that is, Phil being shunned by the only community left in America – and turns it into a parody of itself, prancing out the beautiful version of Phil Miller, so we can watch him sit, disgusted, talking to himself about how “but I’m Phil Miller” (now, he’ll be known by his middle name Thandy). There’s even potential to this story, about Phil facing the best possible version of himself, yet this idea’s been presented to him before – and even in the face of being hopeless and alone, Phil can’t stop his narcissistic pursuit of self-gratification (check the reading materials in his port-a-potty if you don’t believe that). Until The Last Man on Earth stops hinting at substance and begins offering it (like Eastbound and Down, for example) either this season or in its recently-announced second season in 2016, it will remain one of the most confounding, unsatisfying, and, worst of all, unfunny shows on television.
[Photo via FOX]
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