So, anyone see this new show? I saw previews for it months ago and thought it looked pretty interesting. After seeing it, I have extremely polar mixed feelings. The first half, IMO, is spectacularly awesome. After some virus wipes out almost of humanity, there's one guy who survives and does the wacky stupid shit all of us want to do in our lives at one point or other, but those pesky laws get in the way. He blows up cars just for fun, moves into a multi-million dollar mansion (and trashes it), steals priceless art and hangs it on the wall of said mansion, as well as movie artifacts (he walks around in the original boxing robe from "Rocky" and he has an original Stormtrooper helmet next to the front door), bathes in a margarita-filled wading pool, holds conversations with mannequins and various balls in a bar (yes, Cast Away is referred to heavily) and when the toilet is no longer accessible, he cuts a hole in a diving board over a swimming pool and...well... I cannot stop thinking how fantastic the first half was. But just when he starts to lose hope, give up and plow his vehicle into a boulder out of loneliness, he sees smoke off in the distance and drives to a campsite. And that's where the first half ends and the less-than-spectacularly awesome second half begins. He meets the only woman left alive, played by Kristen Schaal from the Daily Show. Not a big fan of hers, really. She's quirky and sometimes funny, but something in her delivery feels off, but maybe that's her thing. She winds up being a bossy nag, constantly correcting the main character's grammar, forcing him to stop at stop signs, park in non-handicapped parking spaces and generally continue to follow the rules of society which no longer exists. He, understandably, starts to feel like even in a world with no people, life would be better if she weren't around. I concur. Then little things predictably start to happen and they begin to warm up to each other. The second half really didn't hold it for me as much as the first half. My wife and I were rolling in laughter in the beginning, but constantly wondering, how can they keep up the last man on earth thing without getting tired and repetitive? So, I'm still going to give it a go. There are 10 eps listed in IMDB - if it fails, there won't have been as much time invested in it. And if it succeeds, then awesome! It's just interesting and different enough from all the other stuff out there that I would continue to give it a chance. Anyone else?
It follows along with another movie I saw many years ago and can't remember the name. It was from the UK - some guy who is the last on Earth, does similar shenanigans and starts losing his mind, dressing up in gowns and holding court over a back yard full of cardboard cutouts of people like he was their dictator. He tied strings to them and pulled on them, making them move as if they were alive. Not quite as over-the-top funny as this, but more on the level of the dark humor for which British comedy is renowned. For the life of me, though, I cannot remember the name of that movie.
I'm as torn as you are, the first half was amazing and as much as I understand the need for more than one single character om his own too make a show viable, I wish they would have waited 2 to 4 episodes longer before introducing another one. (Would also have made the shock of meeting someone else for the first time in years more drastic.) I like Schaal but the character she is playing is such a lazy ,worn-out chliche, ugh.
Similar thoughts. Liked the first half, but not sure how long that could exist as a series. 2nd half was just kinda tired cliché. Needs to find a voice fast...
I definitely liked the first half better than the second, but I still think the show's going to be amazing. A show based on the first half would have gotten old fast. I'm sure more great stuff is still to come.
It wasn't the UK, it was New Zealand. The movie was The Quiet Earth. The ending of which I just posted.
Yeah, I don't know how they can sustain it. Hell, the second half shows they couldn't even sustain the first half. I really like Kristen Schaal personally but here it didn't seem too really work. Maybe this is where they're going, it's still possible, but the only thing I could see working is that he's the last MAN on earth and it revolves around all the problem women in and out of his life.
If it really was about the last man on earth I would tune in again, but it's not, already the female shows up and one has to know more people will show, so the premise is already out the window. Yawn.
Yep, just a few more episodes of him alone... Perhaps some hints here and there that he might not be (or that he's losing his mind), that mystery could've kept the story flowing without undermining the premise in the second episode.
Don't call the last women on Earth a man. It's not cool. Imagine if you pissed off one entire gender today and collectively in their entirety cuffed the back of your head? I adore Kristen, and I thought it was delightful how they made her unshutpable, but my real problem is that they couldn't keep up those annoying mannerisms lasting the full 20 minutes. Is she going to lose a foot? I can see a world where she broke that bone, and if an infection sets in, she'll be dead by episode 5. Which of course puts a new time limit on Phil again, the last woman on Earth is going to be dead in a few hours, but is she in the mood? By episode 3 they're both going to be normalized.
The first half definitely sounds incredibly derivitive of The Quiet Earth, the second sounds more in tone to one of the stories in the Martian Chronicles, the guy who thinks he's all alone then learns of a woman in another town and heads over only to discover she's a complete harriden!
John Glover played that bloke in the Ray Bradbury Theatre. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0683201/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_68
Just so we're clear, the change in tone wasn't "Halfway" through a 40 minute episode. That was two 20 minute episodes glued together which in reruns forever after will be aired on different days, or at the very least have full credits between them during a cabal marathon. Episode 1 and 2 (which is what we saw according to wikipedia) were both directed by the series creators, but the pilot was written by the lead actor Will Forte, meanwhile episode 2 was written by some other dude. I can only assume that Will spent four years writing the pilot and shopping it around until someone finally took it to series. Episode two was probably written in less than a week. Interesting aside, the two blokes producing this are called Phil Lord & Christopher Miller.
Actually I was thinking of the original TV mini series where the guy was played by Christopher Connelly
Movie should have been called the Last days of Rock Hudson. Dude got so damn thin. Although the special effects made Dune look epic. That's nice for Dune, not so much for the Martian Chronicles.
You're being discussed in the Place that Dare not Mention its Name, Guy. Or rather your reputation is.
First half: amusing but got bored by the end. Watching one guy alone for twenty minutes is tedious, no matter how cute the bits are. Second half:much more enjoyable. I love the premise that he meets the last woman on earth and he can't stand her. They should have introduced Carol way earlier in the pilot, like end of the first act. I question how sustainable this premise is as a series. It could make for 6-13 episodes, but 100? Unless you just keep steadily introducing more and more people.