Y: The Last Man: The TV Show

[Cartoonist]

^

Personally TV show half hour long. Keep it short tight and action packed. An hour long series but be too long to keep the avg. tv viewer's attention.

Because so few other hour-long shows manage to keep peoples' attention??

Yup... Let's see I can think of Lost, and possibly Heroes (which should be canned) that are along the same lines as Y the Last Man, that were/are successful. Y is a deep comic and if anything the avg. TV viewer can't handle too much thinking.

I don't think "last man on earth" is all that complex a concept, and while I loved the comics, I don't think there was anything overly sophisticated or deep about them. I think it'd make a great hour-long series on HBO or Showtime. I'd subscribe for it.

 

[TheBrew]

Is this worth reading, it looks interesting.

It's a GREAT read. And one of the things that I love: it's a complete story...they aren't just churning out more and more issues...

It's a great story, go get it.

My only issue with it is how Yorick's quest for Beth gets resolved. I understand his reaction, but her initial action and reaction was stupid, IMO.

 

[Tomato]

I don't think "last man on earth" is all that complex a concept, and while I loved the comics, I don't think there was anything overly sophisticated or deep about them. I think it'd make a great hour-long series on HBO or Showtime. I'd subscribe for it.

I disagree. Most people are use to cop shows or CSI like shows for an hour. Now in full disclosure my definition of success for views is like over 8M viewers. I'm talking about commercial success. First of all we have brilliant shows like the Wire which at the heart of it is a cop show but was so different that nobody bothered watching it. Even the pretentious awards shows passed it up.

Secondly the concept of Y is "Last Man on Earth". But like the Wire were it is a "cop show" is much more than that. Like BKV said the comic came from an examination of Man's role in the world and if the world is a better place because we are on this planet. Could girls do a better job of running this world? The comic goes into great length exploring various concepts about this theme. The avg view (ie male or a Perez Hilton follower) is going to be like, "Last Man on Earth".. sweet lots of nekkid lesbo sex. Not expecting all the themes that Y plays on.

I would love to see a 5 season arc planned out but the reality is that the television viewer is just not ready for it.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I don't think it would work on a network, no. But on HBO or Showtime, yes, it could work as an hour long show.

 

[Joe Washington]

How would you do a show on Y: The Last Man if HBO or Showtime put you in charge of it? Will the show last for five seasons since the story itself cover a period of five years? Or the show run less than that?

The way I visualize the seasons after the Season 1 I posted in the beginning of the thread was this:

Season 2 opens with the One Small Step arc, which would give the season an action-packed opening. The season would then cover Comedy and Tragedy, the Safeword arc, and end with the Widow's Pass arc when Yorick, 355, and Dr. Mann get into trouble with a militant group in Arizona. The last scene of the season would be the return of Hero, which will leave the audience anticipating the third season.

The third season opens with Tongues of Flames when Yorick goes to a church to confess his sin of killing someone for the first time. The third episode would cover how Hero went from being in prison to being free and out looking for his brother and the following five episodes would cover the Ring of Truth arc. The next four episodes would cover the Girl on Girl arc and the season finale will cover Boy Loses Girl, which features Beth, flashbacks of her time with Yorick and her time in Australia, and her realization that Yorick is still alive.

The fourth season opens with the Paper Dolls arc. The next three episodes would cover The Hour of the Death, Buttons, and 1,000 Typewriters. Then comes the Kimono Dragons arc with the last two episodes of the season covering Tin Man and Gehenna.

The fifth and final season would hit the ground running with the Motherland arc, in which Dr. Mann reunites with her father and Yorick and 355 parts ways with Mann as they begin the journey to Paris. The next two episodes would cover the Orbituarist and Tragicomic, which brings an end to the series' standalones and paves the way for the five-episode Whys and Wherefores arc. Then the series finale would of course cover Alas, which would become one of the best series finales on television next to Six Feet Under.

 

[Cartoonist]

I don't think "last man on earth" is all that complex a concept, and while I loved the comics, I don't think there was anything overly sophisticated or deep about them. I think it'd make a great hour-long series on HBO or Showtime. I'd subscribe for it.

I disagree. Most people are use to cop shows or CSI like shows for an hour. Now in full disclosure my definition of success for views is like over 8M viewers. I'm talking about commercial success. First of all we have brilliant shows like the Wire which at the heart of it is a cop show but was so different that nobody bothered watching it. Even the pretentious awards shows passed it up.

Secondly the concept of Y is "Last Man on Earth". But like the Wire were it is a "cop show" is much more than that. Like BKV said the comic came from an examination of Man's role in the world and if the world is a better place because we are on this planet. Could girls do a better job of running this world? The comic goes into great length exploring various concepts about this theme. The avg view (ie male or a Perez Hilton follower) is going to be like, "Last Man on Earth".. sweet lots of nekkid lesbo sex. Not expecting all the themes that Y plays on.

I would love to see a 5 season arc planned out but the reality is that the television viewer is just not ready for it.

I love how we all (me included, whenever my favorite shows are canceled) seem to think we're so much smarter than most TV viewers. But none of us were BORN looking for this type of programming. We were all exposed to this sort of thing and grew to like it. Others can grow to like it too if the stars align. Look at "Lost," "Alias," "Buffy," "Star Trek" and every other sci fi show that succeeded.

"Last man on earth" is the concept. You agree with that, apparently. Of course there's much more than that to it. Just as there was much more to Deadwood and Sopranos, even though both had simple concepts ("Western" and "mob family"). Hell, there was much more to Everwood than "Widower moves his kids from the big city to a small town" and that went on for years, and was only canceled because its network merged with a competitor and they didn't need two "family shows." Every good show that's not a procedural is much deeper than its concept, and at least a few million people are perfectly able to follow along.

8 million is a great number for networks, but this isn't a network show. It would be canceled after six episodes. It's a cable show and I could see it pulling Deadwood numbers, if not more. I bet this concept would pull in people who are itching to see girl on girl action AND people who're intrigued by seeing a world run by women. 3-4 million would be just fine on HBO or Showtime. Especially since it wouldn't have to be too expensive to produce. Except when showing the initial death of man, the submarine and the space capsule, they wouldn't need to spend much on special effects.

 

[3D Master]

The trailer alone is worth the price of admission:

"On -date- every male died." Show dead males. "Except one."

Yorick steps into view. "Here, Ampersand." Ampersand jumps on his shoulder, and yips at him.

"...and his monkey."

 

[Ryan]

But the filler in Y: the Last Man is important when it comes to exploring different aspects of the characters' world like the theater group. I know not a lot of people are fans of it and I wouldn't count as one of my favorite parts of the story but the theater group was there as an example of how women are trying to cope with the plague killing the men like the woman at the men's memorial who went out to form a band of her own as a tribute to all the male musicians who died that day. I had the feeling that the reason why the leader of the theater group was so passionate and serious about her work was because it serves as a big enough distraction from whatever losses she suffered in her life when the plague hit. It looked like she still hasn't come to terms with it yet.

Just because you cut the filler doesn't mean you can't rewrite the series to show those issues in many other ways. It could pretty easily be made into a recurring theme or subplot. I'd bet you could even do a lot of that with visuals alone.

 

[firehawk12]

BKV insists that he can do it as a film, so he seems to believe he can cut enough to make it work in 2 hours or so.

 

[Ryan]

BKV insists that he can do it as a film, so he seems to believe he can cut enough to make it work in 2 hours or so.

I don't think it would be any problem. Cut out the globe hopping and international elements, make the Amazonians the main antagonists (I don't think you could get away with using the Israelis anyway), and put Beth/Dr. Mann's father in San Fransisco (and that's if you don't want to do sequels).

 

[firehawk12]

Maybe. It's just that a lot of Mann's character is revealed when they trek over to Japan and I think that'd be lost if they just kept the whole movie in America.
And as interesting as the Amazonians are, especially with Yorick's sister, I'm not sure they'd work as a main villain.
It's tough, because a lot of the stuff seems important... I suppose one thing that might be able to be cut would be the astronaut character and that whole storyline.

 

[Ryan]

Maybe. It's just that a lot of Mann's character is revealed when they trek over to Japan and I think that'd be lost if they just kept the whole movie in America.
And as interesting as the Amazonians are, especially with Yorick's sister, I'm not sure they'd work as a main villain.

It worked for the Mad Max series. A Y:TLM movie could very easily fit into the mold of the first Mad Max film, with society struggling to stay together in some areas and completely broken down and run by gangs in others.

You could also go with the Daughters of the Amazon in the first film and Alter and the Israeli commandos in the second (where you could develop the characters better and leave more nuance in).

It's tough, because a lot of the stuff seems important... I suppose one thing that might be able to be cut would be the astronaut character and that whole storyline.

It had implications for the end of the story but I think it could be pretty easily dropped for the movie. Thematically it probably works better to have Yorick completely alone until the end.

 

[firehawk12]

I kind of expect that it'd be one film rather than a franchise.
Then again, they're turning that Will Smith apocalypse thing into a franchise as well, so oh well.

 

[theenglish]

I agree that this should be a series on HBO. Moreso than plot, it was the characters that really made this series and a movie could not do justice to that. Because of the necessity of the medium, there would need to be changes in tone and dramatic structure to the series but I think that could be done while maintaining the spirit and appeal of the comics.

Also, it would be important not to cast a "pretty boy" into Yorick's role. He needs to be the representative everyday man in order for the story to work.