The Last Man on Earth
FOX | Release Date: March 1, 2015
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
6
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanFeb 27, 2015
Season 1 Review: Watching Fox’s wonderfully creative and ridiculously entertaining new series, The Last Man On Earth, you can’t help but laugh (it’s a comedy--duh), but also be truly and utterly impressed. Read full review
91
HitfixDaniel FienbergFeb 27, 2015
Season 1 Review: The second time I watched The Last Man on Earth, I laughed a lot, but I found myself taken by the way that the stillness in the landscape and the stillness in one side of Forte's performance also accentuate a sadness and humanity. Forte's line readings make the most of every word, but he pulls mirth and misery in the same breath. Read full review
91
Newark Star-LedgerVicki HymanFeb 26, 2015
Season 1 Review: Even though the show moves confidently and hilariously in a new direction in the second episode, at the same time it feels like the first half of a very smart, sharply edited feature film, not a sitcom with weekly obligations. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyJeff JensenFeb 25, 2015
Season 1 Review: If Team Forte can sustain the ingenuity, surprises, and craftsmanship, The Last Man on Earth, a profoundly funny comedy about the least funny of things--loneliness--might live long and prosper. Read full review
90
Vox.comEmily VanDerWerffMar 2, 2015
Season 1 Review: It's the most unusual new comedy of the year, and it's also one of the best. Read full review
88
USA TodayRobert BiancoFeb 26, 2015
Season 1 Review: There may even be a few cheers for the audacity, inventiveness and achievement of Will Forte (Saturday Night Live), who created and stars in the show and has filled it with a warm, goofy spirit that always feels oddly appropriate to the subject matter. Read full review
85
Under The RadarCody Ray ShaferMar 3, 2015
Season 1 Review: There is an interesting dynamic of a cast so compact in a setting so large. They literally have the entire world at their disposal. Read full review
83
IndieWireBen TraversSep 24, 2015
Season 2 Review: Forte--either by design all along or in reaction to Season 1 responses--consciously injects what was missing from Season 1 into the first two episodes of Season 2, but he does so without upsetting an alluring, already-established tone and world. Read full review
83
Uncle BarkyEd BarkFeb 26, 2015
Season 1 Review: This is a concept that so far doesn’t lack for execution. Last Man On Earth has no chance at all to be a blockbuster in league with Fox’s new Empire. But it’s another distinctive example of what the Big Four broadcast networks should dare and do. Read full review
80
We Got This CoveredSam WoolfSep 25, 2015
Season 2 Review: Through the first hour of the new season, chaos and character relationships continue to be The Last Man on Earth’s areas of expertise. Read full review
80
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniMar 2, 2015
Season 1 Review: The Last Man on Earth is a rare creature--a sitcom that's actually funny. Read full review
80
SalonAnna SilmanFeb 27, 2015
Season 1 Review: The whole endeavor could easily burn itself out, but judging by the first three episodes--which never felt stale and constantly kept me guessing--Fox might just have a winner on its hands. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Margaret LyonsFeb 27, 2015
Season 1 Review: For a show that shouldn't really work at all, Last Man works pretty well. A lot of that is Forte, who makes Phil kind of dumpy and sad and gross, but also clever and resilient. Read full review
80
Washington PostHank StueverFeb 27, 2015
Season 1 Review: A charming and intelligent sendup of pop culture’s obsession with the end of everything. Read full review
80
TimeJames PoniewozikFeb 27, 2015
Season 1 Review: There is no roadmap for this kind of show, and it could easily fall apart quickly. But I will say this for The Last Man on Earth: it does not seem like the sort of thing that would be a primetime network sitcom. And that’s precisely why it should be one. Read full review
80
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertFeb 26, 2015
Season 1 Review: Like the epic Jenga tower that Phil is constructing, the show is really quite impressive, but it could all fall down just a little too easily. Read full review
80
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenFeb 26, 2015
Season 1 Review: The first half-hour is all setup, and while entertaining in its own way, with just one character, it's insular and unlike anything else on TV, which is always a tough sell for viewers conditioned to expect more of the same. The second episode gives Phil a much-needed sparring partner, which is funnier than the gags during his solitary existence. Read full review
80
SlateWilla PaskinFeb 26, 2015
Season 1 Review: Last Man on Earth is well-made, polished, odd, surprisingly funny. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchGail PenningtonMar 2, 2015
Season 1 Review: Is there enough plot on which to build an ongoing series, or just a fun movie? The fact that it’s different and ambitious, though, already makes Last Man more interesting than many new shows. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubMolly EichelFeb 27, 2015
Season 1 Review: Forte can certainly handle the darkness, the lack of contact weighing down his heavily bearded face, but his attempts to compensate for that lack of connection make for some strange turns of events. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredMitchel BroussardSep 23, 2016
Season 3 Review: Punchy brevity is where The Last Man On Earth shines and--in the premiere of season 3 at least--Forte and the gang prove that there’s still humor, life, and occasionally deft emotions left in the apocalypse, even if the eyebrows are fake. Read full review
70
Yahoo TVKen TuckerMar 2, 2015
Season 1 Review: I’m not completely sold on The Last Man On Earth as an ongoing enterprise, and I wonder how long audiences are going to stick with it. At the same time, I admire Last Man’s spirit of adventurousness, and hope the show can make good on what is a far bigger conceptual challenge than most sitcoms ever attempt. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydMar 2, 2015
Season 1 Review: There are times when it rubbed me a little the wrong way, but I suspect that might be intentional, part of the longer game. Phil is a hero who needs work. Forte projects an innate normality, an averageness and equanimity, that keeps his characters companionable, even at their most extravagant, astringent or abnormal. Read full review
70
The New York TimesMike HaleFeb 27, 2015
Season 1 Review: The Last Man on Earth is well made, meticulous in its comic details and pleasantly acted by Mr. Forte and Ms. Schaal, but you may wish that it really had been about the last man on earth. Read full review
70
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen GrayFeb 27, 2015
Season 1 Review: It may seem like an "SNL" sketch that's gone on too long, but give it time. The Last Man on Earth could be The One. Read full review
67
IndieWireBen TraversOct 2, 2017
Season 4 Review: The Last Man on Earth Season 4 premiere offered a few tantalizing possibilities, but ultimately felt stuck on a predictable path. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian LowryFeb 27, 2015
Season 1 Review: The premise calls for a level of creativity from the producers (Forte is joined by directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord of “The Lego Movie”) that these episodes don’t consistently deliver. That’s not to say “I wouldn’t watch him if he were the last man on Earth.” But like the fate of humanity within the series, while the future certainly isn’t hopeless, neither does it look particularly bright. Read full review
60
Las Vegas WeeklyJosh BellFeb 26, 2015
Season 1 Review: The humor in Last Man is often more disturbing than laugh-out-loud funny, and some of it can be off-putting. But the show is more ambitious than any other current network comedy, and in just two episodes it pushes forward in bold, even reckless ways. Read full review
60
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoFeb 25, 2015
Season 1 Review: The Last Man on Earth has a unique, committed comic sensibility. But the pacing of the first hour is a little slack, as Forte returns to the same comic well a few too many times before an inevitable twist gives the second half a different energy. Read full review
58
NewsdayVerne GayFeb 26, 2015
Season 1 Review: Forte does seem to be having a good, slovenly time, but after a while, the whole affair starts to feel a bit wanton and self-indulgent. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandFeb 24, 2015
Season 1 Review: The show itself is slight, the conceit perhaps worthy of an extended sketch, but after two episodes, it begins to feel stretched. Read full review
40
ColliderAllison KeeneSep 20, 2016
Season 3 Review: There are a few ok moments in the premiere and surely some great ones to come (last season’s “Falling Slowly” duet was among the show’s best), and for the Last Man faithful that may be enough. For those on the fence, however, this feels like the right time to say goodbye. Read full review
33
The Lincoln Journal StarJeff KorbelikMar 2, 2015
Season 1 Review: The pilot's humor is juvenile, including a bunch of toilet references, although I did laugh at the baby pool turned into a large margarita. Things pick up in episode two, but not by much. Read full review
30
The Huffington PostMaureen RyanMar 2, 2015
Season 1 Review: There's no getting around it: There are just big problems in the execution of this engaging premise, and I doubt I'll be able to get beyond what I've already seen, given how regularly the show turned me off in the early going. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleyMar 2, 2015
Season 1 Review: Forte himself isn't bad, it should be added. But like the human race when it seems to be down to a single person, the show doesn't feel like it has much of a future. Read full review
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