The Last Man on Earth

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.

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.

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.

It's the most unusual new comedy of the year, and it's also one of the best.

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.

There is an interesting dynamic of a cast so compact in a setting so large. They literally have the entire world at their disposal.

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.

The Last Man on Earth is a rare creature--a sitcom that's actually funny.

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.

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.

A charming and intelligent sendup of pop culture’s obsession with the end of everything.

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.

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.

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.

Last Man on Earth is well-made, polished, odd, surprisingly funny.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The show itself is slight, the conceit perhaps worthy of an extended sketch, but after two episodes, it begins to feel stretched.

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.

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.