Last Man on Earth: Some Friggin' Fat Guy
March 23, 2015 9:28 AM - Season 1, Episode 6 - Subscribe

Meet Todd, the nicest man on Earth. Phil spends the entire episode trying to bust up a potential relationship between the last two singles on Earth.

It's all Phil's fault for setting off those fireworks! Todd was just about to drive on by to the land made famous by his favorite movie, The Shawshank Redemption. Melissa loves that movie too! Phil totally hasn't seen it but lies his head off that he has, pathetically.

So much for the sex. ("The only reason we entered into this unholy watusi was to spread out the gene pool.") And he actually had a setup with the fireworks and guitar to say "That orgasm was generously provided by Phil Miller!" afterwards. We also find out that Carol is a Scorpio....seriously dude, WATCH IT about pissing off a Scorpio. Anyway, Carol's doing the laundry when Phil runs back in to announce the new guy and says, "Back so soon? thank you for being expedient." Was it diarrhea again? No, it was "some friggin' fat dude named Todd."

Carol hops into her bridal dress (the only thing dry and presentable) and runs down to meet Todd. And happily matchmake them, despite Phil's protests that "We can't force Melissa to have sex with some stranger. That's called human trafficking."

All the girls like Todd and think he's sweet. He tells a sad story about being elected homecoming king and then he found out the queen was a pig...well, the good news is, all those jerks are dead now. Carol is delighted to give "the Pilbasian nudge" and ask Melissa and Todd to a double date, and then she'll "fake sick" to get her and Phil out of it. This is done by fake vomit noises and ruining some canned soup. Want to eat some later? Nope.

Phil spies on their date to the nearest funland golf place and bitches a lot. He's such an asshole, no wonder Melissa likes Todd even if he's fat. (Phil constantly drops fat bitchery in this episode.)

Carol now has a creative spinning dishwasher of sorts set up in the old margarita pool. (Well, I'm assuming, it is a kiddie pool.) Melissa asks Todd out, and then the four attempt tennis doubles. Phil insists on "shirts vs. skins" and taking his shirt off, which reveals that Todd has a scar from donating a kidney. The girls like that too, and it leads to Melissa kissing Phil. Nice Pilbasian nudge there, Phil.

Anyway, after being goddamned horrible all episode, Phil finally yells at Melissa's door that he can't figure out how to talk to actual humans any more after 2 years (certainly true) and he's an ass, and he apologizes most sincerely. Then he takes her down to the bar to introduce her to his ball buddies. "Thanks for showing me this. That explains a lot, actually."
After that, Phil honestly pleads his love for her, and she says no. He claims that was all something he was going to say to Carol. She thinks he should go for that.

So: Phil continues to be awful, but he apologizes, and let's all hope this plot is over with. Also, go Todd.

Next week....a whopping game changer! Let's take guesses now: are they in virtual reality? Some kind of giant dome? Are all the other humans alive in the world still after all? Are they trapped in the Ascension space ship?
posted by jenfullmoon (31 comments total)
 
Todd is ...
THE LAST MAN ON EARTH

(Because Phil is just a gross jerk, see?)

Thanks for making these posts, so I didn't feel compelled to do so. I, too, hope for some shift in the "Phil makes an (oblivious) ass of himself over Melissa" plot line. I really, really hope Todd isn't actually a worse person than Phil.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:24 AM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


I loved Mel Rodriguez on Enlisted, so I have high hopes for him here.
posted by drezdn at 10:26 AM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


Todd is great.

I was so exasperated with the skunk episode just prior to this one. I think they would have lost a lot of viewers had they not followed it up with this one as a chaser, and it relies a lot on Mel Rodriguez's charm.

There's one interview with Will Forte where he explains that the show doesn't focus on the bodies that would inevitably be left behind, and they did this on purpose so they can focus on character. This doesn't seem to be translating in Phil's case. For the past three episodes, it's been the same focused plot with no detours: Phil wants Melissa. Phil dreams up crazy schemes to get Melissa, who he barely even registers as an actual person with a mind and needs and preferences of her own. This is pretty much every Roadrunner/Pepe Le Pew cartoon, but devoid of the humor, existential nuance, and emotional appeal. Bleah.

I went hunting for more interviews to see if maybe there was more than meets the eye to this series, and everyone refers to it as "a roller coaster!" and "full of twists and turns!" and I think I keep watching in hopes that there's more. Maybe there isn't. I dunno.
posted by mochapickle at 10:43 AM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


Also, the part about "the fats" was awful and not funny at all.
posted by mochapickle at 10:48 AM on March 23, 2015 [4 favorites]


Phil is such an ass in this episode that my wife and I were saying that if there isn't improvement on that front soon, the show is likely a goner. Or, the other three decide that they've had enough of Phil and pick up and leave in the middle of the night.

I've seen enough of the man-child in sitcoms, stomping his feet because he can't get what he wants and getting in his own way. Why not give us a small collection of quirky, complex human beings surviving in the ruins of civilization, instead of this?
posted by nubs at 10:52 AM on March 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


It's ridiculous how Phil gets to act and not get shunned. It's just the same nonsense you see replayed in so many television shows and films. Some horrible dude says and does horrible, sexist, cruel things and in the end he has just as good a shot as anybody, and all his ridiculousness is hand waved away somehow. Disgusting.
posted by cashman at 11:01 AM on March 23, 2015


There's one interview with Will Forte where he explains that the show doesn't focus on the bodies that would inevitably be left behind, and they did this on purpose so they can focus on character.

Well, that and it would be gross and smelly and take up a lot of the budget to have desiccated fake corpses littering the world.

For the past three episodes, it's been the same focused plot with no detours: Phil wants Melissa. Phil dreams up crazy schemes to get Melissa, who he barely even registers as an actual person with a mind and needs and preferences of her own. This is pretty much every Roadrunner/Pepe Le Pew cartoon, but devoid of the humor, existential nuance, and emotional appeal. Bleah.

Hah, yeah. Let me add a few more episodes:

Episode 1: Phil just wants a human...any human...he'll take ANYBODY.
Episodes 2 and 3: Phil wants any human except for this one, which he's stuck with.

Or alternately:
Episodes 2 and 3: Carol don't want no scrubs. But she's stuck with a scrub.
Episodes 4 and 5: Carol and Melissa just want friends. But then there's THAT guy wanting Melissa's vadge.
Episode 6: Everybody but Phil wants to hang out with the lone nice guy (not Nice Guy(TM)) left in the world.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:39 AM on March 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


I think it would be fun to see the show re-cut from the point of view of the different characters, with each being the last person on the planet, until they meet Phil, then thinking "was it so bad being alone? Yes. Is this worse? Not yet."
posted by filthy light thief at 12:37 PM on March 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


These episodes made me want to apologize to anyone I've ever recommended this show to.

Previous episodes at least had a solid joke (or flamethrower) here or there to rein in the terribleness, but these two were crap through and through.

That monologue about "the fats" was some seriously ill-advised nonsense. It's not funny on the surface, it's not funny that Phil thinks it's a good idea to say, it's just garbage. The overlong scene with the dunk tank was garbage. Phil pretending to like The Shawshank Redemption was 90% garbage.

I'm fine with certain amounts of unreality: no corpses, no animals, being able to connect to a water reservoir with a big hose (and a gun). But the show has made it abundantly clear that it doesn't plan on dwelling on the situation in this situation comedy for a single second. Three survivors other than Phil and we don't get to hear hardly a sentence about what they've been up to, before or after the virus.

I hope something manages to turn this season around, but I'm not going to watch any more until I find out that's happened. With what we've seen so far, I wouldn't be surprised to hear this show was written over a weekend on a dare.
posted by tjgrathwell at 12:52 PM on March 23, 2015


These comments are cracking me up. So glad I stopped watching after the second episode. I don't mean to say I told you so, buuuut. . . yeah.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 1:25 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


I would actually watch a lot of bad TV for the payoff of Kristen Schaal declaiming, "those people can lick a duck!"

But I probably wouldn't keep watching after she said it.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 4:03 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


I just had to go to imdb and check. There's 13 episodes listed. The next four aren't going to be aired back to back like the last two. The next episode is called "She Drives Me Crazy", you may want to start rolling your eyes from the title alone. (There's another spoiler, but no synopsis, on the page for the episode.)

I hope -- and I mean I really, really hope -- that this terrible sitcom is just some late-stage apocalyptic fantasy fallout. I'm utterly sick about everyone obsessing about the end of the world and not dealing with fixing the one we've already got.
posted by Catblack at 4:15 PM on March 23, 2015


The FOX schedule says there are 2 episodes next Sunday.

I dunno. I stand by my previous comment that I'm glad that FOX isn't just putting out more Family Guy style animated sitcoms, but I'm kinda over this noise. Can't stand Phil, don't care to ever like him or spend time with him. All the interesting ideas and premises here are just glossed right over.

I've definitely grown to dislike this show, but I dislike myself too sometimes so I guess I'll keep watching it?
posted by dogwalker at 12:47 AM on March 24, 2015


I too am pretty disappointed the direction this show has taken. I was pretty excited about the potential at the premier but I feel like they've wasted such an interesting setup and can't figure out for the life of me what they are doing with Phil. Blech.

But the show has made it abundantly clear that it doesn't plan on dwelling on the situation in this situation comedy for a single second.

EXACTLY.
posted by Bibliogeek at 5:22 AM on March 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


I think we're supposed to find it ironic or something, the way the narrative keeps rewarding Phil for being nice (building Carol's irrigation system, apologizing to Melissa) and punishing him for being a dick (Todd seeing the fireworks and finding them, Melissa seeing Todd's kidney donation scar and kissing him).

The problem with this show is that the narrative is explicitly interested in Phil's inner life, and how he becomes a better person, slowly and painfully. Which is, like, the least interesting thing in this world.

Things in this universe more interesting than Phil Miller's inner life:

1 ) Anything to do with the apocalypse
2) Carol
3) Melissa
4) Todd
5) What Carol, Melissa, and Todd were doing until now
6) How are they all getting this gasoline for their cars and diesel for their generators?
7) Seriously, what are they going to do when the water runs out?
8) Where did all the animals go?
9) What would be a better method for finding people in this apocalypse? There has to be some better method. You can't just rely on every survivor figuring out how to get gasoline for a car (see #6), seeing a billboard, and driving to Tucson.
10) Raisinballs? Really?
11) Do they have any plans for keeping information and skills (like, say, agriculture) around? Sure, they can live on the contents of supermarkets for a while, but I'm not sure their children's children will be able to go with that plan.
12) On a related note, at some point they will need medical care. I think in this situation I would be trying to teach myself basic medical skills, not knitting or reading a magazine or engaging with Phil's drama.
13) Did anyone survive on other continents? How would you even find out?
14) Can they enforce anti-stalking laws in this world?
15-100) ANYTHING to do with the apocalypse
100+) ANYTHING but Phil Miller
posted by pie ninja at 6:53 AM on March 24, 2015 [12 favorites]


And all of those things would be more hilarious than Phil.

The part about no corpses: Will Forte mentioned in the interview that they'd filmed him removing a corpse from the house, but they chucked the scene because they felt it took away from the tone of the show. So they made deliberate choices to avoid apocalypse details so they could devote more time to the tone. Which is apparently about focusing on Phil fake-crying like a toddler and falling into a dunk tank and stalking people at the mini-golf.
posted by mochapickle at 6:59 AM on March 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


And I keep thinking about this show vs. Kimmy Schmidt, which takes a pretty dark situation (being trapped in a bunker for 15 years) and manages to let some of the horror of that situation seep through in subtle ways while focusing on how the primary characters are navigating their way through life (love, resources, living situations, human interactions).

Like Kimmy Schmidt, they wouldn't have to be as explicit as The Walking Dead/Snowpiercer to make the point that it's a dire situation. Scrubbing Phil's character of any of the difficult things he might have had to do to survive a plague makes him less sympathetic.
posted by mochapickle at 7:11 AM on March 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


One thing I do like about this show is that it's small enough that each time a new character has shown up, I have been totally unspoiled for it...up until seeing this thread. I would really appreciate it if we could keep major spoilers below the fold.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 7:59 AM on March 24, 2015


I had a similar thought re spoilers, but they NAMED THE EPISODE with the spoiler so just browsing my DVR and the FOX website for episodes spoils it. And they half introduce Todd at the very top of the skunk episode.

So while I sympathise with you, I don't even think the show's producers care.
posted by dogwalker at 9:01 AM on March 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


I guess? The title's an out of context phrase, not an explicit statement that there is a new character, and both episodes aired the same night. I still think it would be nice - and definitely possible - to keep major spoilers below the fold.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 9:52 AM on March 24, 2015


So I'm not actually watching this... but how many humans are they up to now?

It's starting to remind me of how Douglas Adams eventually started referring to the "the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy."
posted by Naberius at 10:33 AM on March 24, 2015


Airing these two episodes in one night was part of this problem. The title "Some Frigging Fat Guy" becomes an explicit statement that there will be a new character in the first minute of "Dunk the Skunk." So yeah, I guess the producers didn't spoil those 30 seconds before we can see inside Todd's car?

You would have to put the episode titles under the fold or hide them completely to avoid the spoiler.
posted by dogwalker at 10:35 AM on March 24, 2015


So I'm not actually watching this... but how many humans are they up to now?

Well, there's Carol, Melissa, and Todd. Phil is more cardboard cutout than human at this point. Seriously, the volleyball had a better personality.
posted by mochapickle at 11:25 AM on March 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Also, wasn't there footage of someone in a red car driving past an ALIVE IN TUCSON sign during the first few minutes of Dunk the Skunk, and periodically getting closer?
posted by mochapickle at 11:30 AM on March 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Mod note: A few comments deleted. It's good to be mindful of spoilers above the fold, and just as a PSA, people who don't want to see post descriptions can click 'hide post descriptions' on the front page of Fanfare. Also, in general if there's a spoilerish problem on Fanfare, it can be good to drop us a note at the contact form because we don't always know what constitutes a spoiler for a given show.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:37 PM on March 24, 2015


I nominate Phil to be killed, then subsequently Wolved in a cameo on The Walking Dead.

And then the show gets canceled due to a rabid case of undead Phil.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 4:15 PM on March 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


It's actually blowing my mind how incredibly quickly this show got really cringey and weirdbad and introduced like, a lot of terrible hatey stuff. Phil basically acts like the worst redditor fedora bro, carol is a stereotype who occasionally has moments of clarity, melissa is kind of ???(i honestly haven't watched up to this episode yet just read descriptions/everyones posts).

I kept having hope in this, but it seems to be pulling an under the dome. Remember the whole arc in that(i don't care if it's a spoiler that show is 100% terribad and also this served no purpose to the plot other than "this guy everyone likes is a bad guy lol" and was entirely gratuitious) where he locks his ex in a bunker chained to a bed and she almost drowns and then he lets her out they hug and cuddle and it's implied they fuck?

This show seems to be going down some dark road like that.

The only thing that could redeem it is if he actually goes off the deep end and kills Todd in some super brutal way, and obviously becomes the bad guy. No Dexter style hiding it, or Phil convincing them he just ran off/disappeared.
posted by emptythought at 5:40 PM on March 25, 2015


it seems to be pulling an under the dome. Remember the whole arc

empty MiddleName thought! You go to your room right now, for reminding me of that terrible terrible scene on that terrible, terrible show. Go on!
posted by cashman at 7:16 PM on March 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Hey, if we kill Phil we can still have a last man on earth!

But probably not going to happen since it's his show.

I'm going to give it a few more episodes to see if they can move on now that Melissa has (a) said no and (b) found another dude. Also helps that I have nothing else to watch between 9 and 10 where I live.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:53 PM on March 25, 2015


You go to your room right now, for reminding me of that terrible terrible scene on that terrible, terrible show. Go on!

No shit an old friend of mine, who had moved away but i saw occasionally and kept in touch with online, quit talking to me after i watched a couple episodes of that show and said "hey check this out". I got that far and brought it up in a sort "heh, that was fucking weird right? but it was cool until then... uh" kind of way.

They were so pissed about it that yea, delete.
posted by emptythought at 4:59 AM on March 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


Wow, this show is gross. Like, whoever is writing this stuff is just a bad person. I was sort of hate-watching it after episode 2, but I think I'm done now.

Damn I'm annoyed that a show with this great promise is so terrible.
posted by the bricabrac man at 7:08 PM on April 5, 2015


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