I don’t have to cut then some slack. I’m no longer 10 years odd watching I Dream of Jeannie. I prefer a little smarter writing, of at least a slight attempt to lampshade the questions. It’s one of the aspects of modern TV writing I like. That said, the funnier the show, the easier to forgive. I’m still hoping this will be amusing enough that the inconsistencies don’t bother me for the 30 minutes the show is on.
Hear, hear.
Funny excuses a lot. So far, I’m not seeing enough funny.
I was hoping it would be worth a look, because it’s an intriguing premise.
I remember vaguely a Ray Bradbury story from The Martian Chronicles. The last man alive on Mars amused himself doing whatever kind of things he wanted, and started getting telephone calls from the last woman alive on Mars! They arranged to meet, sight unseen. That would be a good storyline.
Well, Zombieland managed to deal with the problem of the bodies and the mess, and deal with day to day survival issues, and was still funny. So it is possible.
At least I thought so…maybe too much guy humor for some. That changed a little in the second half.
FWIW…if you stayed away from it because you don’t have time for another hour long show it appears to be a half hour going forward. They put two episodes together for the premier.
Merging two topics about this show.
You have to go into this show expecting a comedy sketch rather than a documentary. There are many Saturday Night Live sketches which make no sense if you pick them apart, yet they can still be hilarious. I don’t think the show would be as funny if they approached it from a more serious and realistic standpoint. It’s the difference between Gillian’s Island and Castaway.
I loved it. Since this is a comedy, it’s easy for me to suspend disbelief.
Am I the only 1? I thought the first half hour was pretty funny. I found myself laughing out loud a lot. The second half hour? I hardly laughed at all. In the credits, I noticed they had 2 different writers. The 1st was Will Forte. I don’t remember the 2 half hour.
J.
The first episodes of any show are difficult, there’s a lot of exposition and character-building required.
I thought it was very good, for a first episode, and look forward to future episodes. I love Kristen Schaal, she was a welcome surprise!
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Zombieland, remind me how they dealt with it? If I remember correctly, there were zombies, but there was still in tact things for them to use and loot. They visited a grocery store that did have plenty of food on the shelves, just not Twinkies.
I guess they could have done that for LMoE, have some bodies and dirt and obvious signs of destruction, but not everywhere. But I guess they might not have done it because people still wouldn’t be happy.
I thought both episodes were funny. I found Schaals quirks to be a little more ‘real’ than Forte’s but like others I thought there were nowhere near enough pointless schemes. By the way I wasn’t nitpicking earlier; I was trying to get a shape on whatever apocalypse occurred, if they said why I missed it
I finally got around to watching the pilot on DVR. I liked it, and am intrigued to see more.
I’ve done short-form improv comedy for years. One of the rules (which can be broken) of improv is “the scene is about you, not the environment”. That is, if you find yourself in a scene that takes place in a kitchen, don’t make the scene about the kitchen. Make the scene about your relationship to the other actors on stage. Now, the fact that you’re in a kitchen might influence you and your behavior and words, but it is not the focal point of the scene. If it were, the audience would get bored. No one wants to see a scene about folks discussing a kitchen.
And so, similarly, I feel like the series is focusing on the relationship between Phil and Carol. The fact that they’re the 2 last people on earth certainly influences their behavior and words, but it is not the focus of the show. Phil and Carol and their relationship to one another is the focus.
Maybe that’s the reason the scenes in Castaway and here with the balls-as-people took me out of the premise. For “last man” or “alone in the world” stories, I’m thinking its about surviving, and I didn’t expect any relationships, so when one does show up it seems like it’s being squeezed into the script. I thought they added adding the relationships just to give Will Forte someone to talk to; I never thought of the idea that “relationships” are important to the story.
Show me an example of a comedy, particularly a sitcom TV series, in which relationships aren’t important to the story.
Oh—I enjoyed it and want to see where it’s going; but it felt a lot more like I was watching a movie than a TV series (to the extent that it was kind of jarring every time a commercial came on—“Wait, who are those people?”).
I just watched it tonight. I liked it. I laughed at the interplay between the two of them. If a sitcom makes me laugh, then it’s working, regardless of whether or not it makes sense.
Watching the promos, I couldn’t see how they could possibly keep it going week after week. How many cars can he blow up before it gets old? So the introduction of the second person was probably inevitable.
Yes, the name and and the promos were misleading, but they were intended to be! We were meant to go into it not knowing what to expect.
As amusing as I found it, I still think they may have trouble sustaining it with just the two cast members (maybe there’ll be more?), but I’m willing to give it a chance.
The last woman on earth is Louise?! He’s screwed.
Yeah. I didn’t love the pilot, but I will definitely keep watching partly for this reason.
Odd. I found Schaals quirks almost unbelievable and certainly dysfunctionally neurotic, while Forte just seemed like a guy.
I think that’s the gag. She IS super neurotic, fastidious, and a stickler for rules. Just because there’s no one left on the planet, doesn’t mean those things just go away. Hell, they probably become exacerbated by her 2 years of solitude.
And that’s why this pairing is so fun.