Tuesday, March 10, 2015

The Last Man on Earth, Season 1, Episode 3: Raisin Balls and Wedding Bells



1 wedding dress, 1 suit, 1 church and some vows and Carol has her marriage. Phil is distinctly unimpressed and almost as bemused as I am by the whole charade. Even more bemusing is that this is some kind of nightmare of Phil’s where there are actually still people left alive and she’s duped him into marrying him

He wakes up, therefore sparing us from a dream that’s even more ridiculous than the plot. He is relieved and reassured that the human race is still nearly extinct. I am saddened that the human race is merely “nearly” extinct. Alas Carol joins the scene and adds her gross “insight” on pornographic magazines, declaring that all the women in them were molested.

Carol continues to have a secret stash of some drug because there can be no other explanation for her behaviour. The only saving grace is that Phil, as annoying and revolting as he is, has just about as much bemused exasperation for her as I do.

So Carol prepares all the decorations for a wedding while Phil burns things and talks to balls and the mannequin he was obsessed with.

Wedding time – music, white dress, décor and, of course, Phil has forgotten the rings. Carol storms out

After a while Phil goes looking for her since she’ giving him the cold should and finds her house has been massively decorated for the wedding, along with a wedding cake. He tracks her down and admits that, enraging though she may be, he’d rather endure her endless annoying habits than live alone.

Not the choice I would have made.

They go jewellery shopping and Carol embraces random destruction in the name of diamonds. They complete the wedding

And that night go to bed together though Phil looks decidedly unenthused and Carol very business like. She is… truly horrifying during sex. Art least during what appears to be supposed to be sex? She has some after event criticism.

At least afterwards Carol seems to be learning to enjoy herself with Phil’s antics. Actually this Carol is a bit more fun. She also destroys Phil’s mannekin.

And as they’re driving along they hit another car. A driving car. As in a car with someone inside it. Another woman – and one who is more conventionally attractive than Carol. Phil is struck dumb.

This is going to go to a very bad place.



Do I have to drag some analysis out of this drek?

Ok, here’s trying – Phil’s idiosyncrasies as a character seem to be all about him, Carol doesn’t even know  about most of them and beyond her disgust about porn and filth (which are, if anything, used more as a statement about her than anything else) we don’t particularly get much of her reaction about them; largely they’re just distractions from whatever job she’s decided to assign to him or thinks he should be doing instead. While her quirks are all about being a nuisance and aggravating to him – we don’t view her quirks as part of her character (like Phil breaking stuff and talking to balls) but as burdens she inflicts on Phil.

Also there’s a whole lot of slut shaming and denying of agency in declaring any pornographic model as automatically molested. They could have had an interesting point about the pointlessness of following traditions when society and culture have entirely collapsed, but this isn’t a show for interesting points – it’s a show where two caricatures bash against each other in a way I’m supposed to find funny.

Here ends my attempt to drag anything worth saying about the show. I continue not to find it largely unfunny (but Carol enjoying Phil’s antics earns some points – except I think this is some desperate “wifey” attempt to please him). I continue to hope for the extinction to be finished. Or their baby to be an evil possessed mutant that eats their skin.


At least it’s short. I also wish to point out I blame my suffering on this on Renee.