Surprise love triangle complicates even the Last Man on Earth

By Rafael Abreu
On the Tube

The “Last Man on Earth” has proven in the past few weeks that it is full of surprises and that it’s also comfortable with changing the status quo. Phil has gone from completely alone, to meeting a woman, to getting married, to meeting another woman he’s much more interested in.

Episode three, Raisin Balls and Wedding Bells, has Phil marrying the woman he met in episode two, Carol, played by Kristen Schaal, who will only have sex with him if they’re married since she does not want their children to be bastards.At the end of that episode, they crash into a limousine driven by another human, Melissa, playe by January Jones, a woman whom Phil finds immediately attractive.

This week’s episode, Sweet Melissa, is a simple but effective demonstration of Phil wanting to get together with Melissa despite being married to Carol.

It can be seen as slightly disappointing that the show did not spend as much time as it could have focusing on Phil, but the redeeming fact is that it does not seem to be losing steam just yet.

Every new surprise and challenge the show brings up is an opportunity to make Phil do something different, from trying be a handyman to so obviously show his interest in another woman.

Many of these moments, such as attempted filtering at dinner and trying to fix Carol’s door, continue to showcase human and natural moments in a world that, for one reason or another, still wants to be grounded by the old conventional rules, exemplified by Phil and Carol’s marriage and motives for it.

If not for that marriage, there would be no real conflict involving Phil wanting to get with Melissa, yet even in a world where the rules of old should no longer apply, they still do in Phil’s current world.

This episode also reinforces the strong differences between Carol and Phil by reminding us that Carol likes to keep things as they were. like stopping at stop signs even though there’s no one to enforce the law, while Phil believes the end of the world means he can take the White House rug without a problem.

While this episode didn’t harper on issues of law enforcement and what is wrong and right like the last few episodes did, the ideas behind what to do at the end of the world and the nature of humans regardless of situation remains in the back of every action.

As for the comedy, it stays well balanced between anything Phil does and the reactions between Carol and now Melissa.

The “Last Man on Earth” is a show that managed to make things work in the first episode and continues to bring laughter and enjoyment when others are thrown into the mix.

However, what keeps me coming back is the unique take on the end of the world that I have not been able to guess what will happen next.

On the tube is a column that reviews and critiques different on-going series on television.