Why The Last Man on Earth deserves a 5th season
Fox’s The Last Man on Earth has been a consistent comedic vehicle for its ensemble cast for the past four seasons. Without an official renewal for another season, could the end be near?
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After 60-plus episodes, The Last Man on Earth is still luring viewers into its post-apocalyptic world week after week. Despite a significant drop in overall viewership from its first season, LMON has yet to drop the ball on its content. The combination of its totally unique tone and tendency to never stay in one locale for too long results in the rare basic cable comedy that has yet to go stale after a few seasons. Touching on all aspects of life: childbirth, the loss of loved ones, mental illness, etc., this show is too important to give up on now.
During the first season, it wouldn’t have been unheard of to question how long Will Forte’s Tandy could keep up his “last man alive” shtick before starting to feel a bit redundant. Freshman comedies can be tough. Even much-adored series like Parks and Recreations or 30 Rock have rocky first seasons. Luckily, the show started to add a few more survivors every couple of episodes before settling on the solid core group that is Tandy, Carol, Todd, Melissa, Erica, and Gail.
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Playing to each of the actors’ strengths, LMON doesn’t rely on static characters. Like real people would in this situation, the characters show growth and struggle, being forced to adapt to the fact that life as they know it will never be the same. Instead of becoming something like Gilligan’s Island, LMON could best be compared to The Walking Dead in that the plot is ever changing. It would be so easy to just repeat tried and true storylines like Gilligan’s Island and other comedies do, but, like The Walking Dead, LMON does its best to show how everyday people would adapt after such a catastrophic event.
Now a few seasons in, with the group members all squarely paired away, it would be a genuine concern that the focus would shift from just surviving in a world whose population has been decimated by a mysterious virus to how you raise a child without the conveniences of the modern era. In the most recent episode, “Release the Hounds” (S4, Ep. 13), we find the writers skipping ahead in time seven months or so to show they have bigger plans than focusing on Erica and Carol’s children.
In that seven-month jump, we saw Todd fall into a deep depression after his and Melissa’s suggestion that he have a child with Erica was turned down. The sudden turn from Todd’s normal cheerful self to the model train-obsessed basket case came straight out of left-field. The show flipped the script from last season’s storyline with Todd caring for Melissa while she dealt with her bipolar disorder. Showing Melissa be caring and gentle with Todd allowed glimpses into a possible maternal side to her character that, along with how she acts with Jasper, might hint at her changing her mind about never wanting a child, despite Erica coming around to the idea of her having another kid.
Additionally, at the end of “Hounds,” we saw an unknown character come across a grounded dirty diaper balloon that Tandy had disposed of. After developing such a rich backstory of the house in Mexico they are currently inhabiting, it is possible we haven’t seen the last of one or two characters seen in the flashbacks. Since the show has thrived showcasing a main villain before with Mark Boone Junior’s truly terrifying and unhinged Pat, I have a feeling this mysterious person might be showing their face in the near future.
All in all, LMON is too smart of a show for Fox to give up on now. Perhaps it might do better on a different night or just needs to be marketed better with a different lead-in. I hope we can get at least one more season out of these characters. I’m way too invested to be let down now.
Next: 5 reasons The CW needs to renew Life Sentence
New episodes of The Last Man on Earth air Sundays at 9:30/8:30c on Fox.