We’ve all done it at one time or another – pictured what it would be like to be the last people alive on earth, freed from the cold, dead hand of work and stultifying routine, left alone to sleep, read, eat, wander, the world ours, and ours alone, for the taking.
We imagine ourselves doing much the same thing as Will Forte’s character who believing himself to be the last person alive on the planet – turns out he isn’t when characters played by January Jones (Mad Men) and Kristen Schaal (30 Rock, Bob’s Burgers) – has a field day acquiring art for his own home, playing boys’ own games such as running one car into another and yes, filling a wading pool full of all the alcohol he can just walk in and acquire.
Of course, what you don’t think of is what happens when there’s no more power or medical care, or as is patently obvious as you take in Forte’s increasingly bushy, hirsute look, barbers of any kind.
And most importantly, when you’re all alone day after day after … well, you get the idea.
While the appeal of being utterly alone is a powerful one when you’re shoved cheek-by-jowl up against fellow sweaty commuters on a hot summer’s day in a train, its attraction may dim somewhat if you were all alone all the time.
It’s an intriguing, brave premise for a comedy but one that Forte (Nebraska), and the executive producers of the series, and directors of the pilot, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (22 Jump Street, The LEGO Movie) are more than capable of carrying off with aplomb, comic and otherwise.
It will be fascinating to see how they build on the idea of a world after almost all humanity has vanished from it and where they take Forte’s character after the thrill of having an entire planet to himself wears more than a little thin as you know it must eventually.
The Last Man on Earth hits screens on March 1st, 2015 at 9/8c on Fox.