Y The Last Man (FX, 2021)

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shevek
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I should hope that a bunch of comics readers on this forum are familiar with Brian K Vaughan & Pia Guerra's excellent Y The Last Man comic series from the early 2000s on DC Comics' Vertigo label. Its premise wasn't exactly unique (there are plenty of dystopia in 70s and 80s B-movies where the women rule and the men have disappeared) but the world-building was tremendous, and there were some very solid characters, including a rather unusual star turn by a female Israeli general.

So some of you may have heard that they finally adapted Y The Last Man into a TV series for Netflix after over a decade of struggling with the development. What resulted is a production that frantically tries to "update" the series with Current Year tropes (for example, creating a brand-new trans-man character who isn't in the comics at all) along with re-working the story to make it seem more like a drama and to compensate for a lower budget.

Thus, they've turned the series into a political drama, somewhat akin to a post-apocalyptic version of the West Wing. President Jennifer Brown gets a lot more screen time than she did in the comic, and they've foregrounded a minor character (the dead male President's daughter) to be the "mainstream conservative" foil (kind of an Ivanka Trump/Anna Coulter) to Brown's progressive/inclusive demeanor. There's also yet another rival to the U.S. Presidency languishing in an Israeli hospital who seems to be characterized as an egomaniacal right-wing kook (a la Marjorie Taylor Greene). They seem to be laying it on a bit thick.

Almost NONE OF THIS was in the comics. So, if you are going to watch the series, be warned - it deviates heavily from the source material. One of the few things that stays rather true is the character of Sarah (Agent 355), who as the sole survivor of the secret govt org Colper Ring becomes responsible for the security and welfare of the Last Man (Yorick) and his monkey. That actress, Ashley Romans, does a superb job of being a bad-ass, actually (see the second trailer below).

Very interested to see what people think of the first three episodes so far with regards to the adaptation of this iconic series.
Does it still hit hard for you, like reading the comic, or does it get annoyingly cloying? Very interested to see how they deploy the female Russian and Israeli soldiers, as well as the Daughters of the Amazons (an intellectual hardcore-feminist biker gang
who were featured prominently in the comic run).





I seriously do wonder if the whole thing was simply inspired by the Beatles song "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey". Has anyone ever had the audacity to ask Brian K Vaughan this question straight on? :)
Y_-_The_Last_Man_23_-_Widow's_Pass_03_-_00_-_FC.jpg
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I watched the first episode a couple of weeks ago.
I watched the second episode today, and
I
was
so
bored.

It's following too many characters through too many mundane moments, scene after scene is blind to the elephant in the room, the development of emotional baggage plays more like baggage claim after a red-eye, and everyone but 355 is completely unlikable.

--and I just read that it got cancelled today. Good. This was a terrible production. What a shame. The book could have made great prestige television.
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I found this interesting:

https://www.cbr.com/y-the-last-man-canc ... iewership/

It was in development for so long that options for some of the cast were already expiring.
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Mr. X
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Do they ever find out what happened?
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Philo Hunter
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Mr. X wrote:
2 years ago
Do they ever find out what happened?
In the comics the answer is kind of no. They present a few different "answer" from several different sources, each of which are convinced they are correct and seem to have some evidence backing it up, but it's never made clear which was the actual answer.
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