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Five Thoughts on Y: The Last Man‘s “Would The World Be Kind”

By | September 21st, 2021
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome, one and all, ladies and remaining gentlemen, to our review of FX’s science fiction drama Y The Last Man. While other works of science fiction explore how our world might change under different circumstances, this one shows us how it might be eerily, depressingly, the same, through post-apocalyptic imagery that hits unnervingly close to home. So stay out of the subway, and save your mommy issues for the next apocalypse, here are five thoughts on Y The Last Man‘s “Would the World Be Kind.”

1: Y One of the Few Remaining Men

Y The Last Man has been glibly described to me as a show about what happens when all the men in the world mysteriously die, but “Would the World Be Kind” corrects this misinterpretation. The show’s defining cataclysm kills every mammal with a Y chromosome, regardless of gender. Yorick is not the last man, so why is this show titled Y the Last Man? Perhaps Y One of the Few Remaining Men or Y The Last Man With a Y Chromosome don’t roll of the tongue so well, and perhaps keeping the title of the comic book was deemed expedient for marketing purposes, but the title as it is remains frustratingly inaccurate, particularly for a show that is entirely about changing gender dynamics in a post-apocalypse.

2: Jumping Through Time

While episode one focused entirely on one day, episode two jumps ahead a couple of times. First to day eight, when there is a riot at the White House (more on that later), and then very quickly to day sixty-three, before we can see how the riot is resolved. Usually time jumping in stories creates a sense of disorientation, but interestingly, in this show it has the opposite effect. In “The Day Before” we briefly experience the confusion of the immediate aftermath of the cataclysm, and fast-forwarding to when everyone has had some time to process the event expedites the audience moving on too. The best thing about this show is that it leaves me dying to know more, but that can also be a weakness, in that I am almost always more interested in what isn’t being filmed than what is.

3: The Apocalypse Bears an Unnerving Resemblance to the Present

According to Y The Last Man, signs of the apocalypse include floods in the New York City subway, and riots on government buildings in Washington DC. The apocalypse as depicted in the show bears an unnerving resemblance to the present real world. Using such familiar imagery brings the drama very close to home. It’s a strong, successful, interesting choice, not to show us how the world would change after an event that could only exist in science fiction, but how it would stay, depressingly, exactly as it is. I’m left deeply curious if the world will change to be more different from or even more similar to the real world, as more time passes after the cataclysm.

4: Images of Isolation

Another way in which the show’s world closely mirrors our own is in the profound sense of isolation many of the characters feel. They aren’t social distancing like we are (or should), but in their own way, each of them feel like we do. Kimberly (Amber Tamblyn), having lost everyone in her immediate family, struggles to zip her own dress by herself. Agent 355 a.k.a. Sarah (Ashley Romans) searches in vain for anyone left in her top secret agency. Hero (Olivia Thirlby), is lucky enough to have a group of friends to rely on, but isolates herself emotionally as she struggles with the guilt of the too-perfectly-timed murder of her boyfriend. Yorick (Ben Schnetzer) almost drowns searching for his pet monkey Ampersand, his only companion, in a flooded subway station. When he finally hugs his mother (Diane Lane), I’m reminded of the long-awaited hugs I’ve been fortunate enough to experience.

5: Would the World Be Kind? No.

This episodes title, “Would the World Be Kind” begs the obvious question of a world without a Y chromosome, and if it had a subtitle it would be “Of Course Not!” To me, this is a very satisfying answer that confirms my own worldview. Even with robust federal assistance captained by the perfect president of my dreams, Diane Lane, there are still riots, there is still looting, there are still people looking out for themselves at the expense of others. Even though our culture, to a large degree, socializes women to be kind and accommodating to a fault, selfish and self-destructive behavior are not the sole domain of cis men. Equal opportunity toxicity for all! Hooray! I mean… hooray? Well, it is what it is.

Y The Last Man sets itself apart from other works of science fiction by clinging close to reality, creating something like an uncanny valley of verisimilitude, which results in drama that packs a particularly hard punch, hitting us right where we live. The show’s biggest problem is the best problem a show can hope to have: having too many things to say, too many directions to go in, too much drama and not enough time.


//TAGS | Y The Last Man

Laura Merrill

Screenwriter and script doctor. Writer for UCB's first all-women sketch comedy team "Grown Ass Women," and media critic for MultiversityComics.com.

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