The first episodes of Y: The Last Man are gripping and thought-provoking

The first three episodes of Y: The Last Man are a harrowing look at what happens when all of the men and male creatures of the world suddenly drop dead. Adapted from the comic book series of the same name by Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra, this series is gripping, thought-provoking, and thoroughly entertaining. It also raises a lot of uncomfortable questions.

I’ve been a fan of The Walking Dead dating back to the first season; it’s the standard to which all other post-apocalyptic shows must be compared. I’ve studied apocalypse shows, and lord knows some are better than others. I was curious about Y: The Last Man and wanted to see if the TV adaptation for FX on Hulu could harness the darkness and despair of the comics.

Thankfully, despite my brother in law’s insistence that I read Vaughn and Guerra’s seminal classic, I’m glad I didn’t read the original comic book series that inspired the show because then I’d be one of the long line of reviewers making the X is better than Y comparisons. (Pun very much intended.) Instead, I’m viewing the series with a fresh set of eyes, and I like what I see so far, even I have some critiques.

As apocalypse dramas go, Y: The Last Man has an innovative, fresh idea that not only provides plenty of drama but that will no doubt inspire lots of talk on social media. Would society fall apart this quickly if men all died out? For the sake of the narrative, I get it. Women around the world are left grieving for the men who died: fathers, sons, husbands, brothers, friends. It makes sense that this sudden onset of grief would be staggering. But at the same time, life must go on. Leaving everything to fall apart seems a little strange.

There’s no question the show will get people talking, and that’s probably a good thing because there are lots of parallels to what we have been going through collectively during the pandemic, even if it was in development long before.

The first three episodes are now available on FX on Hulu. Let’s review them one by one!

Y: The Last Man Episode 1 review — “The Day Before”

As a newcomer to the story, I appreciate how the first episode takes some time to introduce the characters. It wouldn’t be the same if the show started out with the men dying out. I understand this is different from the comics, but I think it makes sense to dig into the background so we understand what the characters lost. What are they fighting for? Who will be the ones to step up?

The Walking Dead begins when Rick Grimes wakes up in a hospital room after being shot. He was in a coma through the fall of civilization, so much of the first few episodes is spent putting pieces together and trying to figure out what happened. After a while fans wanted to see those early days, so flashbacks and spinoffs were developed to answer the questions.

Y: The Last Man paints a picture of how this apocalypse happened. There were some weird animal deaths that preceded the main event, and then all the men of the world were hit at once with terrifying force. Planes fell from the sky. Cars crashed. Not only were the men and boys killed, but there were lots of collateral casualties. Incorporating all of that into the first episode paints a picture and lays a foundation for the story that’s about to come.

One of the biggest questions of all: Why are Yorick (Ben Schnetzer) and his CGI monkey Ampersand still alive?

Y: The Last Man Episode 102 review — “Would the World Be Kind”

The second episode reveals that it doesn’t take long for the world to fall apart without the men. It’s a bit odd, because aside from the trauma of losing all of the men and male creatures on the planet there’s no reason power plants should collapse and the infrastructure should fall apart in less than two weeks; you don’t need men to run those things.

The Pentagon becomes a safe-haven for the women who are now running the country. They’re counting on the fortifications to keep them safe as women line the gates demanding entry and answers. Riots break out. There’s looting. There’s also no power and food is running out quickly, which has led to chaos in every city and community in the country.

Diane Lane’s Senator Jennifer Brown — a Democrat — takes control of the presidency and tries her best to work with the women of the previous administration, which was Republican. Interestingly enough, the political squabbles continue even after the men die, and it’s fascinating to see how the attempts to regain control in such a harrowing situation mirror a lot of what we saw at the peak of the pandemic. Instead of working together to fight the common threat, there is a lot of political maneuvering and in-fighting, so nothing is ever an easy decision.

One of Jennifer’ missteps, in my opinion, is that she’s so focused on fixing the “now” in terms of evacuating cities, restoring power and water and figuring out a plan for food that she’s ignoring a crucial element of long-term survival: reproduction. The former president’s daughter, Kimberly Campbell Cunningham (Amber Tamblyn), wants to make sure the cryobanks are secure. Kimberly lost her husband and three sons to the event and she’s looking toward the future, but Jennifer doesn’t see it that way. That might be a problem later on.

This episode is the one that makes you think. There’s a natural inclination to roll your eyes over civilization collapsing so fast because the men are gone, and it’s fair. I don’t know why it happened so fast, but I think grief is the culprit. And it works. At this point no one knows what happened, so in the midst of the unknown, fear reigns supreme and that’s why everything stopped.

Y: The Last Man Episode 103 review — “Neil”

There’s something terrifying about having politicians arguing in the middle of an apocalypse about values. The show mentions anti-vaxxers openly, which is interesting given that what happened is not linked to an illness, but there are still pundits on both sides arguing about it in the middle of the chaos.

In Episode 3, Yorick is discovered by Agent 355 (Ashley Romans) and returned to Jennifer, his mother, who is now the president. Despite everything that’s happened, Yorick is still pretty snarky and not really aware of how his existence can throw everything into chaos. The decision to move him to a new location is interesting because he is a massive threat to his mother’s rule. If anyone finds out about him, it would lead to pandemonium as the other women wonder if there are other men out there.

You can see a microcosm of this reaction with the two pilots who fly Yorick back to the Pentagon. Agent 355 can see that the pilots will have a problem keeping such a big secret, so she is forced to take them out as she escorts Yorick away from Washington.

The discovery of another high-ranking Washington official in Israel puts the line of succession into question and jeopardizes Brown’s rule. This is music to Kimberley’s ears as she rallies the troops in favor of values and morals.

All in all, the first three episodes of Y: The Last Man deliver a compelling story that’s worth following. The questions raised will be enough to keep viewers going. The characters aren’t perfect, but that seems to be by design; they have to navigate this world without all the answers.

I think that releasing the first three episodes was the right move so that no one has to wait too long for answers. Now that the big event has happened, chaos has broken out all over the world and Yorick has been discovered, the foundation has been laid for the rest of the story to follow.

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