When it comes to the FX on Hulu original series, Y: The Last Man, it is becoming extremely obvious that the premiere season is geared towards a certainty that there will be a second season. The problem with writing a show like this one in that form is that there isn't a guarantee that there will be another season. There's also the fact that it's hard to bring people back for Season 2, if Season 1 doesn't really seem to be going anywhere.
With just three episodes to go, Y: The Last Man feels like it's standing still. Part of the reason the series feels like that is because the show has taken to covering multiple storylines at the same time. It also seems like perhaps the showrunners themselves are bored by the idea of a road trip being central to the plot.
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To some degree, that's understandable. Quite a bit of the graphic novels that the Hulu series is based on is just Yorick, Dr. Mann, and 355 traveling across the country. The books have action in them from time to time but it's much more story-based than anything else. In fact, the Y: The Last Man books are more about the romance between Yorick and his girlfriend Beth than anything else. That particular story could be rather hard to translate into a television series. On the other hand, there are enough storylines that could add some intrigue and some suspense in the books, as well as what's been set up on the show and it's starting to feel like the showrunners are once again trying to defuse any tension right after they introduce it. That's a rather weird approach at this point. Especially if they want viewers to have a real reason to keep coming back. Perhaps the most frustrating part is just how often the show seems to stand still whenever it puts its focus back on the last man on earth with a Y chromosome.
Will There Be A Real Conclusion?
The excitement and tension of the first three episodes of Y: The Last Man seem like a distant memory after episode 7. That was bound to happen to some degree. Those first three episodes were used as a way to set up the rest of the series and show the audience what storylines were going to be focused on. Because there are basically three separate stories at the center of the show, it can be hard to keep everything going at full tilt. On the other hand, it seems as if Yorick only really be at the center of one of our every two or three episodes would allow the series to skip some of the more mundane aspects of the travel across the country. Instead, it appears the writers have decided they need to show every single step that's taken on the way to the West Coast. Of course, that's not entirely accurate, but the movement to Dr. Mann's feels like more than a crawl than anything else. Considering that there's plenty to do once they get to that lab means that there doesn't necessarily be the kind of stall tactics the show has used so far.
Quite frankly, the showrunners appear to be trying to straddle a thin line. It's the same kind of line other shows based on graphic novels such as The Walking Dead have had to straddle. It appears as if the show desperately wants to touch on some of the biggest plotlines that appeared in the books. This week, that included Yorick and his group running across a group of former female prisoners that are now trying to make a life for themselves in the brave new world that's risen from the ashes of the plague that killed so much of the planet's population. While this particular plot point is an important one in the growth of Yorick in the books, it seems like another needless stop that could have absolutely been featured in an earlier episode should there not been so much focus on the other storylines in previous installments. Now the stop with this particular encampment just feels like another stall. When the probability is quite high that episode 8 is going to turn its focus back to Hero and her group, Yorick and his band of travelers sitting around the prison seems even more like a time-waster.
Why The Focus On Washington?
While Y: The Last Man has worked hard at staying true to certain storylines, the Hulu series has changed things up a bit when it comes to President Jennifer Brown and the goings-on in Washington, DC. While there has always been a rival Republican who was trying to take power, the former (male) president's daughter and wife have had a much larger part to play so far this season. This has also, unfortunately, been where the show seems to keep building up and then releasing what could be quite a bit of tension. It happened again this week when the former First Lady found out that Yorick was in fact, still alive. She stormed into the situation room, yelled about how she had been fooled, and then neglected to pursue it at all after that. That same sort of pattern pops up in this series a bit too often for its own good.
It also seems awful late in the game to both reintroduce Beth and start a brand new plotline. However, both things did indeed happen as the first season of Y The Last Man winds down. It feels like the writers could have simply not diffused the tension of situations that were unfolding as the season went along, rather than having to add something entirely new to the mix. It doesn't help that it feels like this too is going to be a bit of a nothing burger when it's all said and done. Y: The Last Man is still decent television, but it's getting harder and harder to ignore repeated mistakes in the storytelling, and episode 7 felt like a rehashing of some of the missteps the Hulu series took earlier in the fall.