Y: The Last Man (FX On Hulu)

We've got a trailer for Hulu's adaptation of Brian K. Vaughn's Y: The Last Man.

Looks pretty accurate though I'm presuming they are only adapting a few arcs per season rather than ploughing through the entire plot in one go.

Also, this is bound to make a certain group of people extremely upset, which is nice.

Edited by jakobitis on Aug 6th 2021 at 3:50:57 PM

"Women can't run a society! They'd be, like, too busy shopping or something." - Those people, probably.

That or they'd find a way to blame it all on Brie Larson somehow.

Edited by lbssb on Aug 6th 2021 at 6:52:51 AM

The funny thing is that society does obviously collapse which is the natural result of such a calamity, it’s just after some adjusting things do naturally stabilize for the most part.

Hope the shows good, I recall the comic is pretty acclaimed.

And the show's already canned. Goddamnit.

Press X to pay respects

Shouldn’t it be Y?

But Y tho

Y indeed.

Seriously though, it seems it won't be continuing on FX on Hulu, but the showrunners seem intent on shopping the show to different channels. Actually, it managed to push 7 or 8 episodes before kicking the bucket. Did anyone manage to watch some episodes?

EDIT: Anyone think this would've turned out better as a cartoon? Or a miniseries at least?

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Oct 17th 2021 at 7:56:24 AM

Unfortunately, it had been a troubled production from the start. They lost the original showrunner, as well as the original performers for 355 and Y due to production difficulties.

Still, the first season was very good, and while I'm sure the season finale will end on some cliffhanger or another, it was a nice update on the original comics, including sanding away some of Vaughn's worse bits.

I'm not sure a change of format would have solved the problem people had with the series' premise.

I blame the opening moments. The first few minutes of the first episode were so dreadfully narmy, full of apocalypse cliches, and special effect failures that I can't blame people for not making it past the cold open. I really liked the first episode after it flashed back but it was an incredibly weak start.

Also, I'm four episodes in and I can also see a problem with, well, the fact that I kinda hate everyone. Like, Yorick is the worst. Hero is a terrible person. Half the supporting cast at the White House are obnoxious. These are intentional choices but it doesn't change the fact that I find them frustrating to watch.

, :

Good grief, it's almost as if any kind of adaptation for Y: The Last Man is pretty much doomed from the start.

Eh, I don't know about that.

Some shows just don't find an audience, it doesn't mean the premise is inherently unworkable. If nothing else, season 1 is 10 episodes of good to great TV, and that's plenty really.

I watched the first 4 episodes. The biggest problem to me was that it was too slow. The first episode doesn't get to the man-flu until the closing minutes, and the characters REALLY aren't interesting enough for that. 355 and Yorick have cool stories from that point, but they take a back seat in subsequent episodes to Not!Ivanka Trump's petty bullshit and beleaguered assistant lady and her magical leg stab daughter. I know these plots have to have been going somewhere, but they're so, so boring.

... I actually really liked the daughter getting stabbed because it continued the comic's rich tradition of side characters being Made of Plasticine.

Like seriously, if you weren't a main character and your plot relevance was up, you were apparently made out of wet paper and it was unintentionally hilarious to me. It was nice to see that carry over into the show where the daughter managed to impale her leg on a dull spade.

Come to think of it, cheating ambulance driver-man is the same. Non-main characters are just fragile.

Edited by Larkmarn on Oct 18th 2021 at 3:32:01 PM

I literally didn't hear about this show until it was already canceled, so maybe the advertising wasn't as good as it could have been.

Yeah, marketing has also been horrible. I was tracking the show in pre-production since I read the comic and I got blindsided by finding out there were already three episodes out before I realized it had even begun airing.

More details on the cause of cancelation here

For the crowd that likes saving a click:

• Full disclosure: FX very rarely cancels its scripted content and normally announces final seasons for its original shows. Further, FX's creator-friendly executives like to pump the brakes on the cancelling to gather data for stuff like delayed viewing and digital returns.
• So why was the show canned? Because FX had to make a decision on the future of the series by October 15, 2021. Why that time? Because that was when options on the cast of the series expired.
• FX landed the rights to the IP back in 2015, gave it a pilot in April 2018 and, three months after, cast Barry Keoghan and Diane Lane in leading roles. FX ordered Y to series in February 2019.
• But things went south after FX cut ties with the initial showrunners Michael Green and Aida Croal due to "creative differences" (man, really starting to dread that phrase). This was a major problem because the book's author loved Green's pitch and its exploration into toxic masculinity.
• More delays happened in February 2020 when news dropped that Keoghan — who was poised to star as Yorick — was being recast with Ben Schnetzer, who was tapped to lead the cast by the end of that same month.
• Then, not only did COVID happen, but the show was moved to Hulu because streaming is all the rage.
• Actual production, including work on the new pilot tackling gender identity, couldn't start until late October 2020, years after Lane and co-stars Amber Tamblyn and Marin Ireland signed on. Other original stars from Green and Croal’s pilot, including Lashana Lynch and Imogen Poots, were recast as the series enlisted Ashley Romans, Olivia Thirlby and Elliot Fletcher. (I guess scheduling conflicts?)
• Because of all the delays, FX had to extend options on original Y stars, including the guys who weren't even on the show anyway. And, because of the pandemic-related production shutdown (there's irony in this situation), FX also needed to pay Schnetzer and other new cast members.
• Ultimately, FX brass decided not to pay $3 million to further extend options on the Y cast as execs didn't want to leave the cast in limbo yet again.

TL;DR: Eat a dick, creative differences and COVID-19.