- Title: Y: The Last Man – The Day Before
- IMDb: link
When you sit down to watch a post-apocalyptic series the one thing you expect to see is a post-apocalyptic world. Other than a short tease at the beginning of the episode and the beginning of the strange events that cause the death of all but a single man on the planet at the end of the episode, nearly all of “The Last Day Before” offers a look at the last normal day before the end of the world. While the idea here is to introduce who the characters were before the world went to shit, the reality is that the episode meant to sell audiences on the concept of the series is nearly completely about events and troubles that are irrelevant by the end.
Adapted from the comic of the same name, the episode introduces us to would-be magician and all-around screw-up Yorick Brown (Ben Schnetzer), his girlfriend (Juliana Canfield), his sister (Olivia Thirlby), and his mother Congresswoman Jennifer Brown (Diane Lane). None of the characters are having a great day as all have different relationship turmoil. We are also introduced to some super-secret government assassin played by Ashley Romans who seems, at least for now, completely disconnected to the rest of the story. No doubt the series will begin actually exploring the new world these characters will be living in, and searching for answers as to what caused the event, but the first episode skates by on mostly promise of what is to come.