Fred Armisen stars as a cannibalistic serial killer in a flashback episode of The Last Man On Earth
Last season, The Last Man On Earth took a three-month break between its fall finale and its spring premiere. When the series finally returned, it aired an episode that didn’t feature any of the main cast and told a story about life during the viral outbreak from the perspective of Pamela (Kristen Wiig), a haughty socialite who’s wholly unprepared for post-apocalyptic life. “Got Milk?” was a welcome break from the series’ formula, but it also introduced a new type of episode that LMOE could produce in the future, something like the “Treehouse of Horror” series on The Simpsons. If LMOE will continue to introduce (and then eventually kill off) new survivors, they can also produce episodes that illustrate the survivors’ lives before, during, and after the virus.
“Karl” follows roughly the same trajectory as “Got Milk?” but with less impressive results. The episode stars Fred Armisen (teased in “Not Appropriate For Miners”) as Karl, a Dahmer-esque cannibalistic serial killer who projects social awkwardness instead of menace. Karl is the type of guy who would ramble about his enormous back boil on a first date, then awkwardly tip the waiter cash in the middle of ordering a meal, and then offer to paint his date after dinner. Luckily, his date Zoe (Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester) bails before dinner even arrives because Karl is also the type of guy who stuffs heads into freezers and then later cooks them in a pot roast.
A consummate pro at leaning into eccentric or off-putting characteristics, Armisen commits to playing Karl as a dork who just happens to be a compulsive cannibal. It’s a nice turn for him, and credited writer Kassia Miller gives him some good material, such as his unfortunate tendency to store his decapitated heads in easy-to-find places. Unfortunately, the character itself is fairly one note, at least here when he’s not playing off the ensemble, and “Karl” doesn’t really offer any way for the character to develop beyond “Look at this nerd who likes to eat people.” Though Karl is somewhat interesting on paper—he’s a lonely cannibal who craves companionship but can’t stop himself from murdering those who get close to him—“Karl” never effectively dramatizes his inner conflict all that well.
Though it’s hard to overcome severe protagonist issues, it’s still fun to see LMOE burn through plot in “Karl.” When Karl takes his dog Zeus for a walk, he finds that the police have surrounded his apartment. He leaves his dog on the sidewalk, flees the state, kills a passing driver (Martin Short!) so he can steal his car, drives to Juarez, and crafts a new but familiar identity in under two minutes of screen time. It’s necessary for LMOE to move that quickly in these POV episodes, but it’s still a joy to see the series shift setting and tone so adeptly, even if it’s only for the first half of the episode.