Last Man On Earth’s Phil Miller is both an epic screw up and an often not-that-great guy. At the top on his not-greatness? His grooming habits, which began last season with tequila baths and an awesomely gross beard. Fortunately for viewers of the half hour comedy, the formerly shorn jawline juggernaut is back in full force.
Here's what Will Forte told The Wrap about his growing beard...
It seemed like a fun thing to do [to mark] the passage of time… The character of Phil was set up with the beard. Once Phil shaved the beard off, he kind of became a different person. He’s returning to his — he’s kind of normalized a bit this season, trying to do the right thing. And I think this is a way to align Phil with the earliest times that we saw him, where he was this lost, bumbling soul.
The chin hugger does, indeed give us a sense of how long it’s been since the events of the season one finale. When the first season wrapped up, (spoiler alert if you're not caught up!) Phil was driven out to the Arizona desert by his new nemesis, a hunkier and more helpful guy also named Phil, and left with a small box of supplies. Just when Phil thought he’d have to fend for himself without the comforts of the small group of survivors that had accumulated in Tucson, former apocalypse wife Carol (Kristen Schaal) showed up and promised to hang with him for the rest of the journey.
Phil and Carol have driven far away from their former home, and are living in a famous manse on the East Coast. Their love, like some kind of weird boomerang, keeps going and coming, and will probably go and come back around in no time at all this season. Even though we all know they’re perfect together.
When Season 2 opens it’s been six months since Phil and Carol took their goofy love story on the road, and Phil is fully hirsute once again. I have to say, I’m glad to see that the ridiculously uncoiffed beard has returned, along with Phil’s scraggly hair and general messiness. Phil Miller isn’t supposed to try too hard, as he did by the end of last season. When he cut his locks, shaved the beard and started dressing nice to try luring the non-Carol ladies of the Tucson Survivors Club, I think Phil lost a party of his bumbling soul. (Even though he still bumbled plenty.)
Last Man on Earth is a lot of things. Comedy, commentary on culture when there’s no culture left and how to live when there’s not much to live for anymore. But, most of all it’s about a screwy guy and a screwy girl learning to love in a time that has to be about just the two of them.
Last Man On Earth airs on Fox Sundays at 9:30 ET
