Last Man Standing: Episode 8

Writer: Marieke Hardy
Director: Emma Freeman

Plot Synopsis: Adam wakes up next to a naked fire-twirler he met the night before at a house party with Boxy. The next morning, Adam is living with the guilt of shagging someone other than his girlfriend. Taia starts to get concerned that there’s something going on with Adam, but this doesn’t stop her inviting over Adams mother for a dinner. The dinner puts a stamp of approval on their relationship and Adam freaks out.

Cameron stops by to visit Zoe where he bumps into her new lover Ollie. Ollie gets weirded out by Camerons visit, but still mans up and joins Zoe on a double-date with Cameron.

Bruno embarks on his internet date with ‘Princess Leila’, which seems to be enough of a success to end with Princess Leila inviting herself back to Bruno’s house. While there, things start getting amorous, at which point Princess Leila announces that she doesn’t believe in sex before marriage, but evidently she is a huge fan of ‘Anything But…’. One gets the impression, however, that Princess Leila might be more of a taker than a giver.

Adam finally reaches the point that he comes to terms with the fact he’s in love with Zoe and breaks up with Taia.

Thoughts: There is something slightly off about the production style of this series. Every scene seems to be slightly empty. Background music doesn’t seem to fill the white space. The dialogue is certainly not the problem. It might just be an editing problem, but somethings certainly askew. This episode was certainly no exception.

While the episode concluded with a friendly bbq, the episode certainly had no happy endings. Bruno started a relationship with his internet lover, Princess Leila. Her no sex before marriage policy wasn’t entirely restrictive, yet not reciprocal – meaning there were no happy endings for Bruno. And Adam ended things with the awful Taia.

There was a lot to like about this episode, but what I enjoyed most was the Adam storyline. Taia was absolutely awful in the series, bogging it down severely. The character herself wasn’t terrible, nor was the actress. It just seemed like an ill-fit. The writing for the storyline was clever in that while Adam is pining away for Zoe, using this love as the impetus for the break-up, they have no contact at all in the episode until after Taia is farewelled. The motivation is purely mental with the audience remaining in Adams head. So much so that when the break-up actually happens, the viewer is kept at a distance with a camera shot from across a busy road, never hearing what Adam tells Taia.

It is becoming somewhat apparent that one of the flaws in the series is that it lacks forward momentum. The show really needed some sort of spine to hold the series together – a purpose that at least one of the characters is working toward. Instead, all the characters just seem to be flailing about living a generic relationship drama series existence. It’s a shame as the characters are so well drawn and the cast are all quite charming. It just feels so meaningless.

Recurring Chich gets all Yoda while wearing leather-print jocks about how to deal with an internet date. He also manages to be his standard creepy self by citing the downtime in his relationship with his lady due to excessive chaffing. Sue Jones scores some screentime once more as Adams mother. Why isn’t Sue Jones on TV anymore? She’s always a compelling screen presence.

Quotent Quotable: “Oh, you don’t get it. I mean, Taia, she’s a nice girl. Isn’t it bad enough I’m with her when I really want to be with someone else? Let alone the fact that I’ve cheated on her with someone with a tatt of Gandalf on their arse.”