The Last Ship (TNT series)

Just wanted to alert summer TV fans sick of reruns that there's a new sci-fi show on TNT that I think is surprisingly good: The Last Ship. While I was initially reluctant to watch it because it's executive-produced by Transformers-meiser Michael Bay, I caught the pilot the other day and thought it was a surprisingly interesting show that did some unexpected things.

The show takes place in the near future, a time when an Ebola-like virus has swept the world. A giant U.S. Navy battleship has been on a clandestine mission to the North Pole to assist a couple of scientists, who are (unbeknownst to the ship's crew) working on a cure for the outbreak. The ship has been under radio silence for 4 months while doing top secret missile tests, so they have no way of knowing what's going on. By the time they get back to civilization, the world has gone to hell, the U.S. government and Russia are in shambles, and 80% of the world's population is dead. And everybody is desperately scrambling for a cure.

While this sounds like a very depressing start to the show -- almost like a high-tech military version of The Walking Dead, only in this show, the dead ain't walking -- the performances of the cast are very convincing. In particular, I thought the ship's Captain, played by Eric Dane, has a really commanding presence and you totally buy into everything he does. The show is also helped tremendously by terrific cinematography (courtesy of industry vet Cort Fey) and the use of a real-life battleship as the set for the show. And the effects are fantastic. In the first episode, we've got helicopter explosions, 2000-mile ship voyages, H-bomb blasts, a dead ship the size of the Titanic... it's a visually-amazing show, very close to feature-film quality. It was never predictable or boring, and that's more than I can say about 90% of what's on TV period.

I'm not saying this is a classic on the order of Breaking Bad or Mad Men, and it's certainly not a show that's going to try your intellect, but The Last Ship was a real surprise for me and I thought for a summer cable show, they really pulled out all the stops. Check it out if you get a chance. Here's a preview:

 

A couple of observations to report.

First, I watched the show and enjoyed it, and think it may prove to be worthwhile if it lives up to the promise of episode #1.

That "battleship" is more like a destroyer.

That "dead ship" is bigger than the Titanic, and judging from the fact that it has 3 stacks, I suspect it's the Queen Mary in Long Beach.

 

Is this series based on the book that came out several years ago? The book was highly
recommended and the premise fascinating. But when I attempted to read it I found
the tome to be very wordy, technical and just way too advanced for me...so I bailed.

 

I watched the pilot and think I will continue watching to see if it will work for me.

 

It's based on William Brinkley's 1988 novel. It was quite good. The show mean. I read the novel but do the remember much about it beyond the premise.

 

I thought the production values were very nice for cable television. I won't comment on what I thought of the show itself.

 

Thanks for the heads-up - will give it a go.

 

This looks like it will be a good series.

Scott

 

Whatever. It's a big ship with a lotta guns.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I'll put this in the DVR...

 

I saw a couple of ads and thought I would check it out. I did not realize it had started yet so I missed the first episode. Thanks for the heads up and review of it.

 

Michael Bay = Check out for me .

 

Just watched the pilot episode via On Demand. What a show! I was glued to it the whole time. I think I am going to like this show.

 

I wasn't impressed with the pilot, but I'll try at least one more episode. The combat seemed pretty hokey. No way should those guys on snowmobiles have been able to avoid getting hit by the helicopters with machine guns. And then guys leaping out of flying helicopters onto the ground (snowy, but still!) to fight? And it seemed pretty stupid for the helicopters to try and take on a destroyer. Did they think they could sink it with a few rockets? Some of the dialog and interactions seemed pretty silly too. A soldier asking another for "permission to salute the captain"? So now you have to ask permission to salute a superior officer? Seemed like scenes they thought were supposed to be poignant or have gravitas just fell flat and hokey to me.

And of course, with TNT, there was the ever present bit network bug and "The Last Ship 9/8 C Tonight!" text on for the entire episode, plus the big full color pop up banners (also for The Last Ship, how many on screen reminders do I need to let me know the name of the program I'm already watching?!?!?!) that took up a full sixth of the screen.

I'll give it one more episode, but there's a lot of better options for shows out there, so it'll have to a do a lot better to make it worth dealing with the on screen crap covering up the show.

 

I was inclined to say the exact same thing, and I had my finger poised on the delete button for the first 15 minutes but gradually settled in, and much to my surprise, I enjoyed the whole thing. This is not the "stupid, mindless, blow-'em-up" Michael Bay; he's got smarter people working for him who are actually stirring in real characters with some interesting, complex plots.

It's getting to the point where those lower-third graphics promos are more like 1/4 of the screen! I hate them, too, but just try to find a show that doesn't do this nowadays. I hate them a thousand times more than you do, and the show's producers hate this stuff, too. Anything that distracts the viewer away from the show is a bad thing.

 

I watched the pilot and decided to go no further.

 

Watched the 2nd episode, and it was not as good as the first. But for a dumb cable show, it looks great and has some terrific performances. I'm a fan of the first half-dozen Tom Clancy novels, so I can appreciate the authentic military hardware and jargon and all that stuff on a certain level, and at least the characters have a little depth to them. I'll say this: the first two episodes of The Last Ship are 186,000 times better than the entire run of Revolution. (Like that's saying something.)

 

Decent production values, but completely cliche, barely 2-dimensional characters, imo. Yawn.

As soon as something else conflicts on my DVR schedule, I'm probably out. Maybe sooner, since it is summertime...

 

I bow to no man in my hatred for these things! Some people tune them out. I can't. I notice every single one and they completely ruin my mood. If you stuck a blood pressure monitor on me, you could match the spikes with the appearance of those things. I've stopped watching plenty of shows because of them. Some networks are worse than others. HBO seems to be the only one with enough respect for its shows to leave the screen uncluttered. Even Showtime and Starz put up logos over their shows from time to time, though they aren't near as bad as the regular broadcast networks or commercial airing cable channels.

I watched the beginning of episode 2, but had to stop as I had company. But I have a question. Would it be normal for a bunch of sailors on a deployed ship to all have their personal cellphones with them? Particularly on one whose mission entailed them maintaining radio silence for four months? I'm talking about the scene on the deck with the (I presume) chaplain leading prayers while they all hold up their phones showing pictures of people. I didn't know if it was normal for deployed military to have personal cell phones at all, or if they needed to be left in quarters and only used during non-duty hours or what was standard.

I like Rhona Mitra. And I really liked Adam Baldwin's great characters on Firefly and Chuck, but this seems to be a completely humorless character, which takes away his best strength as a performer.

 

I believe there was a scene in the pilot that showed all the sailors retrieving their phones from storage, where they had been kept for four months. One assumes there's a repeater on the ship so everybody can get cell reception on a closed network within the ship. I tend to doubt they're going to be close enough to any cell towers on the open seas in order to get any reception. Note that <a certain character> the Russian spy has got a satellite phone... and they're using that wrong, because Iridium sat phones don't work indoors. You have to have a line-of-sight signal to the orbiting satellite; it won't go through solid metal walls. It can go through glass.

 

I read the book when a preview copy was given to me by my Uncle before it was first published. I liked the book and hope the series is as good as the book.

The series isn't bad and compared to other offerings better than most, but I'm not a critic.

 

Wait, I thought everyone is a critic.

 

I saw the premiere episode over the weekend and I was not impressed and barely entertained. At times, it resembled a long recruitment ad for the U.S. Navy. But I'll watch more to see if it gets better or worse.

 

The second episode although a bit more pedestrian, had its moments as well. I will stick with it.

 

It's OK. Certainly not the worst show on TV IMO.