Captain Tom Chandler and the crew of the USS Nathan James set out for the Arctic with two civilian virologists who claim to be studying birds. When they come under attack, Chandler learns these virologists are actually collecting samples of the source of a deadly virus that has wiped out over half the human population while they've been at sea, with the best place to develop a vaccine is on their ship.
The Last Ship really only has two modes in "Phase Six" - exposition and action. This new drama really does play as a summer movie action blockbuster which isn't a huge surprise seeing how Michael Bay's name has been heavily promoted as an executive producer for this. All of the action set pieces do play well. I was fully enthralled by the scope of this piece both in its global issue as well as how grandiose each action piece was. The show moved from both of these modes like clockwork. Moving from piece to piece. In this premiere, Dr. Scott faces off with Russians and helicopters, then the crew heads to a diseased ship to syphon fuel and a nuclear bomb is detonated. That's a lot of high stakes action that should play well to the broad audiences.However, exciting and well executed action means nothing if you don't care about the characters at the center of this story - the crew on the USS Nathan James. In that respect, the show struggles because of the amount of exposition and action. Literally, the only characters whose names I can remember just after watching the premiere were Commander Chandler and Dr. Scott - and even with them, I couldn't tell you their first names. Every single character here is an archetype. They are all introduced with one characteristic. There's the commander, his second-in-command, the two doctors, the master chief, the lesbian officer and the two officers who are seeing each other. None of them make any character defining decisions. The one exception comes near the end when Chandler turns to Adam Baldwin and tells him that they need to stay at sea in order to survive and develop the vaccine. Even then, I feel like it's a plot based decision and that I still don't really know who this man is other than our heroic leading man looking out for the best interests of his crew.
But hey, stuff blows up and there's a hint that The Last Ship wants to talk about difficult issues about protecting the human race. Yes, there's also a whole mystery to the disease. Apparently it was weaponized and that's why it spread so easily and the other doctor on board the ship is this show's mole. That reveal felt lazy and tacked on and unnecessary for me to want to tune in to Episode 2. In fact, the opposite was true. I was willing to go along for the ride watching this characters face multiple obstacles together - until it was revealed that one of them is working towards different goals for nefarious reasons. That's not two-dimensional writing. That's plot-based writing.
Some more thoughts:
- "Phase Six" was written by Hank Steinberg & Steven Kane and directed by Jonathan Mostow.
- Another moral inquiry that I really enjoyed was the reveal that the ship only has so many of the suits to protect them from the virus.
- I think lesbian officer has some spunk. But I'm also 100% percent confident that's her defining trait in this so the show could seem current in world events.
- But because I have screeners for Episodes 2 and 3, I am going to keep watching The Last Ship to see what happens next and if they can maintain this level of action sequences. You can probably expect reviews of both episodes as well.
