What I’m Watching: The Last Ship

The Last Ship: Season 1, Episodes 4 and 5 “We’ll Get There” and “El Toro” (B+/B)

You’ll notice that I’m reviewing two episodes at a time here – busy Sunday nights got the best of me, and I neglected to watch this show’s fourth episode in time to review it last week. What I will note is that while the show isn’t entirely forgettable, it’s far from exciting to watch two episodes in a row. I liked the first installment better, mainly because it contained some creative thinking and didn’t feel like every episode of “Last Resort.” It was a clever idea to sink everything from the lab in order to keep it cool at the bottom of the ocean, and it worked, which was a relief. It seemed for a bit like all hope was lost and that doom might near just four episodes in, but alas there were seagulls on the horizon. I’m glad that Adam Baldwin’s Mike finally got to show some personally, handling their uncooperative prisoner effectively without breaking a sweat. Chandler’s admission that he didn’t have a vision was troubling, but it was clear from episode five that both he and Mike are well-equipped to lead, turning around to unseat Jose Zuniga’s tyrannical leader and rescue the men, women, and children terrified under his reign. Seeing the infected people looking with such longing at Chandler and his men was probably the most unsettling part of the episode, and I suspect that things are only going to get more serious as time goes on and the crew comes into contact with more and more humans, both infected and not.