TV Review: LAST RESORT - Captain 1.1

Yet another “Pilot” review of the new Fall TV season here for you now and Last Resort would probably go down onto everyone’s most anticipated list, I can’t say that it wasn’t on mine although I have never really heard of the people involved other than Scott Speedman (Underworld) and Robert Patrick (Terminator 2), I like the premise that was on offer and after sampling maybe the first minute on my DVR before heading off to work for the day I was really looking forward to getting home to see it. On previewing the show with several other new “Pilots” I expressed a little concern that this show will air at 8pm, if you remember at the time I said that kind of reminded me of Terra Nova, they occupied the early slot and it quickly became apparent that it was nothing more than throw away family TV. First impressions of Last Resort are not much better, I can’t say that I really enjoyed the “Pilot” all that much.

If it’s a TV show like Lost that your looking for then in terms of setting and beautiful scenery Last Resort will certainly fit your bag, but other than that its really as far as things go for me. The show follows the crew of the U.S.S Colorado a submarine commanded by Captain Marcus Chaplin (Andre Braugher), he is sent orders to fire missiles at Pakistan, however these orders come from a back channel, one which should only be used when control in Washington has become unusable through war. Questioning the decision Capt Chaplin is quickly removed of his command by the powers that be and his loyal right hand man Sam Kendal (Scott Speedman) is promoted to man in charge, he also refuses the orders and the submarine is fired on by another US warship and the sub dives to the bottom of the ocean, following this the crew find themselves seeking refuge on an island where a NATO listening station is situated, they quickly take over the island at the expense of the disgruntled locals and declare themselves a sovereign state with nuclear capabilities.

Like I said above I actually enjoyed the opening to this show, the Marines, or Navy Seals who boarded the submarine in the beginning were thought at first to be part of the crew, however it quickly became apparent that they were no friends of the people on the submarine and that they may well be involved in whatever has lead to the US wanting to fire on Pakistan. There were a lot of people involved in this opening episode but the main ones to focus on now would be Capt Chaplin, his second in command Kendal, Joseph Prosser (Robert Patrick) who disagrees with the way things have been handled and Lieutenant Grace Shephard (Daisy Betts) the ears of Washington and the one person who is part of the crew that may know what they are up to. Kind of like “the others” in Lost the US Marines who found themselves seeking refuge on the submarine would not seem to be so welcome, it will be interesting to see how that pans out with the marine who was sitting in the bar drinking claiming that it was all his fault? What exactly? The fact the US want to fire missiles or the fact your friend got shot in action? I guess we will find out.

I really don’t have to much I want to say on this “Pilot” episode, there was certainly a lot to get your head around, and way to many characters for me to name them all now. So, the crew have set up on an island, no doubt they are going to have countless run-in’s with the locals who don’t want them there, and the Marines will want to do their own thing. I have a couple of gripes other than the “family” TV show element which Last Resort has, first how in one hour of a TV show does Captain Chaplin come to hate the US all of a sudden? He was an honourable captain of one of their submarines until pretty much one sentence pissed him off to the point that he now wants to fight his own country and never return, although the island setting does look nice, why leave your family? The Captain also has in his possession some very valuable merchandise belonging to the US, not to mention the missiles but also the submarine which I’m sure will be worth several hundred million, if not billion dollars, I’m no expert but I’m pretty sure they may want that back. And, just how does he propose protecting the little island and his handful of crew members from one of the world’s biggest military super powers?

There is not a great lot other than the above I want to say on Last Resort, as far as “Pilots” go this is one that has not grabbed me, I think Vegas was a better offering and even Revolution may have edged it slightly. I will continue to watch Last Resort, hoping that I’m wrong about the family TV show side of things but on what I’ve seen in the first episode I wouldn’t say that I’m all that interested in seeing what more it has to offer, my TV schedule is after all, busy enough right now.