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General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Sabre on July 21, 2014, 04:09:44 PM

Title: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: Sabre on July 21, 2014, 04:09:44 PM
So, the first episode was less than stellar.  2nd episode was somewhat better. 3rd was booooorrrrriiiiinnnnngggggg.  But this last episode was just plain awful!  Don't want to spoil it for those who haven't watched it yet, but the writers for this series are either lazy or haven't graduated high school yet (check that: I was writing better than this in high school).  None of the characters in this last episode where behaving in a rational manner, and the motivation for their actions and reactions were unfathomable and nonsensical.  Plus, from a technical standpoint, their operational and comm discipline was atrocious!  From wearing their ship's t-shirts (with the name emblazoned on the backs) to such things as using the ship's name in open, unencrypted voice comms, it was laughable.  They've still got a Russian battlecruiser out there somewhat looking for them and they're announcing on a radio the ship's name.  They mention at one point they're at EMCOM, and therefore won't answer the radio calls of their shore party, yet they're apparently tracking the shore party's location on a river with the ship's radar.  And apparently the radio they take on their boats up the river has exactly the same range as the ship's radar, but shooting a flare gun can be seen from the ship from 30-miles away...in the daytime! :bhead

I'm giving it one more episode, but I'm not hopeful.  Oh, and as a final idiotic plot device, they take two boats on the shore party; one has the camo-clad equivalent of "red shirts", the other has the three most senior people on the ship (Capt, Exec, and chief of the boat). Naturally at one point one of the boats turns back for the ship, while the other goes off on a hunch into unknown conditions to try to complete their mission.  Guess which one continues the mission?  I could accept that they changed the world ending disaster from what it was in the book, a nuclear war, to a global epidemic; what I can't stand is lazy writers with patently unbelievable actions by their characters, in contrived situations. <phew!> Rant concluded.
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: mbailey on July 21, 2014, 05:30:49 PM
Watching it and enjoying it  :aok
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: rogwar on July 21, 2014, 05:36:21 PM
Sounds like I would hate it.
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: USRanger on July 21, 2014, 05:48:32 PM
I like it so far.  I'd say I'm hooked for now. :aok
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: The Fugitive on July 21, 2014, 06:20:11 PM
I already gave up on it. It looked to me that they were not going to put a lot of depth into it.
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: smoe on July 21, 2014, 07:09:27 PM
I turned the TV off after 45 minutes into the last episode when the XO ordered the raft to stop. I figured they would somehow pull off some miracle rescue.

I agree with everything Sabre said. I know this is TV, but really??? I find it hard to believe the top senior officers would be getting feet dry (setting foot on land), usually the Marines take care of that part.

I get frustrated most by the PO attitudes. I plan to watch the next episode, but no guarantee that I will see the ending.
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: Nathan60 on July 21, 2014, 07:44:26 PM
YEha I gave up on it pretty quick, had high hopes but the show is just bad(IMHO)
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: Gman on July 21, 2014, 07:47:53 PM
I too gave up on it after episode 2.  I tried giving it another shot and watched 3 and 4, but that's it.  Fool me once, shame on you and all that.

Does it remind anyone else of that show with the SSBN last year and the rogue crew and nuclear launches and all that?  LOL, so bad, it was almost good.
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: rpm on July 21, 2014, 07:48:55 PM
I abandoned the Last Ship during episode one after the nuke strike that took out their electronics. The Captain gets the very last fuse they have to work by holding his hand on it and yelling when they throw the switch. (How does that work?) Then they notice a cruise ship a few miles away all lit up. A cruise ship is hardened against EMP more than a US warship? There are plot holes you can steer the Nimitz thru.
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: USRanger on July 21, 2014, 08:18:04 PM
I'm just using it because I can't get my Walking Dead, Game of Thrones or The Following fix right now.
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: Nathan60 on July 21, 2014, 09:55:10 PM
I'm just using it because I can't get my Walking Dead, Game of Thrones or The Following fix right now.
lol that's what Netflix and rewatching all the old X-files shows are for! Or better yet http://stream-tv.me/watch-archer-online-3/
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: Spikes on July 22, 2014, 09:37:26 AM
I'm just using it because I can't get my Walking Dead, Game of Thrones or The Following fix right now.
How is the following? A co-worker told me to watch it but I never got around to it...
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: xPoisonx on July 22, 2014, 10:07:25 AM
If you aren't super serious about 100% realisticness it's a great show  :aok
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: Sabre on July 22, 2014, 12:05:42 PM
I abandoned the Last Ship during episode one after the nuke strike that took out their electronics. The Captain gets the very last fuse they have to work by holding his hand on it and yelling when they throw the switch. (How does that work?) Then they notice a cruise ship a few miles away all lit up. A cruise ship is hardened against EMP more than a US warship? There are plot holes you can steer the Nimitz thru.

LOL, yeah, the nuke strike and the whole thing about cruise ship still having power afterward was ridiculous as well.  By the way, US Navy warships are generally hardened against EMP.  And the fuse business was just dumb!  And don't even get me started on the whole thing in the last episode of using three parachutes as sails to pull the ship and turn the screws to generate electricity! :rofl
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: SmokinLoon on July 22, 2014, 12:52:49 PM
Some of you guys need to veg a bit and realize that each and every show does not have to have non stop action and non stop suspense. Sit back and enjoy the storyline, jeeez.  There are a whole bunch of storylines that could take place that dont have to have guns blazing and a mystery to solve.

The Walking Dead forums are a hoot as well, some people simply ned to chill the F out and enjoy the show and stop execting to be spoon fed what they think is enjoyment for all.
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: USRanger on July 22, 2014, 12:56:53 PM
How is the following? A co-worker told me to watch it but I never got around to it...

My oldest daughter is hooked on it and begged me to watch it.  By the end of the first episode I was hooked.  Only two seasons completed so far, so it wouldn't be hard to catch up!
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: Serenity on July 22, 2014, 01:15:37 PM
Some of you guys need to veg a bit and realize that each and every show does not have to have non stop action and non stop suspense. Sit back and enjoy the storyline, jeeez.  There are a whole bunch of storylines that could take place that dont have to have guns blazing and a mystery to solve.

The Walking Dead forums are a hoot as well, some people simply ned to chill the F out and enjoy the show and stop execting to be spoon fed what they think is enjoyment for all.

The big complaints I have, (And all of the ones I'm seeing here) aren't that it's boring. Folks are complaining that it's ridiculously unrealistic and the story line is based on impossibilities and foolishness.
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: Meatwad on July 22, 2014, 02:23:11 PM
Maybe next episode will have Santa Claus bringing presents of loop hole filler
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: mbailey on July 22, 2014, 03:18:25 PM
Folks are complaining that it's ridiculously unrealistic and the story line is based on impossibilities and foolishness.

That's the majority of tv and movies though. It's entertainment plain and simple. It's like saying superman isn't believable because the guy is flying. My dad was a major (amateur)historian and watching movies with him was painful...we would be watching a WWII movie and he would sit there and pick it apart. I still remember to this day watching The Longest Day....and him picking apart the uniforms the Germans were wearing "they never used buttons like that on their uniforms" or " that's not even a German medal on his lapel". How he even enjoyed tv is beyond me. No wonder he liked MST3k so much.  All those guys did was sit and pick fun at movies

Probably explains why his Library had over 8500 books in it and his nose was always in one of those books.

(Although now that he is gone I'd give anything to sit and hear him pick something a Apart again)

I take them for what they are....strictly entertainment and not lessons in real life or history.
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: Spikes on July 22, 2014, 03:26:53 PM
My oldest daughter is hooked on it and begged me to watch it.  By the end of the first episode I was hooked.  Only two seasons completed so far, so it wouldn't be hard to catch up!
Cool, I guess I will give it a shot.
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: HPriller on July 22, 2014, 03:35:42 PM
I've been watching a lot of the new TV shows this summer though this wasn't one of them, the ones I'm currently watching are:

1.  Tyrant
2.  Halt and Catch Fire
3.  The Strain

Tyrant is the best of the three I'd say.  Halt and Catch Fire has an interesting setting (80s IBM pc clone wars) that I remember from my youth a lot of what's referenced makes me laugh.  The Strain's zombie vampire conspiracy is kind of interesting, but skirts the limits of my willing suspension of disbelief, though perhaps not quite as severely as The Walking Dead.
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: Sabre on July 22, 2014, 03:51:15 PM
That's the majority of tv and movies though. It's entertainment plain and simple. It's like saying superman isn't believable because the guy is flying. My dad was a major (amateur)historian and watching movies with him was painful...we would be watching a WWII movie and he would sit there and pick it apart. I still remember to this day watching The Longest Day....and him picking apart the uniforms the Germans were wearing "they never used buttons like that on their uniforms" or " that's not even a German medal on his lapel". How he even enjoyed tv is beyond me. No wonder he liked MST3k so much.  All those guys did was sit and pick fun at movies

I really do get that it's just a TV show, and will have technical issue that don't match "reality".  All those things I could probably live with (and do with many other shows and movies I've watched).  What was so awful about this last episode especially is that the characters don't behave in a believable way.  The don't react to situations and events in ways that make sense.  There motivations are unfathomable.  Plus the acting is so cliche.  I swear, if the Captain and the Exec share one more dramatic and intense stare (which they did a dozen times on this last episode), I'm gonna puke!  The technical screw-ups and inconsistencies are either from ignorance (and I can forgive that) or are simply torturous distortions of reality whose only purpose it to get the characters in the situation desired by writers too lazy to find a better plot device.

<Ship's cook>"Captain, we're all out of Cherrios!" <Captain and Exec stare grimly at each other for 5 seconds.>

Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: Spikes on July 22, 2014, 04:46:51 PM
My oldest daughter is hooked on it and begged me to watch it.  By the end of the first episode I was hooked.  Only two seasons completed so far, so it wouldn't be hard to catch up!
Cool, I guess I will give it a shot.
Yup...hooked. :aok
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: USRanger on July 22, 2014, 04:47:59 PM
Lol, right on. :aok
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: Gman on July 22, 2014, 05:02:06 PM
James Purefoy = win. 
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: Ratsy on July 22, 2014, 05:09:46 PM
The technical screw-ups and inconsistencies are either from ignorance (and I can forgive that) or are simply torturous distortions of reality whose only purpose it to get the characters in the situation desired by writers too lazy to find a better plot device.

Hey Sabre.  You have just written the best (and most accurate) description of the Air Force Recruiting films I watched just before enlisting in 1974.  I think if we followed the money that is paying for this 'production' we might find ourselves at the Pentagon.  Just saying.

I love this show because it gives my wife pause..."wouldn't an EMP disable all electronics within the radius of the explosion?" and "isn't a battle cruiser more powerful than a destroyer?" and "that's one way to shut down Guantanamo" and "would both senior commanders leave the ship at the same time?" and "if a disease is airborne, what's to stop it from floating across 75 feet of river?".

My review?  Go NAVY!  Where do I sign up to do all that cool stuff and play with the fun technology?

 :)

Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: smoe on July 22, 2014, 06:23:23 PM
My review?  Go NAVY!  Where do I sign up to do all that cool stuff and play with the fun technology?

 :)

Oh yes, I forgot about the recruiting angle.

Lets hope the show gets a little better. The overall plot is pretty cool, even the evil Russian plot to take over the world and make all people beg for a cure....muhahahaahhaahahahhaa hha.
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: ozrocker on July 22, 2014, 07:00:34 PM
No




                                                                                                                                                  :cheers: Oz
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: Serenity on July 22, 2014, 07:57:22 PM
That's the majority of tv and movies though. It's entertainment plain and simple. It's like saying superman isn't believable because the guy is flying. My dad was a major (amateur)historian and watching movies with him was painful...we would be watching a WWII movie and he would sit there and pick it apart. I still remember to this day watching The Longest Day....and him picking apart the uniforms the Germans were wearing "they never used buttons like that on their uniforms" or " that's not even a German medal on his lapel". How he even enjoyed tv is beyond me. No wonder he liked MST3k so much.  All those guys did was sit and pick fun at movies

Probably explains why his Library had over 8500 books in it and his nose was always in one of those books.

(Although now that he is gone I'd give anything to sit and hear him pick something a Apart again)

I take them for what they are....strictly entertainment and not lessons in real life or history.

I'm just like your dad. Things like superman, which begin by assuming a non-existant thing (So futuristic sci-fi, etc.) are slightly more bearable, but when we try to depict real life and do it poorly, I lose my mind. It's the burden of knowledge. I imagine if you watched a WWII movie and they had Bf-109s shooting at FW-190s that were labled as A6Ms... well, you'd feel the way I do about The Last Ship.
Title: Re: Anybody watching "The Last Ship" on TV?
Post by: GScholz on July 23, 2014, 04:20:54 AM
Check out Orphan Black if you haven't already:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do_BCA-vR9E