Monday, July 28, 2014

Come Monday...TNT's The Last Ship

“Come Monday…” is a weekly series that will involve a review of (or commentary about) websites, movies, documentaries, television shows, sports, music, and whatever else may tickle my fancy at the time.  Be assured that these reviews will be generally positive, as in accordance to the Jimmy Buffett song “Come Monday.”  This is subject to change, however.  In fact, I would be most derelict in my duties to neglect going on a rant every once in a while.  For rants promote change, and change can be good—right?  Therefore, since good is generally considered as being a positive force in 99.3% of the parallel universes that I am aware of, even a rant could be considered as being something positive, and a genuine hissy-fit would be even better (so I’m told).


When we first saw advertisements for TNT’s new television series, [The Last Ship], my wife and I were not very enthusiastic.  For the show was about the crew of a lone US Navy destroyer trying to protect one of the last surviving scientists, who could find a cure for a global pandemic that had caused the death of over 90% of the world’s population in a matter of weeks.  In all fairness, there was no mention of zombies, but the premise seemed ripe for all sorts of ridiculous situations to us, and our quota for ridiculous situations was already well filled.

Oh, but curiosity got the best of me again.  So, I recorded an episode for us to check out, and before it was over, we were both hoping that the earlier episodes we had missed were still available on On-Demand.  Thankfully, those earlier episodes were still available, and now we wait in eager anticipation for a new one to air each Sunday night at 9 p.m. Central.

No, there have not been any ridiculous situations so far.  My great lack of knowledge about modern naval weaponary may be quite telling, though.  For I do find it somewhat hard to swallow that the ship’s 5-inch gun can be that accurate without laser-guidance.  I mean, in one episode, it landed a shell in the southwest corner of a warehouse from several miles away in order to distract the bad guys when just the movement of the ship in the waves would cause accuracy to vary by several feet from second to second over that distance.

Another thing that greatly bothers me about the ship’s 5-inch gun has nothing to do with the show itself.  For it has only one, and that is just the way our modern destoyers are designed.  Yeah, that single gun can do more than a battery of older designs, which saves space for other things.  That is, as long as that single gun is actually operational, and we all know that “stuff” happens.  Okay, the ship has several other weapon systems, but that is beside the point from my perspective.

Getting back to the show, another thing bothering me is that the ship does not have a [SEAL] team, nor any Marines on-board.  Although, it does have a US Navy Mountain Warfare team, which is actually a [US Marine] unit in real-life.

Speaking of SEAL tems, do you find it interesting that it is always SEAL Team Six being deployed to save the day?  Does this mean that all of the other SEAL teams ain’t all that or is SEAL Team Six just the designated unit for press releases?

Anyway, the pluses certainly outweight the minuses on our books.  Of course, we don’t know diddly about microbiology, which is another aspect to the show.  Nonetheless, the crew of the USS Nathan Lane sure appears to do the US Navy proud, and I highly recommend you giving the show a good look-see.


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15 comments:

  1. This show hasn't hit the South African airwaves yet, but I'll keep a look-out.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, my dear Shadow!!! I wonder if the reason why there is a delay in the release of shows down there in your neck of the woods has to do with it being in a different hemisphere and during the winter for you-all while it is summer up here? For it seems to be the same for the release of shows down in Australia.

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    2. Naaaaah, you guys don't like us, heee heeee heeeee

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  2. I've been watching with lukewarm enthusiasm but I really don't see this show hanging around after summer.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, my dear Stephen!!! Yeah, we have been wondering what direction the show will take after the cure is found, and there are several wrong turns that could capsize the series.

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  3. I haven't even seen previews for this one. Guess I watch the wrong channels.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, my dear Ann!!! A much better answer would have been that you have been too busy frying bacon for Duke and Wade to have heard anything about the show. (LOL?)

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  4. I have been watching it and I too wonder what direction this show will go. It has been getting good reviews so who knows.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, my dear Truedessa!!! With several of the crew wanting to jump ship had me wanting to quit watching the episode for this week, but they resolved the matter very, very well.

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  5. I've heard no mention of this show down this way as yet.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, my dear Lee!!! Did you down-under people do something to upset the network bigshots? Shadow is in South Africa, and they don't have it there yet, as well.

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  6. I am a lifelong Adam Baldwin fan, so even though this isnt my usual fare I started at episode one and am totally hooked...havent seen this week's episode yet (we dont do cable, I watch this one on iTunes) so Im avoiding the "spoiliers";)

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, my dear Karla!!! Well, you must be thrilled with him being cast as something more than a muscle-head. Although, he did have a respectable role in Independence Day. He is a part of one of my all-time favorite movie scenes, where in Serenity, he is asked if he wants to take over command of the ship and he answers, "Yes!" To which, the captain (played by Nathan Fillion of currently Castle on ABC fame) stammers back, "Well, you can't!"

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  7. Yep a gun can hit a target that accurately without laser guidance, if you have the range the computers on the ship can aim the gun even if it's bouncing along in rough seas.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, my dear Anonymous!!! Yes, my brother-in-law, who retired from the US Navy and spent most of his time at sea aboard destroyers, assures me that those guns really are as accurate as depicted in the show. He also informed that Marines are not usually deployed on "small boats," like destroyers.

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