The Last Resort

The Last Resort was on yesterday and repeated tonight. For those unfamiliar with the premise, it's an Ohio-class nuclear sub ordered to launch missiles at Pakistan. When the captain (Andre Braugher) demands that the orders come through the the primary channel rather than the secondary one, he is relieved of command. Then things get really interesting, and far more complex.

Although I had a couple small quibbles with it -- such as turning the "Nixon acted crazy on purpose" anecdote into Reagan and the fact that the women are a little *too* attractive for their jobs -- it was an engaging technothriller. The story was solid, the characters were interesting and more than one-dimensional and the underlying mystery seems intriguing. A bit of Red Tide, The Hunt for Red October and Seven Days in May (which you really should see if you never have) all rolled into one, which was fine by me. I'm not sure how they can sustain the story over a single season, let alone multiple seasons, but it had a solid start.

My dad spent about half the time pointing out inaccuracies. Which is 50% less time than I was expecting.

Wonder how many episodes till the captain loses it.

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Originally Posted by Shubbie Im very good at taking a problem and making it worse.

When it especially comes to military stuff, usually a lot of inaccuracies in the TV shows and movies.

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Originally Posted by mauk2 Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words. "Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard. Never change, E_L!

I agree with the OP, It was an entertaining show, but I wonder how long they can sustain the story over one (or more seasons)

Uh, hello, did any of the writers even research Trident II missiles or even Ohio class subs at all?

First, range of about 7000 miles. Can't be in the Indian Ocean and hit DC while passing over Kansas.

Second, it's a three stage missile. By the time it got anywhere near it's target it's nothing more than a MIRV platform (I'll come back to that) or more likely a flock of warheads and not a something that resembles a missile streaking overhead, and still under power. What part of ballistic didn't someone understand?

Third, they each carry 4-8 warheads (was designed to carry 12, treaties currently limit the number per missile by total yield), depending on yield. One missile could hit deliver a warhead to every major city in the Boston-DC corridor.

That's okay, guess the writing team just watched Superman for research.

Also I think curvature of the Earth would prevent you from seeing a nuclear detonation 200 miles off the coast either from DC or NYC. But that's a minor quibble.

Also they don't surface right under anything if they can avoid it. You would swap that Seal raft.

Besides that you got the usual collection of plot threads.

1) It appears that the President and his advisers were hell bent about nuking Pakistan. I assume the original plan was to make the Colorado a rogue boomer launching on their own and when that didn't work they then made them the excuse. However now that the public knows they are alive I imagine the US plot will include martial law.

2) The island has a number of plots. The war/crimelord that runs the island isn't going to like his island taken away. Problem is the sub doesn't really have enough manpower to take the island away from him. Then you have the internal factions on the sub. Those who will follow the Captain and those that may or may not be involved with the folks back home, like the Chief of the Boat.

3) Lastly for the ladies, we have all the potential romantic threads, long distance or island bound. Will the XO forget about his wife and the Admiral's Lieutenant daughter? Or the Seal team "adviser" get together with the former Dollhouse bartender? And of course we need our Michelle Rodriguez clone because no military drama should be without one.

And while sitting off of an early warning radar station will allow them to know if someone is coming by air, unless the sub is patrolling around the island, they will be blind from an underwater threat.

It could be vaguely entertaining, something to watch before Person of Interest.

I saw this show. Normally I can't stand military dramas because I used to be in the military and TV and movies just don't get it. I did like it (a lot more than Revolution too) but there is just one thing that bugs me. In RL, when you get an order that you think is out of line, you are obligated to question it. The military even gives you classes on how to do it correctly. It is well scripted (but it has been a minute so I don't know the script perfectly). You ask the person giving the orders to repeat and clarify before following the order you think is BS. The captain did this (kind of).

I still thought it was pretty entertaining and I will probably keep up with it.