Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Last Ship: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie Review

"24" Lite

Reviewed by Michael Reuben May 9, 2017

Spoiler warning: This review assumes that the reader is familiar with Seasons One and Two of The Last Ship. Readers new to the series should stop here and consult the Season One review for a spoiler-free introduction.

After the shocker that concluded Season Two of TNT's original series The Last Ship, it was clear that co-creators Hank Steinberg and Steven Kane planned to take their post-apocalyptic saga in a new direction. Season Three delivered on that promise, with mixed results. For the first two seasons, the show's essential premise had been that of a lone naval destroyer, the U.S.S. Nathan James, fighting for survival in world decimated by global pandemic while striving to maintain the traditions of the Navy and the essence of the American Way. The crew's isolation gave their adventures built-in suspense, and their perseverance in the face of assaults from scattered pockets of human survivors imbued their struggle with nobility. In Season Three, however, the Nathan James is no longer alone, and key members of the crew spend more time on land than at sea. As Kane and Steinberg have expanded their canvas, they have also lost some of their focus. The show still features its signature heavy hardware, impressive stunts and patriotic devotion, but Season Three more often plays like a generic action thriller than a unique adventure.

The cure to the Red Flu developed by Dr. Rachel Scott (Rhona Mitra) has allowed the United States to reconstitute its government under the leadership of President Jeffrey Michener (Mark Moses). From the newly designated capital of St. Louis, Michener presides over a fractious affiliation of provinces, each one headed by a provisional governor. Unequal distribution of available resources has become such a problem that Michener has instituted a system of rationing. As a tribute to Dr. Scott, who was assassinated in the final moments of Season Two, her face appears on the official rationing coupons. No doubt, Michener is also hoping that the reminder of Scott, who is revered as humanity's savior, will help sell the unpopular rationing system. Kara Foster (Marissa Neitling), formerly a lieutenant aboard Nathan James, is now the President's military liaison, a position that allows her to reside on land caring for her infant son with Navy SEAL Lt. Danny Green (Travis Van Winkle), who remains on the ship as an integral member of its commando unit, Vulture Team.

The ship's former XO, Mike Slattery (Adam Baldwin), is now its captain, whose current mission is delivering Dr. Scott's cure to Vietnam. Cmdr. Tom Chandler, who, like Scott, is now a national hero, has been promoted to Chief of Naval Operations, and his latest assignment is to meet with China's new leader, President Peng (Fernando Chien), who appears to be obstructing distribution of the cure in the Far East. The graphics for the season's opening titles illustrate its basic geopolitical conflict, as a beaker pours out the cure onto a map, with the cure's blue stain starting at St. Louis and spreading rapidly across the globe, only to be stopped cold by a red stain emanating from China. In Peng's headquarters, Chandler encounters someone from his past, a Naval intelligence officer named Sasha Cooper (Bridget Regan). Conveniently, she speaks Japanese, Mandarin, Korean and Vietnamese, all of which she will have to translate throughout the season. Also conveniently, she's a beautiful woman with whom the widowed Chandler has a romantic history, allowing her to assume Dr. Scott's role of providing The Last Ship with an undercurrent of sexual tension.

Villainy is obviously afoot in President Peng's regime, and Chandler's mission ends in an attempt on his life. At the same time, Slattery and members of his crew are ambushed in a Vietnamese nightclub and kidnapped by a Japanese pirate, Takehaya (Hiroyuki Sanada), who may or may not be working with Peng. The rescue of these hostages becomes a domestic crisis for President Moses, as an aggressive reporter, Jacob Barnes (Devon Gummersall), uses the incident to question the President's leadership. The kidnapping also becomes a personal quest for Chandler, as he reassumes command of the Nathan James and leads the search for his missing comrades. Half the season is devoted to this search and to the hostages' efforts to escape. In the season's second half, the primary focus shifts to the homefront, where shadowy forces have been conspiring against President Michener, and Kara Foster finds both her life and that of her infant son at risk. As in previous seasons, Kane and Steinberg seem to delight in killing off established characters, and by the season's end, the body count is formidable.

Season Three of The Last Ship continues the show's love affair with heavy-duty weaponry, military jargon and stoic resolve, but the enemy has changed. With the Red Flu vanquished, the adversaries opposing Chandler and his crew are the familiar forces of greed and lust for power that have motivated countless political and espionage thrillers on both the large and small screen. As the season wears on, the Nathan James ceases to feel like humanity's last hope and becomes a mobile version of 24's CTU, with trained personnel studying their screens, flicking switches and barking out technical jargon while they support and direct the operations of field personnel. And, as routinely happened on 24—with a predictability that became almost comical by the end of the series—the greatest threat turns out to lie behind them, among the people they trust the most.

Between power plays abroad and conspiracies at home, Season Three has so much plot to cover that it rarely has time for the kind of quiet character beats that enriched previous seasons. The officers and sailors who were so carefully individuated in the past routinely get lost in the elaborate machinations surrounding them. Even Eric Dane's Cmdr. Chandler is short-changed for many of the episodes, his function reduced to looking grim and barking orders (and occasionally locking horns—or lips—with Sasha). New characters like Jesse (Dichen Lachman), the renegade helicopter pilot who becomes an unofficial crew member, are introduced in bullet points before fading into the background. Only Hiroyuki Sanada's Takehaya manages to break through the overlapping plot strands with a truly memorable and multi-layered character, one who first is presented as a cold-blooded fiend but whose cruelty is gradually revealed to arise from a deep well of guilt and grief over terrible losses. By the end, the Japanese pirate has acquired the mantle of tragic dignity that Cmdr. Chandler once wore with honor and now finds too much of a burden to bear.

The Last Ship: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For the Blu-ray set of Season Two of The Last Ship, TNT distributed thirteen episodes over three BD-50s, but failed to take advantage of the available space, leaving 15-20 GB empty on each disc and unnecessarily starving the average bitrate. For the thirteen episodes of Season Three, TNT hasn't wasted any space, but only because they've stuffed the same content onto two discs instead of three, achieving an even lower average bitrate of 12.80 Mbps (vs. 15.87 for Season Two). Given the show's digital origination (on the Red Epic Dragon, according to IMDb) and digital post-production, the material can withstand more aggressive compression than a film source, but Season Three's episodes betray minor compression artifacts, mostly in the form of fleeting background noise. More problematic is a fall-off in detail, probably caused by high frequency filtering and especially noticeable in long shots. Other studios have repeatedly shown that TV shows with first-class production values can look stunning on Blu-ray, easily surpassing their highly compressed broadcast iterations—e.g., Sony with The Blacklist and Warner with Longmire—but TNT appears to have opted to take the approach of "good enough for streaming" in mastering their series for Blu-ray. The video score has been adjusted downward accordingly.

Within the limitations of the space allotted for them, Season Three's episodes deliver an acceptable image, emphasizing the dominant blues of the ship, officers and crew, which are occasionally broken up by strong reds and also contrast sharply with the greens of Takehaya's jungle hideout, where even the mist appears to be green (there's a thematic reason for this tint). Stateside scenes involving the newly reconstituted White House and various locations across the country employ a naturalistic palette, whereas scenes in President Pang's various lairs opt for darker hues and heavier saturation. Blacks are solid, but shadow detail is less evident in darkened scenes than with previous seasons (another telltale sign of filtering). The cast and crew of The Last Ship have repeatedly expressed their ambition to make televised entertainment that can favorably stand comparison to big-budget action cinema, and they frequently succeed. But when it comes to the show's Blu-ray presentation, TNT's penny-pinching has let them down.

The Last Ship: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with the previous Blu-ray set, Season Three of The Last Ship arrives with a 5.1 mix, encoded in lossless Dolby TrueHD, that is among TV's most immersive and involving. Gunfire, explosions, whirring helicopter blades, missile impacts and mine detonations all register forcefully, as do the punches and body-blows of hand-to-hand combat. The omnipresent chirps, beeps and alarms of the Nathan James' equipment surround the listener. The ebb and flow of oceans and inland waterways supply critical ambiance, and unique venues like Pang's headquarters and the re-established White House have distinct sonic signatures. Dialogue is always clear, which is no small achievement when it's loaded with technical jargon and spoken at a breathless pace. The action/thriller scoring by Jim Dooley (Obsessed) and James S. Levine (American Horror Story) blends seamlessly and effectively.

The Last Ship: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Inside the Episodes (discs 1-2) (1080p; 1.78:1; 38:48): As with prior seasons, each episode is accompanied by a brief behind-the-scenes featurette. Creators Kane and Steinberg are the most frequent participants. A "play all" function is available on each disc.



• Seasons 1 & 2 Recap (disc 1) (1080p; 1.78:1; 3:22): A very abridged summary constructed of clips from prior episodes.



• From America's First Fighting Ship to the Last Ship (disc 2) (1080p; 1.78:1; 29:08): This TNT documentary focuses on the network's cooperation with the U.S. Navy to provide The Last Ship with its most frequently used and realistic set: actual, working Arleigh Burke class destroyers that take turns doubling for the Nathan James. Included are a short history of the destroyer as a warship, an overview of the Arleigh Burke's capabilities, an account of the writers' collaboration with Navy advisors and liaisons and a look at the logistics of shooting aboard a ship.



• Behind the Curtain (disc 2) (1080p; 1.78:1): These featurettes are promotional in nature, featuring Kane, Steinberg and members of the cast.
• The Last Ship: Behind the Curtain (4:07)
• Bridget Regan (2:57)
• Eric Dane (4:01)
• Adam Baldwin (3:15)
• Bren Foster (3:05)
• Women of The Last Ship (3:28)

The Last Ship: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

TNT has already renewed The Last Ship for two seasons of ten episodes each, which are reportedly being filmed back-to-back. Season Four will begin airing later this year, with Season Five to follow in 2018. Hopefully, Kane and Steinberg will use this extended renewal to bring the show to a conclusion. The manipulations required to keep the Nathan James alone and embattled at sea under Chandler's command are growing more strained, and the seams in the plot construction are becoming more obvious. It's time for this voyage to end. The Blu-rays for Season Three are adequate, if not spectacular, and the set is recommended for the show's faithful fans.