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.