The Sword and Laser discussion

I haven't yet read the book, but the television adaptation of William Brinkley's book, The Last Ship premieres on TNT in the U.S. tonight. Michael Bay is the executive producer, so......?

Hoping it's not a blend of ABC's failed 'The Last Resort' and On the Beach, though they changed the premise from post-nuclear war to post-pandemic.

http://www.amazon.com/LAST-Brinkley-W...

http://www.thelastshiptnt.com/?SR=The...

For those who don't get TNT, it's also playing on TruTV starting Thursday 6/26.

I haven't read the book either. I watched the pilot episode and was pleasantly surprised. I liked it enough to keep watching.

It wasn't horrible, but it was typical Michael Bay stuff: he blew up some helicopters, some water and some snow.

(view spoiler)[In Science Fiction movies, there's a cliche that the black guy dies first. Fortunately it's 2014 and we're all aware of this. Comedians have been making jokes about it for decades -- actual decades: Robert Townsend had it in his stand-up routine back in '87 -- and there have been at least two books written about it.

Watching the Michael Bay TV series "The Last Ship", the first crew member to die is... the black guy.

Come on, guys.

Robert Townsend's bit:

"Private Johnson!"
"Yassuh?"
"Go see what's down that long, dark corridor, the one with the slime coming out of it."
"Yassuh! I be right ba-aahhh!" (hide spoiler)]

I'll keep watching for a few more episodes. It's far superior to that dumb show on Syfy, called... hang on, Googling... ah! Helix. Man, that show just made a bunch of stupid noises during its first two episodes, so I bailed. Then again, I'm no more a fan of Ron Moore's work than I am of Michael Bay's, so I'm kind of surprised to find myself watching anything they're involved with.

Steve Gibson tweeted about it.

I thought it looked good, if generic. I haven't read the books, so I don't know if that will change. I liked the cast overall(Go Adam Baldwin!), but I thought the captain was too stiff, not the character, the actor.

I liked the amount of pyrotechnics in the first episode, but thought they didn't hit the mysterious virus angle well enough.

They've earned a few more episodes from me, especially considering It's on after Falling Skies.

Trike wrote: "It's far superior to that dumb show on Syfy, called... hang on, Googling... ah! Helix."

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who didn't like that show. I watched every episode, waiting for it to get better. Silly me! :)

the book is absolute trash

I only made it through a few minutes of the premiere. I didn't know it was Michael Bay. I just happened across it, but now that I know it makes sense....

"We're doctors in choppers! Let's run over there!"

"Ooh! You look sick! Not like ME! I was a model! OK, I've got the sample! Sorry dying dude! Let me pose here looking at you for a moment! This is my sad face! That's enough! I've got to RUN back to the helicopter now!"

"Get that stuff on the big boat! I'm an officer!"
"Yes, sir, but your a dick, and I have a 'tude!"

"Man, you've got a lot of doctur stuffs there! This is my stern face!"
"Don't worry. We just do looky-look science, not boomy-boom science! I'm smiling because science can't hurt pretty people! Wait! I lied!"

Ugh. Do you think that guy brings little action figures to pitch meetings?

"...and then whooosh! Ka-blam, and they're like 'AAAAA!' and then there's a bunch of soldiers--rat-atat-tat! but the missile goes Pachooom! so they're all dead and, like, burning. Then a girl with a gatlin' gun is like, 'You killed my daddy!' and ZHuZHuZHuZHuZHuZHu!!! 'Yeah, die, motherfuckers! Tomorrow is my prom!'"

Yeesh.

that sounds better than the book

Didn't know it was a book. I dig the show, though. A bit hokey in places (seriously? The Captain's going on the VBSS team?) but that's to be expected. It's TV. And there are technical errors (though not as many as there could have been/usually are), but again that's expected. It's TV. That said, it's entertaining and well cast. The first two episodes have been promising, anyway. Looking forward to the rest of it. :)

Tried watching it last night and fell asleep twice without finishing it.

I watched the second episode and I think that was enough for me. Considering that ship is supposed to be the last hope of finding the cure they do seem to be taking a lot of chances. The least I'd expect is for them to quarantine everyone who left the ship for a few days to ensure they weren't infected.

It's Michael Bay so I was not expecting much. My wife actually picked it out and seems to be enjoying the escapism.

I was hoping for more of a techno-thriller like "The Andromeda Strain" or "The Hot Zone" or even some good military tech like we used to get from Tom Clancy. Instead they seem to be going for personalities and conflicts (sigh). This is probably why my wife likes it.

I will continue to watch as long as the technical or military inaccuracies do not build up or become lame plot points.

So fair it's an okay summer show. Trying to extended it beyond 10 or 13 episodes might the nail in the coffin. Good as a mini-series not as series.

The first episodes was if-y, but two and three, at least, have been entertaining. More inclined after episode three than I was after episode one.

So I'm still watching, and at the end of ep.4 (view spoiler)[where the ship's power is out and the crew is dying from the tropical heat, no one is sweating, not even the shirts or hair are wet. (hide spoiler)]

Had no idea it was a book . Haven't seen the show yet. Just ordered the book on amazon
Gonna read it first

You should probably just read On The Beach instead.

I read on the Beach when I was a kid in school . Loved it
Having said that , I am game for just about any post apocalyptic or dystopian novel that's reasonably well written . It's hard to find ones that I haven't read . The Last Ship is one I haven't read or seen the show , so it's a treat

I've only watched ep 1 and I found it cartoony and silly. The smarts seem to be edited out of Micheal Bay productions in favor of explosions. What a contrast to a quietly intriguing show like Extant. And... A show like Last Ship is so inferior to a show like Orphan Black, yet will probably get more seasons. Go figure.

I watched the first episode and found it execrable. Very unsubtle set up of the plot and way too difficult to suspend my belief. It makes me sad because I was hoping that Adam Baldwin was going to make something cool. But he didn't even seem to have his heart in it.

The show definitely got better, with a nicely-plotted arc. It reminds me of an apocalyptic Star Trek.

I didn't think it was great all the way through, but there was enough to keep my interest beyond the usual "let's get to know the characters' backstories" stuff that can get tedious. There were also a couple flat episodes where it was pretty obvious what was going to happen, but then they'd throw in a little something that would pique my interest again to get me to come back.

(view spoiler)[One thing that surprised me was that they actually solved the problem. In a story filled with the typical twists you find in any TV series, that was the one I truly didn't see coming.

By the last episode I was thinking, "Boy, the entirety of the second season is just going to be them sailing around the world giving people injections." But then they turned up the stakes yet again and actually left the crew in worse shape than they were before. (hide spoiler)]

I also liked the fact it was a limited series. I think it was only 10 episodes or something, which I think works better for a lot of these shows, because it cuts down the fluff.

I'll be back for the second season, of which they've obviously already filmed the first few episodes. And THAT is the true twist I didn't see coming.

So the first two episodes of season 2 aired tonight. This was really well done. Of all the post-apocalyptic shows out there, I'm really liking this one, especially now that they have made the world vastly more complicated than it used to be.

There are a lot of post-apocalyptic shows, aren't there?

The Walking Dead
The Last Ship
Defiance
Falling Skies
Dominion
The Last man on Earth
Fear the Walking Dead
The 100
Z Nation
The Leftovers
12 Monkeys

Trike wrote: "There are a lot of post-apocalyptic shows, aren't there?"

And don't forget
Adventure Time and Cockroaches

Cockroaches is "Ok-ish" if you like quirky British comedies. Definitely low brow humour and at best average, but has a few good moments.
Adventure Time is just weird, but quite often good weird.

Watched somewhat 3 or 4 episodes last summer and dropped it easily. This show struck me as an example of modern tv industry dumbness and inclination to oversimplify everything. Be it world-works, character interaction or science. Dialogues and plot are just awful.

It got better.

Maybe they even got rid of that infamous Russian submarine?

I'm still watching this. It's scratching an itch no other show is. I'm enjoying the twists. I'd like to see a space opera do these sorts of stories.