Last Resort: Captain: Review

So, a lot of the events in the episode just made me think, "if Captain America ever watched this, he'd die of a broken heart."

Spoilers ahead. Sail forward at your own risk.

So, yet another pilot episode has been released online ahead of schedule, thus leading me to review. Last Resort is about the submarine USS Colorado, the most powerful nuclear submarine in existence, headed by Captain Marcus Chaplin (Andre Braugher) and XO Sam Kendall (Scott Speedman). They receive orders to release all their fire on Pakistan from a secondary network that's only supposed to be used in the event of an attack on the US, which they know isn't happening. After they question their orders, they're fired on by their own people, swim the hell away, take an island hostage, and declare themselves a nuclear nation. There you have it.

I've been looking forward to Last Resort for months now, ever since I saw the first trailers. Because it looked awesome, that's why! And was it? Oh hell yeah. The premise alone kicks all sorts of ass, because I am a sucker for government conspiracy stuff. I like thinking that the man is out to get me. I shouldn't, it's clearly a sign that I watch way too much TV, but I do. And in this, there is clearly a conspiracy going, probably more then one, and it is cool. Halfway through the episode, it's implied that the US is now at war with Pakistan; I did not expect that to happen, and it gets you thinking about what's happening, why it's happening, who's behind it, the kinds of things a show like this is supposed to get you thinking about.

The thing with this episode is that it literally is all set-up for the premise. Seriously, if you've read story details for the episode, you know 99% of what's gonna happen in the episode. And yet it's still really good. Usually when a pilot episode is all set-up, I groan a little bit, because I know what's gonna happen, and yet I still have to watch it unfold on screen. Not here, I was entertained and gripped the entire time. Part of that is this is really intense. And I mean REALLY intense. Watching this, you'll be engrossed the whole time and there are parts where it's actually a little bit hard to breath there's so much happening. For me, intense=awesome, so I was impressed. The best example of this was at the end of the episode, when they actually fire a nuke at the US, and I was just like "OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!!!!". It's fine in the end, which, you know, bit convenient, but it's kind of a sigh of relief, too. And just by the way, the end of the episode was pretty freaking sweet.

Let me talk about the cast: it's great. Andre Braugher is kicking all kinds of ass as basically Bill Adama on a submarine; he's cool, he's BA, and above all, he's intimidating, and he needs to be, because when you really get down to it, he needs to pass himself off as a terrorist and a dictator if he wants to stay alive, and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of that in the rest of the season. Scott Speedman's cool in this too, and no, he's not Saul Tigh on a submarine, as he's not a one-eyed drunk (he could be a robot though. You never know), but you do get the sense that there's some history between him and the captain, and you can tell he's conflicted about what he's doing and I like that. Jessy Schram (AKA Creeptastic Karen from Falling Skies) is his wife, she's really good in the like five minutes she's on screen. Robert Patrick (from the last two seasons of the X Files which I will not hold against him. You can if you want, but I'm just gonna remember him as the T-1000) plays this Admiral whose daughter (tough but hot Navy woman who gets no respect from sexist cretins) is on the Colorado, and he's really good in this too, and I hope he's a big player in all this. There's other characters in this too, like this Navy SEAL with the Colorado crew who is a major badass, hope he sticks around, that hot girl from Dollhouse who's name escapes me, and a couple of NATO workers who get caught in this island-hostage situation, and they're all cool. Most pilots don't nail character exposition, especially for an ensemble cast, like this does.

There were things wrong the episode, though: like I said, a few plot conveniences and forced moments that I sort of rolled my eyes at, and there was this one scene where this woman who basically designed the Colorado, is spelling the whole thing out in black and white, and I just thought "Okay, nobody would be telling someone that in that situation! That is not natural!" There was one kind of cheesy moment, too, between Scott Speedman and Jessy Schram, but I'll let it slide for now. Plus, midway through the episode, there was this exchange of captaincy that was undone after about ten minutes, and it didn't feel necessary in anyway, and I really doubt it'll resurface anytime soon. Maybe it will, and if it does I'll eat my words, but for now, yeah.

So basically, I like the episode (the CGI was really good, I forgot to mention that), I like the premise, I like the set-up they do, and I'm definitely gonna keep watching to see where the story goes.

Final Rating: 91%