The Last Resort

Last Thursday night ABC debuted this new series. Starring Andre Braugher as Captain Marcus Chaplin. Chaplin is the Captain of the nuclear submarine the USS Colorado. The show has been given good reviews and most critics have said that the premise of the show is promising.

It's time slot is very challenging as it is against The Big Bang Theory and The X Factor but I, for one, after watching one episode, can tell you that I will be watching.

The first fifteen minutes of this series are as good an opening as any show that you will ever see. The premise is quite simple. The Captain and his XO,played by Scott Speedman are on uneventful cruise when they receive an order to fire nuclear missiles at Pakistan. The orders are verified, but, coming as they do through a second channel from Antarctica both Captain Chaplin and XO Kendal question them. After all the second channel is only to be used were the primary channel unable to be used, for example, should Washington be flattened. This does not appear to be the case as a satellite check of communications shows all the networks with regular programming.

Ships captains are supposed to follow orders but when Captain Chaplin states that Hannah Montana is still on the air so he does not understand why we are firing nuclear missiles.

Soon enough Chaplin is ordered relieved from command and the XO takes over. However when he also questions the orders and requests the orders through the primary channel their ship is fired upon, by a United States ship.

From there the crew itself is divided, some feel simply that orders should have been followed, some are with their captain. The submarine comes ashore at a small French Island in the Indian Ocean that is equipped with a NATO station. Soon they discover that their sinking has been blamed on Pakistan and that retaliatory missiles have been fired at that country.

In short all hell has broken loose. Andre Braugher is a wonderful actor and he portrays a man full of righteous anger and indignation better than perhaps anyone else. The show in this first episode strives to make a big impression and it does, to do so perhaps some of the scenes are a little over the top, certainly it is hard to imagine a coup in the United States of some sort that has us firing at our ships. Certainly however we must face the fact that something like this could happen, for a variety of reasons, and it is at least likely that we would not as citizens know about it. It would be hidden or a cover story laid down.

This show might find a hard trail ratings wise, still I will be watching and it is my hope that others will as well. This was described as a combination between Lost and 24 and that seems an apt description. I am on board and hoping that the show can maintain this level of excitement.