last resort

tv:  Last Resort, the new show from creator Shawn Ryan, formerly known for his creating The Shield, is an intense action drama.  It is about a submarine crew who, after refusing some questionable orders to nuke Pakistan - which the United States has invaded in this version of the current political/military landscape, is fired upon by another U.S. submarine.  Once this is discovered the crew fuses the order, which the American Government fires upon them for, and decides to dock at a remote island nearby (the same coast of Hawaii that Lost was filmed on) while they decide what the next step is in order to hopefully stave off another attack.  It is hard to be honest about what this show appeared to be based on the trailers.  It looked ridiculous   The trailer was filled with insanely pretty people being wildly dramatic and delivering poorly executed lines about submarine procedures while Andre Braugher stared into the camera and said he would reign down hell upon those watching commercials.  Despite my better judgement, I watched the pilot.  Thankfully, my better judgement sucks.
The show was a wild and exciting action story, something that is hard to do on television (seriously you can count on one hand the good action shows that have ever been on TV).  It gave viewers a ton of characters that were either immediately interesting and endearing or could be built upon to create endearment.  Scott Speedman was very good as the young heartfelt, homesick XO of the sub, Sam Kendal, who is just trying to get home to his wife who he seemingly has the perfect, wholesome relationship.  Daisy Betts, who plays Lieutenant Grace Shepherd, was very believable (despite being so literally unbelievably hot) as the young woman growing into her role as a person of authority in a man's world.  Also she gives the potential, because of her beauty on top of her character's character, to create complications in Kendal's seemingly perfect marriage while they are stranded on an island together.  Robert Patrick is perfectly cast as the surly chief of the boat who would just be damn miserable anywhere.  And then there is Andre Braugher.  I know I just made fun of him in the previous paragraph, but he was great.  And in the moment in the episode, staring down the barrel of the camera, he is every bit as tough and kick-ass as he ever was as Frank Pembleton.  The characters with a chance to grow are there too.  There is the young Navy Seal James King, played both recklessly and tragically by Daniel Lissing.  He clearly has something to do with why our characters are in this situation and as that story unfolds hopefully the sadness he seems to feel will bring a complexity to his character as he drinks himself into a stupor, with gun by his side that he is clearly not afraid to use to show he is a "tough guy", at the local island bar.  Then there is the bartender serving him drinks.  Played by Dichen Lachman, known by fanboys round the world for her role on Joss Whedon's Dollhouse and so far without a name on the show, she seems like given her profession as barkeep, with the Seal pouring his soul and secrets out to her could be fun to watch as the lone nonmilitary perspective in this whole universe.  And there are two characters in Washington, an Admiral, who of course is Lieutenant Shepherd's father, who will come to the aid of our stranded crew against the American regime.  The other is Autumn Reeser's Kylie Sinclair, who I must say had the worst (and yet best) introduction of the show as she displayed that she is somehow connected to the military through some technological company that was "clearly" explained by having her do sexy technobabble in her underwear.  Whatever it was that she was saying, I can't decide if it made no sense or I was distracted, will clearly develop into something that unravels a larger picture than the government just saying screw you for not bombing Pakistan.   Wow, that really was a damn lot of characters.  But really looking forward that is what the show most has to work with.
The pilot, and its commercials, were all about an action show on a sub.  But as the episode ended they were off the sub and looking to settle on their "no man's land" island until order in the American government and military could be restored.  The show that looked like a cheap knock off of Crimson Tide is already over. It is off the submarine and now on an island.
I guess the long and short of it is that Shawn Ryan has a lot to work with.  The show moving forward looks very little like the show we have been seeing ads for for weeks.  He has a ton of characters who are going to have to develop and shed light on the series now that they have been established.  And maybe most importantly he has to sell audiences on the fact that for the next handful of years (assuming the show's success) that the American Government and its President are villains and that the rogue submarine crew is more worth rooting for.  But if you really want to be sold just kick back, watch, enjoy (especially the cheesy but fun crossing the equator scene) and marvel at how unbelievably tough Andre Braugher is in the final ten minutes of the episode after sitting through some surprisingly entertaining exposition (which is basically, despite the action what the whole episode is).
I don't know how good this show will be moving forward since it appears that it will be drastically different from the pilot we saw.  More of a day to day dealing with island gangsters than Crimson Tide.  Not to mention the unending Lost(Kendal/Shepherd/King=Shepherd/Austin/Sawyer) and Galactica(Braugher is basically Adama and Patrick does a great Tigh imitation).  But the pilot was damn fun and damn cool and a rare good action television show.  But one last time I will come back to it:  Andre Braugher is awesome.  He yells "Battlestations!" like he is the Old Man(ok I made the joke anyways) running from Cylons and then stares down a camera and goes back in time to when he was the most bad-ass dude on television in Homicide Life On The Streets back before the Wire ruined network cop shows.  Screw it, Pembleton is from Baltimore, he could have hung with McNulty or any of those guys.