One
day somewhere in the month of Jan 2012 when browsing through Youtube videos, I
came across a trailer about a TV series called ‘Last Resort’. It was a military
drama with a Nuclear submarine’s captain gone rouge.
The
series was aired in Jan 2012 on ABC channel, and soon after we unfortunate
outside USA got to watch it online. The first few episodes of the series were
quite gripping, and then gradually it started losing steam with totally unrelated
conflicts falling in the lap of the crew of the USS Colorado. The series had
its moments of rising interest based on government conspiracies, mutiny in the
Navy and crossing & double crossing between the crew of the submarine and
the people of the NATO Early warning Station (EWS) based on island of St Marina.
Geographically, I’m not even sure if and where it can be placed. The drama was truly
gripping especially with the action sequences around the highly advanced nuclear
submarine having new equipment onboard for going undetected underwater.
There
are not too many shows that give you this kind of thrill, and there are very few
shows with conspiracies involving the highest levels of the government. After the
TV series ‘The Unit’, this seemed as a good military drama.
However, unlike the
occasionally slow and dull moments of ‘The Unit’ where there was extensive focus
on the family drama of the special ops team, ‘Last Resort’ usually stuck to fast
paced moments of gripping fever & suspense. Towards the end of the first
season of ‘Last Resort’, the momentum started building up again after a little
bit of slump. While watching the last episode of the season, it became evident
that the season finale had been living up the expectations. It was proving to
be simply awesome.
In an attempt to check when the season 2 would be aired, I
googled online and soon realized that the series had been terminated by ABC
channel. And since the channel had informed the producers of the show well in
advance, the producers wanted to end the show on a high note. The finale went
on to be a brilliant episode leaving die-hard fans (like myself) utterly disappointed
cursing ABC.
The last episode had numerous moments of shock &
suspense as the story raced towards of the end of the AVI file lasting a mere
41 minutes. Moments such as, or when the Captain Marcus Chaplin forces everyone
off the sub to go down with his submarine in anticipation of the incoming
strike, or the moment when the F-16s actually blow up the USS Colorado or when
Kylie Sinclair (played by the beautiful Autumn Reeser) shoots the president of
United States.
I had a remote hope that if I check online and find that a lot of fans are outraged, there could be a glimmer of hope for the revival of the show. And then I read an article (on http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/11/17/canceled-shows-last-resort/). Most of my hope got washed away. And then I gave a long and hard thought to the way things ended in the last episode. If by any chance the show gets revived, what would we find? Chaplin is dead, XO Sam Kendal gives statement to the press in the US and would likely be shown serving time in a penitentiary (probably a high security one). Christine Kendal hands over the proof to the news reporters who then lash out to the administration and Kylie Sinclair gets arrested for killing the President. Conclusion: After watching the last episode, the show has ended at a point where any form of revival is likely to lead to a huge disappointment from the next part of the story.
Someone else wrote, “All good things don’t last too
long”. And if they do last longer, I guess they don’t live up to the
expectations.
This reminds me of other series that I have liked a lot that ended on a high note. The Sci-Fi series called “Firefly” went on for only 13
episodes only to give the finishing touch to the story through the movie by the
same name.
I seriously recommend watching these three series, “Last
resort”, “Firefly” & “Prison Break”, and if you like military dramas, "The Unit".
