I'm watching The Last Ship so Sirharles doesn't have to!
And, wow, is it terrible.
It's nine months later. Rhona's dead and gone, but she cured the world. America is a Utopian paradise being ruled from St. Louis. Our goal is to get the cure to the world, but China is a big evil beast that wants to conquer all of its neighbors by strangling distribution of the cure so that the "Scott Effect" can't take hold (The "Scott Effect" is made-up-on-the-spot BS where X people have to receive the cure in order for it to spread otherwise it dies out...and so do the people.)
Japan is in dire straits. Our heroes, though, are really busy saving Vietnam. Until a nightclub gets shot up (I do see why they preempted this episode) and ALL of the executive staff from the ship are kidnapped.
Meanwhile, our captain guy and a few others are on foot and hiding out deep in the wilds of China where they plan to seek revenge.
So, remember, 5 billion people have died over the course of a chaotic and lawless six months. Yet all of the nations are still the same -- the map's entirely unchanged. Politics are the same, and there are state dinners where everyone acts like it's a normal day. Cell phones have full, worldwide coverage, the internet is working, everyone has power and TV and radio. Families are having picnics in the park and people are driving brand new cars around. The armed forces of China and the US are fully staffed. We have an active Pacific fleet that's pirate hunting and delivering the cure to everyone.
So the show is no longer an apocalypse show -- or even about "the last ship." It's a procedural 24-style political drama. Nor does anyone seem upset that 5 billion people died. (Though, of course, this is the show that tried to make the murder of the man directly responsible for killing those 5 billion a questionable action that resulted in a trial.)
