The Last Ship continues to gain momentum as one of cable television’s most popular series and, in fact, I guess one could argue it has helped to spawn a new era of viral outbreak fever on television. We have Containment now running on The CW and the Television adaptation of the mind bending, time-travel, viral outbreak film 12 Monkeys on SyFy. The second season keeps the series interesting enough, with a lot of action, which is really the centerpiece of this show. The Nathan James encounters a rival submarine manned by an international crew of military mercenaries who want the cure for themselves and this conflict brings a lot of opportunities for edge of the seat thrills. The third season should be well worth watching for anyone who enjoys this sort of popcorn television.
The Video
The Last Ship is shot in HD on the Red Epic Dragon and brought to Blu-ray by TNT in an AVC 1080p encodement that looks fantastically rich, detailed and cinematic. There is some video noise that only serves to impart an appearance of layered “grain” if you will to the digital production. Colors are vibrant and natural, especially blues, which really leap from the screen. Flesh tones lean a little to the reddish side, but not so much that the ever standout or become really unnatural. This disc really stands out from the broadcasts (I have Verizon FiOS) or streaming versions of this series. There is no macroblocking or posterization to be seen and
The Audio
The Last Ship Season 2 comes with an English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix as its main audio option and numerous 
dubbed selections including French and Spanish. While this mix isn’t as bombastic as a cinematic mix for material like this may me, this mix has its moments. Certainly all of the gunfire, bombs, missiles and torpedoes that get fired off allow for some gut-busting, floor pounding action that gives the subwoofer and surround channels a decent workout. There’s good atmospherics and very full, upfront and clean dialogue as well.
The Supplements
It is good of TNT to provide 80-minutes of bonus content for this release. The Inside the Episode features are the best ones because they give you a little look at the making of each episode with cast and crew interviews and some behind the scenes footage. The rest is composed mostly of more cast and crew interviews with them telling us how wonderful the series is.
- Digital HD UltraViolet
- Inside the Episodes (1080p/24)
- The Making of Season Two (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:04:09) – An overview of the second season with some behind the scenes and brief interviews with cast and crew.
- Exclusive Look – Interviews with the Cast (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:16:25):
- Eric Dane
- Adam Baldwin
- Rhona Mitra
- John Pyper-Ferguson
- Bren Foster
- Enlisted Men
- Vulture Team (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:33:42)
The Final Assessment
If you want big, cinematic action you can sit back and watch on your couch every week while sipping a beverage and munching on a salty snack, then The Last Ship has it in spades and season 2 sticks to the core of the series. The Blu-ray release is a solid one from Warner Bros/TNT.
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