RogerBW's Blog

2015 science fiction, 13 episodes. The crew of the destroyer USS Nathan James works to distribute the cure for the plague that killed most of the world's population. But not everyone thinks that's a good idea.

There's not a great deal of recapping here, but also not much need for it: there's been a plague that largely destroyed civilisation, the ship is carrying some scientists who found the cure, and that's all you really need. The first three episodes deal with the wrapping-up of the situation discovered at the end of season 1, and then it's off to new adventures.

This season is rather less bitty than the first, with a consistent plot running through the remaining ten episodes: there are people out there with a natural immunity to the plague, and some of them have decided that it's just fine if they rule over the survivors. They control an attack submarine, but more significantly they have started an effective cult among the survivors in the American South-East, and they're doing a rather better job of fighting a propaganda war than our heroes are set up for. So we get a mixture of intelligence gathering on land and sneaky naval action, which I found quite satisfactory even though as always it was simplified for a general TV audience. (Yeah, all right, an Arleigh Burke against a well-handled Astute should pretty much be no contest, but the sub crew aren't the best and this isn't a straight fight.)

You could certainly find themes here if you looked for them: heroic self-sacrifice is a big one, and motivational dead wives feature prominently. But I don't think anyone's trying to send a message here other than, perhaps, "military people are generally good people even if they do have their problems like everyone else", which is hardly a particularly controversial thing to say even outside the USA. And it's certainly the case that not every military person we meet here is a good guy.

There's less character development here than before, which is a pity, and in particular less of Adam Baldwin as the XO, though Rhona Mitra as the chief scientist does well with a more dramatic and less "stand in lab coat and frown at Petri dish" role, in particular dealing with some fairly extreme questions of medical ethics. Fay Masterson as the Chief Engineer and theoretical third in command, and Tania Raymonde as a newcomer in the last three episodes, have essentially nothing to do but stand around and agree with the important characters. The season ends with most of the regulars in good places and a hopeful outlook; the attempt to make us worry over whether one of the principals has been killed seems rather by-the-numbers.

This still isn't great TV, but it's pretty decent; great TV doesn't come along very often, and this will do until it does. The series has been renewed for a third season, expected in the summer of 2016.