On the positive side, it's nice that they finished the storyline of season 1 with the cure and a return home.
However, that nicety is also the fatal flaw of this show.
The problem is that it will now become a run-of-the-mill dystopian show, and that means it will fall to routine plot lines.
Consider other recent dystopian shows: Revolution and Jericho.
In Revolution, they tried to piggyback off the success of The Hunger Games with a reliance on swords and bows and arrows. The plot was around how civilization collapsed because all power was turned off. Season 1 ended with the explanation of how the power was turned off and the successful restoration of power. I did not watch season 2, but I suppose it was to be about how the fractured nations deal with the megalomaniacal leaders of the new nations.
Revolution was canceled after season 2.
Jericho was about a small Kansas town that survives a multi-city nuclear attack on the United States by an unnamed enemy. The first season was about maintaining civil order and reaching out to nearby towns for information and trade. The second season devolved into the typical dystopian plot of city warlords fighting over scraps while the larger territories organize into independent nation-states. Jericho was canceled halfway through season 2.
So where does season 2 of The Last Ship go?
Based on last night's finale, we are headed towards the dystopian warlords vs. new nation elite rivalries typical of the genre.
Can the show survive moving from the unknown to the known?
I don't know.
-PJ
I think your descriptions of the powers that be is wrong. It seems to me it will fall down to a battle between Constitutional Patriots and new nation elite, which seems to be pretty much the end game we are heading for now.
That’s always the problem with the American TV model. Last Ship innately has a finite plot: find the cure, use the cure. That’s really it. Dragging it out will get you into Lost season 3 territory eventually. I suspect season 2 will stink because there’s just no place really interesting to go. But our networks have a really hard time quitting while they’re ahead. If it’s got the ratings for a second season then bye God there will be a second season. We’re kind of starting to learn finite story telling on TV, but even then they want 5 years worth of finite, not 12 episodes.