[TV] When bad writing ATTACKS!

[ChahDresh]

The hilariously terrible show “Last Resort” aired its fourth episode Thursday. The people I work with happen to know a thing or two about submarines; on a lark, we watched as a group something we could never have stomached individually. Our enjoyment was lessened somewhat by the fact that we couldn’t devise a drinking game that wouldn’t kill us.

Spoiler alert. You.... have been warned.

I’m not going to discuss technical issues. The writers did not seek out any outside sources of information when writing the details of submarines, and this is painfully obvious. Here’s a sample. After the initial confusion when no one knows what’s going on, the female officer laments to the executive officer: “Whenever I’m eating on the crew’s mess, I can feel the enlisted staring at me. They want to know what’s going on.” Even if your submarine education consisted entirely of watching “Crimson Tide”, you would know that officers don’t eat meals on the crew’s mess; they eat in the wardroom, in large part to avoid exactly the above situation.

So I’m not going to discuss technical issues. And why would I need to, when the show has such a rich bounty of flaws in more fundamental things like cinematography, direction, and plot?

We’ll start small, because in a show with such an obviously big budget, it appears no one’s paying attention to details. At various points throughout the show, the crew complement is listed as 150. (Whether this counts or discounts the SEAL team that is onboard for no obvious reason is not discussed.) During the events of the first episode, thirteen people are killed. At the end, the CO states his submarine has 150 people onboard.

On another occasion, the CO declares, “Open hatches, let the world see them!” The sub is underwater at the time.

The sub seems capable of submerging and surfacing instantaneously. The first and second episodes both feature sequences in which the sub is on the surface, but its missile tubes open underwater ten seconds later.

The CO has a direct line to the American and Russian secretaries of defense. (This is particularly amusing in light of a line earlier in the second episode, “I thought all the phones were out!”) When Russian Spetsnasz invade the island, the CO calls up the Russian minister, and the two of them reminisce about times “when they put the Cold War on hold”. The Cold War ended 22 years ago. Given the timeframe it takes for a submarine officer to get command, that would put the CO in high school when the Cold War ended.

The show uses Hawaii for its location shots. That’s understandable; Hawaii is beautiful, and production crews love going to Hawaii. The trouble is that the Hawaiian Islands are volcanic. The barhop on the island relates to one of the SEALs that the islanders know at any moment that they’re one eruption away from death. The island in the show is in the Indian Ocean—an ocean with no appreciable volcanic activity. Actual Indian Ocean islands, like Diego Garcia, are coral-based, and tend to be flat as a pancake.

All the rules of ridiculous gunfights are fully in effect. When the island is invaded by bad guys, the XO leads some submariners to fight them off. (Aside: if your security depended completely on launching ballistic missiles, and the XO was needed to launch ballistic missiles, why would you send the XO into a gun battle far from your submarine?) On a whim he steps into the open to confront the bad guys with a moral appeal. After he rambles on for three minutes, we cut to the CO, where there’s a shocking reveal: the bad guys are actually Spetsnasz! The XO’s moral appeals won’t work!

Think about that for a second. A dozen highly trained Spetsnasz watched an enemy in an enemy uniform ramble on in a language they didn’t understand for three minutes before they even raised their guns.

It’s just as well, because when the bad guys do raise their guns, the XO’s Good Guy Shields are up. The hundreds of shots that they fire all miss the XO completely as he runs out of the open field back behind cover. Once he’s behind cover, an unnamed extra standing next to him behind a tree takes a bullet to the chest and dies instantly.

The Female Officer is shot in the forearm. (As a female, her Good Guy Hit Zones are smaller.) Her arm was in front of her body at the time. Somewhere between her arm and her body, the bullet evaporated.

Okay, you say, so you can’t watch anything out of Hollywood without the gunfights being super-unrealistic. Suspend disbelief, why don’t you? Sure, I can do that to an extent. But I won’t suspend disbelief about the downright stupid.

The Chief of the Boat on the good guy sub doesn’t take kindly to the direction things are going, so the CO imprisons him. Does he lock him up in an out-of-the-way location? Heck no; that would make sense! Instead, he’s put in an open cage along the main thoroughfare, along which every character walks multiple times an episode. This is so that he can heckle, spread discontent, and foment rebellion unimpeded. Which, when you think about it, is probably what he’d be doing if he weren’t locked up at all. So… the locking-up is for cosmetic purposes, I guess.

The good guy sub has a new system on board that makes it less detectable. (They should have called it the “caterpillar drive”. Instead they call it Perseus.) It’s highly experimental, never-before-used, and potentially dangerous. Imagine, for a moment, that you’re an admiral in the Navy. You have a sub outfitted with a highly-experimental, never-before-used, potentially dangerous system. Do you:
a) Test it out in local waters, with no missiles on-board, until you figure out the system’s properties, and so that you can rescue the sub if something goes wrong, or…
b) Send it AS FAR AWAY FROM THE U.S. AS PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE ON PLANET EARTH. With a full load-out, to boot.

The attack on the good-guy sub originates from the USS Illinois, which the good-guy sub figures out instantly. (Set aside pesky questions like, “How?”) At the end of the first episode, the CO calls out the USS Illinois by name. That begs the question: Who does the Illinois think they attacked? When the attack is launched, the U.S. is not at war with anyone; but the Illinois gets orders to attack… someone. “Someone” turns out to be the good guy sub. If the Illinois starts asking who gave that order, and why, then the conspiracy would start to unravel. The result would be the same if the Fleet in charge of the Illinois started asking the same questions. So, of course, no one asks those questions. That would make sense! In fact, the only person who seems interested in asking these questions is a civilian contractor on the shore-side.

After the good guy sub is attacked, the U.S. nukes Pakistan, which it believes destroyed the good guy sub. (We must presume the conspiracy is firmly in control of this outcome; the last few times warships have been attacked, the response has been lukewarm.) Wait, what? The first thing that happened was the good guy sub got orders to nuke Pakistan. That is, the nuke orders came before the attack they were in retaliation for. If the good guy sub followed the launch order, then nothing afterwards would make sense.

Doubling down on this absurdity, in the second episode, after the good guy sub has announced to the world it has gone rogue, there is a news broadcast which announces Congress’ unanimous support of the “retaliatory” nuking of Pakistan. Congress unanimously approves a nuclear attack in retaliation for sinking a sub that wasn’t sunk, against a country that didn’t attack it. Really?

The writers are attempting to build this big atmosphere of paranoia and conspiracy, and in so doing, throw in lots of things that make no sense. At some points, the conspiracy seems framed around getting the sub to go rogue. At others, it’s portrayed as depending upon the sub’s sinking, and the sub’s surviving is thwarting the conspirators.

One sub-plot implies that the actual reason for all of this is industrial espionage—an attempt to steal the Perseus system. (Problem: if the good guy sub was sunk in the attack, as was apparently supposed to happen, this plot thread collapses completely.) Apparently the writers haven’t been paying attention to all the recent news about cyber-attacks on defense contractors. There are far easier ways to steal technology than, oh, say, starting a nuclear war.

And that’s the biggest silliness of all. If your conspiracy is powerful enough that it can start a nuclear war when it’s convenient, what objective would it need a nuclear war to accomplish?

Don’t watch this show. It’s weaksauce.

[Waaldo]

The hilariously terrible show “Last Resort” aired its fourth episode Thursday. The people I work with happen to know a thing or two about submarines; on a lark, we watched as a group something we could never have stomached individually. Our enjoyment was lessened somewhat by the fact that we couldn’t devise a drinking game that wouldn’t kill us.

Spoiler alert. You.... have been warned.

I’m not going to discuss technical issues. The writers did not seek out any outside sources of information when writing the details of submarines, and this is painfully obvious. Here’s a sample. After the initial confusion when no one knows what’s going on, the female officer laments to the executive officer: “Whenever I’m eating on the crew’s mess, I can feel the enlisted staring at me. They want to know what’s going on.” Even if your submarine education consisted entirely of watching “Crimson Tide”, you would know that officers don’t eat meals on the crew’s mess; they eat in the wardroom, in large part to avoid exactly the above situation.

So I’m not going to discuss technical issues. And why would I need to, when the show has such a rich bounty of flaws in more fundamental things like cinematography, direction, and plot?

We’ll start small, because in a show with such an obviously big budget, it appears no one’s paying attention to details. At various points throughout the show, the crew complement is listed as 150. (Whether this counts or discounts the SEAL team that is onboard for no obvious reason is not discussed.) During the events of the first episode, thirteen people are killed. At the end, the CO states his submarine has 150 people onboard.

I didn't catch that one, but at the end did he say they had 150 living people on board? because when someone dies they don't evaporate, their body is still there.


On another occasion, the CO declares, “Open hatches, let the world see them!” The sub is underwater at the time.

Obviously he meant surface first.... come on...

The sub seems capable of submerging and surfacing instantaneously. The first and second episodes both feature sequences in which the sub is on the surface, but its missile tubes open underwater ten seconds later.

It's called a time laps, no one wants to watch a sub submerge, so they skip to the good parts.

The CO has a direct line to the American and Russian secretaries of defense. (This is particularly amusing in light of a line earlier in the second episode, “I thought all the phones were out!”) When Russian Spetsnasz invade the island, the CO calls up the Russian minister, and the two of them reminisce about times “when they put the Cold War on hold”. The Cold War ended 22 years ago. Given the timeframe it takes for a submarine officer to get command, that would put the CO in high school when the Cold War ended.

How do you know the CO's age? and were they reminiscing or just talking about it?

The show uses Hawaii for its location shots. That’s understandable; Hawaii is beautiful, and production crews love going to Hawaii. The trouble is that the Hawaiian Islands are volcanic. The barhop on the island relates to one of the SEALs that the islanders know at any moment that they’re one eruption away from death. The island in the show is in the Indian Ocean—an ocean with no appreciable volcanic activity. Actual Indian Ocean islands, like Diego Garcia, are coral-based, and tend to be flat as a pancake.

Not a big deal to me.

All the rules of ridiculous gunfights are fully in effect. When the island is invaded by bad guys, the XO leads some submariners to fight them off. (Aside: if your security depended completely on launching ballistic missiles, and the XO was needed to launch ballistic missiles, why would you send the XO into a gun battle far from your submarine?) On a whim he steps into the open to confront the bad guys with a moral appeal. After he rambles on for three minutes, we cut to the CO, where there’s a shocking reveal: the bad guys are actually Spetsnasz! The XO’s moral appeals won’t work!

The XO was needed to launch the missiles when they were still a part of the US military, ranks no longer matter when you are fugitives from your government.

Think about that for a second. A dozen highly trained Spetsnasz watched an enemy in an enemy uniform ramble on in a language they didn’t understand for three minutes before they even raised their guns.

Name a TV show where the main character doesn't give out a speech before shit goes down.

It’s just as well, because when the bad guys do raise their guns, the XO’s Good Guy Shields are up. The hundreds of shots that they fire all miss the XO completely as he runs out of the open field back behind cover. Once he’s behind cover, an unnamed extra standing next to him behind a tree takes a bullet to the chest and dies instantly.

It's a TV show, there is not a single TV show in existence that doesn't follow Hollywood's gunfight rules. Complaining about it is stupid.

The Female Officer is shot in the forearm. (As a female, her Good Guy Hit Zones are smaller.) Her arm was in front of her body at the time. Somewhere between her arm and her body, the bullet evaporated.

I'm not going to watch it again, but was there an exit wound? it could still be stuck in her arm... Or you got your angles wrong.

Okay, you say, so you can’t watch anything out of Hollywood without the gunfights being super-unrealistic. Suspend disbelief, why don’t you? Sure, I can do that to an extent. But I won’t suspend disbelief about the downright stupid.

The Chief of the Boat on the good guy sub doesn’t take kindly to the direction things are going, so the CO imprisons him. Does he lock him up in an out-of-the-way location? Heck no; that would make sense! Instead, he’s put in an open cage along the main thoroughfare, along which every character walks multiple times an episode. This is so that he can heckle, spread discontent, and foment rebellion unimpeded. Which, when you think about it, is probably what he’d be doing if he weren’t locked up at all. So… the locking-up is for cosmetic purposes, I guess.

Yeah that's a pretty bad one, but it's part of the plot.

The good guy sub has a new system on board that makes it less detectable. (They should have called it the “caterpillar drive”. Instead they call it Perseus.) It’s highly experimental, never-before-used, and potentially dangerous. Imagine, for a moment, that you’re an admiral in the Navy. You have a sub outfitted with a highly-experimental, never-before-used, potentially dangerous system. Do you:
a) Test it out in local waters, with no missiles on-board, until you figure out the system’s properties, and so that you can rescue the sub if something goes wrong, or…
b) Send it AS FAR AWAY FROM THE U.S. AS PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE ON PLANET EARTH. With a full load-out, to boot.

It was on board, it wasn't meant to be tested yet. They just used it because they had to.

The attack on the good-guy sub originates from the USS Illinois, which the good-guy sub figures out instantly. (Set aside pesky questions like, “How?”) At the end of the first episode, the CO calls out the USS Illinois by name. That begs the question: Who does the Illinois think they attacked? When the attack is launched, the U.S. is not at war with anyone; but the Illinois gets orders to attack… someone. “Someone” turns out to be the good guy sub. If the Illinois starts asking who gave that order, and why, then the conspiracy would start to unravel. The result would be the same if the Fleet in charge of the Illinois started asking the same questions. So, of course, no one asks those questions. That would make sense! In fact, the only person who seems interested in asking these questions is a civilian contractor on the shore-side.

This one confuses me a little, but what I'm getting is that you are wondering why the sub CO questions the orders and the USS Illinois doesn't? I don't know... I guess not everyone questions their orders? it's not unheard of. This is obviously about a giant government conspiracy, so maybe they used the secondary channel for the good guy sub(To make them question the ordered), and the main channel for the USS Illinois(Why would they question orders from the main channel).

After the good guy sub is attacked, the U.S. nukes Pakistan, which it believes destroyed the good guy sub. (We must presume the conspiracy is firmly in control of this outcome; the last few times warships have been attacked, the response has been lukewarm.) Wait, what? The first thing that happened was the good guy sub got orders to nuke Pakistan. That is, the nuke orders came before the attack they were in retaliation for. If the good guy sub followed the launch order, then nothing afterwards would make sense.

It seems to me like they were meant to question it, as in that was the plan all along. Like I said in my last comment maybe they used the secondary channel for the good guy sub, and the main channel for the USS Illinois.

Doubling down on this absurdity, in the second episode, after the good guy sub has announced to the world it has gone rogue, there is a news broadcast which announces Congress’ unanimous support of the “retaliatory” nuking of Pakistan. Congress unanimously approves a nuclear attack in retaliation for sinking a sub that wasn’t sunk, against a country that didn’t attack it. Really?

The plan was for the US to sink the sub and blame Pakistan, so that's what they did. Only one problem, The sub didn't sink!

The writers are attempting to build this big atmosphere of paranoia and conspiracy, and in so doing, throw in lots of things that make no sense. At some points, the conspiracy seems framed around getting the sub to go rogue. At others, it’s portrayed as depending upon the sub’s sinking, and the sub’s surviving is thwarting the conspirators.

One sub-plot implies that the actual reason for all of this is industrial espionage—an attempt to steal the Perseus system. (Problem: if the good guy sub was sunk in the attack, as was apparently supposed to happen, this plot thread collapses completely.) Apparently the writers haven’t been paying attention to all the recent news about cyber-attacks on defense contractors. There are far easier ways to steal technology than, oh, say, starting a nuclear war.

Why would the US government try and steal technology off of their own sub? Nothing you said there makes any sense.

And that’s the biggest silliness of all. If your conspiracy is powerful enough that it can start a nuclear war when it’s convenient, what objective would it need a nuclear war to accomplish?

According to the show the US government wanted to nuke Pakistan, but they didn't want to be the aggressors so they blamed Pakistan for the bombing of their submarine so the rest of the world would see the US's attack as justified.

Don’t watch this show. It’s weaksauce.

All of the responses are in bold. I personally think it's a great show. The last response from me is what I see as the main plot, and I think the writer executed it very well.

[ChahDresh]

"Obviously he meant surface first.... come on..."

...except that the animation they use of the hatches opening is the underwater animation. (It would appear they only have one animation.)

"It's called a time laps, no one wants to watch a sub submerge, so they skip to the good parts."

And I could deal with that except for the fact that the sub is constantly in beat-the-clock situations. When time is critical, how long it takes to do things matters.

"How do you know the CO's age? and were they reminiscing or just talking about it?"

The actual line is, "Do you remember when we used to put the Cold War on hold?" The timing for sub officers is such that if he's been in the Navy for 22 years and hasn't gotten command, he's not getting command, barring something extraordinary (if he was enlisted before commissioning it might work, but they've said nothing of the sort).

"The XO was needed to launch the missiles when they were still a part of the US military, ranks no longer matter when you are fugitives from your government."

An intensely flawed argument for two reasons. First, the CO flatly states that the chain of command is still in effect during episode two, and it seems to be the case for most of the crew. Second, the XO still has his key, and launching still takes his key, and that is directly portrayed.

"Name a TV show where the main character doesn't give out a speech before shit goes down."

Name a TV show where the speech the main character gives is to bad guys who don't speak English. Anyway, that's a "if everyone was jumping off a cliff"-type argument.

"It was on board, it wasn't meant to be tested yet. They just used it because they had to."

Exactly my point! If you had a new, wild, untested system, why is it on board a submarine 12000 miles away and not on a submarine in local waters undergoing intense and rigorous testing? It makes no sense. Why even run the risk?

"This one confuses me a little..."

Okay, let me restate. Illinois attacks good guys, not knowing who they are. Good guys live. Good guys tell the world the Illinois attacked them. NOW who does the Illinois think they attacked? And since the Illinois didn't know it was good guys they were attacking in the first place, but now they do, doesn't that bother them? Or the Fleet in charge of the Illinois? I'm not saying "why doesn't every sub challenge every order"; clearly that is silly. I'm saying, "Now that you KNOW you attacked good guys, aren't you the slightest bit interested how THAT happened?"

"It seems to me like they were meant to question it, as in that was the plan all along. "

That seems like a terrible plan for a conspiracy. After all, all of the drama is based on the "will they or won't they". Conspiracies don't operate on a "will they or won't they" basis; if you're a conspiracy, you want it air-tight, going off like clockwork!

"The plan was for the US to sink the sub and blame Pakistan, so that's what they did. Only one problem, The sub didn't sink! "

So 100 Senators and 400-odd Representatives are all in on this conspiracy? I think not. Remember, the vote comes AFTER the sub has announced to the world it's alive, thus illustrating that shenanigans are going on.

"Why would the US government try and steal technology off of their own sub? Nothing you said there makes any sense"

That's the whole subplot with the contractor lady, remember? The lawyer tells her that they're going to "go Patriot Act and take [Perseus] away from you". I agree it doesn't make sense, because why would you have to start a nuclear war to commit industrial espionage?

"According to the show the US government wanted to nuke Pakistan, but they didn't want to be the aggressors so they blamed Pakistan for the bombing of their submarine so the rest of the world would see the US's attack as justified."

And as I said, what conceivable rationale exists for that? Why would the government *want* to nuke Pakistan? What's the point?

[Youvegotfail]

You sound like one of those people who watch horror movies and then ask why the victims go off to investigate the scary noise they heard. IT'S NOT REAL! IT'S FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES.

that is all.

[Deleted]

Sometimes shows are too silly to watch them with wide open eyes. You need to shut down the logical part of your brain to be actually entertained. This goes twice for shows featuring stuff YOU know about but the writers did not do the research

[Waaldo]

...except that the animation they use of the hatches opening is the underwater animation. (It would appear they only have one animation.)

Hmmm.... I'd hate to think they only have 1 animation of that.... But you're right, it seems like they do.

And I could deal with that except for the fact that the sub is constantly in beat-the-clock situations. When time is critical, how long it takes to do things matters.

I'm not a sub expert or anything, but It doesn't take that long for them to go under water does it? Also, they can't be going that deep because they still have to be close enough to the surface to launch the missiles.


The actual line is, "Do you remember when we used to put the Cold War on hold?" The timing for sub officers is such that if he's been in the Navy for 22 years and hasn't gotten command, he's not getting command, barring something extraordinary (if he was enlisted before commissioning it might work, but they've said nothing of the sort).

I don't know much about any kind of military operations, so I'm just going to take your word that there is a timing loophole here.

An intensely flawed argument for two reasons. First, the CO flatly states that the chain of command is still in effect during episode two, and it seems to be the case for most of the crew. Second, the XO still has his key, and launching still takes his key, and that is directly portrayed.

If the CO wanted to fire a missile than he would do it himself if he could. I think the chain of command, to the CO, is only about people lower than him taking their orders. I didn't realize the XO kept his key, that was stupid of him. But I guess they figured that IF the soldiers jumping out of the plain were US soldiers than there wouldn't be a reason to fire a missile. The US soldiers would have tried to do it quietly. Obviously they were wrong and that could have ended terribly.

Name a TV show where the speech the main character gives is to bad guys who don't speak English. Anyway, that's a "if everyone was jumping off a cliff"-type argument.

You got me there. But it would have been weird if he didn't give a speech because he thought they were US soldiers. Why the Spetsnaz didn't just open fire is a good question.


Exactly my point! If you had a new, wild, untested system, why is it on board a submarine 12000 miles away and not on a submarine in local waters undergoing intense and rigorous testing? It makes no sense. Why even run the risk?

I guess, like you said, maybe the corrupt government was planning on stealing it for some stupid reason, they were just hoping that machine wouldn't get destroyed in the explosion? There had to have been more to it than that though, maybe it's something they will mention in future episodes.

Okay, let me restate. Illinois attacks good guys, not knowing who they are. Good guys live. Good guys tell the world the Illinois attacked them. NOW who does the Illinois think they attacked? And since the Illinois didn't know it was good guys they were attacking in the first place, but now they do, doesn't that bother them? Or the Fleet in charge of the Illinois? I'm not saying "why doesn't every sub challenge every order"; clearly that is silly. I'm saying, "Now that you KNOW you attacked good guys, aren't you the slightest bit interested how THAT happened?"

The Illinois isn't part of the story line other than the attack on the sub, so what they think/do after they found out why they were ordered to attack is, I hate to use this word, irrelevant (for the TV show).

That seems like a terrible plan for a conspiracy. After all, all of the drama is based on the "will they or won't they". Conspiracies don't operate on a "will they or won't they" basis; if you're a conspiracy, you want it air-tight, going off like clockwork!

It wasn't a will they or wont they, anyone would have questioned the orders after they saw that it came from a secondary channel that is only used if the Pentagon(?) is destroyed. But than again, you can look at it is the government who planned this obviously didn't do a very good job with the conspiracy because the sub isn't destroyed.

So 100 Senators and 400-odd Representatives are all in on this conspiracy? I think not. Remember, the vote comes AFTER the sub has announced to the world it's alive, thus illustrating that shenanigans are going on.

I thought the attack order on Pakistan came way before the CO made that video of him explaining what happened. That's what made him make the video in the first place isn't it?

That's the whole subplot with the contractor lady, remember? The lawyer tells her that they're going to "go Patriot Act and take [Perseus] away from you". I agree it doesn't make sense, because why would you have to start a nuclear war to commit industrial espionage?

I think that was more of a threat to get her to stop questioning everything. I still don't think it was actually part of the conspiracy to steal the device.

And as I said, what conceivable rationale exists for that? Why would the government *want* to nuke Pakistan? What's the point?

That's what makes it a conspiracy, we have no idea why the government would want to do something like that. That is what keeps people watching the show. If they just unraveled all of the juicy info in the first episode the show would never last.

/10characters

[Skippy88]

I'm going to say in general and not specifically to Last Resort I would agree. With so many shows out over the last 50 years or so writers should have a good idea of what works and what doesn't work. Even if you have lived in a cave writers I find are making writing 101 level mistakes. With Last Resort specifically you really need to know what you are doing to keep the storyline and tension on track so to speak otherwise you lose the audience.

Speaking of the audience I'm not sure all of the above really matters. Last week it scored a 1.7 in the 18-49 rating and only 7.06 million overall which aren't terrible but isn't very good either. It opened with a 2.2 and 9 million views so it's lost about 2 million already. I personally am wondering about costs and wonder with those numbers if the show is profitable. The good news is ABC picked up 2 more scripts for Last Resort which could mean anything from ABC hasn't given up hope on the series to they need 2 more episodes to help fill in the gap in between it gets cancelled and it's replacement starts airing.

[ChahDresh]

"You sound like one of those people who watch horror movies and then ask why the victims go off to investigate the scary noise they heard. IT'S NOT REAL! IT'S FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES"

That's a valid argument... to a point. The problem is that "Last Resort" was billed as something that could happen; it was billed as a "what if" about our lives; it was billed as plausible enough to be scary. The thing is, it's not. Besides which, an awful lot of money, time, and energy went into marketing this show. Therefore, it merits an awful lot of scrutiny.

"You need to shut down the logical part of your brain to be actually entertained. This goes twice for shows featuring stuff YOU know about but the writers did not do the research"

I disagree with your first sentence. Even if I didn't, I would disagree with your second. I went out of my way to avoid talking about technical matters or submarine matters for just that reason; I focused only on plot and cinematography issues that anyone can appreciate. And why give the writers a free pass? Aren't they *supposed* to do research to help sell a show to viewers and advertisers? Isn't the onus on them to do research, not on the audience to ignore that they didn't?

"The Illinois isn't part of the story line other than the attack on the sub, so what they think/do after they found out why they were ordered to attack is, I hate to use this word, irrelevant (for the TV show)."

But that's just it-- it's not irrelevant! If the Illinois tries to figure out how they got orders to attack a U.S. sub, then they start to expose the conspiracy from another angle. Ditto if the fleet in charge of the Illinois starts trying to figure out the same thing. Either way, the conspiracy starts to come undone. That the writers ignore it doesn't make this plot point irrelevant; it makes the writers sloppy.

"I thought the attack order on Pakistan came way before the CO made that video of him explaining what happened. That's what made him make the video in the first place isn't it?"

I'm talking about the unanimous vote in the second episode. The sequence goes:
1) good guys get orders, don't obey
2) good guys get attacked, but live
3) someone else nukes Pakistan in retaliation for the sub sinking
4) sub tells everyone they're alive and were attacked by the USS Illinois
5) Congress votes unanimously to approve the nuking of Pakistan

Even if everything else made sense (which it doesn't), #5 really really doesn't make sense. At that point, everyone knows the good guys are alive, and that somewhere, shenanigans are going on. So Congress then votes to approve the attack ex post facto? Puh-lease!