Survivor: Nuclear Edition

ABC's new thriller Last Resort casts a rebellious Navy submarine crew as heroes in a world where America's foreign policy has led to an inexplicable nuclear war. Andrew Braugher, as Capt. Marcus Chaplin, initiates the central conflict by refusing direct orders to fire his sub's warheads on Pakistan. The crew members find themselves a target of the country they once defended and seek refuge on a remote tropical island, using their nukes to threaten anybody who has a beef with them.

Unfortunately Last Resort's first few episodes can't maintain a tight ship; the writers' efforts seem to be devoted to spinning out intrigue across the season rather than exploring hypotheticals about the consequences of bellicose American imperialism. The consequences of the military strike on Pakistan seem oddly muted while the show focuses on side plots and romances, plus the opaque motivations of one annoyingly closed-mouthed Navy SEAL. —Scott Shackford