History YMMV / TheLastShip

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Tex, with his cheerful attitude and casual disregard for protocol, turned out to be such a dynamic character that he immediately became more prominent than some main characters before being promoted to the main cast in Season 2. [[spoiler:Needless to say, there was much outcry over his death at the end of Season 3.]]

** The plot point about the ''Nathan James'' not knowing about the Red Flu because it was under radio silence is a lot more difficult to watch when real life navy ships and submarines came out of radio silence to find out the world in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Tex, with his cheerful attitude and casual disregard for protocol, turned out to be such a dynamic character that he immediately became more prominent that some main characters before being promoted to the main cast in Season 2. [[spoiler:Needless to say, there was much outcry over his death at the end of Season 3.]]

** The plot point about the ''Nathan James'' not knowing about the Red Flu because it was under radio silence is a lot more difficult to watch now that real life navy ships and submarines are coming out of radio silence to find out the world is in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

* IdiotBall:
** Why Jeter would tell his family on an open channel NOT to come to a place the ''Nathan James'' is going to anchor at is not explained, but it serves mainly to stretch the episode out to the requisite ~1 hour.
** Why wasn't Barnes arrested for his interview with Curtis, especially upon showing said interview to Michener and the rest? The man [[spoiler:impersonated a lawyer to get in]] for crying out loud.
** The regional leaders are utterly stupid. Their plot effectively destroys what is left of the Navy's major surface units, would have left them utterly defenseless from invasion by anyone, and when they do setup their regions, they do it so badly that it doesn't take more than weeks before one has a shortage of food and power, and the other has a shortage of manpower.
** Despite being one of the most powerful ships in the US Navy, the ''Nathan James'' is inexplicably surprised on multiple occasions by missiles, ships and drones, and is hit numerous times by weapons that they should be able to easily detect and defeat.
* IdiotPlot: The "El Toro" arc. If Chandler hadn't been so cagey he would probably have realized that El Toro, like any drug lord, only cares about getting people shooed off the grounds as fast as possible and if what they want/need isn't too exorbitant, he'll gladly give it up as the price for just being left alone to keep his subject people in misery.

* WhatAnIdiot: In the pilot, they are in absolutely no hurry to get off the Italian Cruise Liner. They've established that it is free of any dangers aside from the obvious virus. Despite this, Danny and Frankie Benz ''run'' from the galley, with bags loaded down with food, down a stairway they obviously hadn't come up in the first place or they would have remembered the bodies/trip hazards.

** The GreaterScopeVillain in season three tells Chandler, before [[spoiler: he kills her,]] that the America he knew is gone. Since the 2016 Presidential Election, there are probably a lot of Americans who are feeling the same way.

** The regional leaders are utterly stupid. Their plot effectively destroys what is left of the Navy's major surface units, would have left them utterly defenseless from invasion by anyone, and when they do setup their regions, they do it so badly that it doesn't take more than weeks before one has a shortage of food & power, and the other has a shortage of manpower.
** Despite being one of the most powerful ships in the US Navy, the ''Nathan James'' is inexplicably surprised on multiple occasions by missiles, ships & drones, and is hit numerous times by weapons that they should be able to easily detect and defeat.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The latter half of Season 3 shows that the regional leaders have secretly split the United States into their own private sovereign territories. This seemed to be setting up a modern day, multisided civil war story arc for Season 4 that would pit the multiple regions & leaders against each other and the legitimate President and Chandler. Instead, the arc is quickly and neatly wrapped up in last two episodes of Season 3.

* PlotArmor:
** Despite being hit by a Spearfish heavy torpedo on her port side, the worst the ''Nathan James'' suffered was losing her sonar. In reality, she would have taken far more damage (namely a hull breach).
** Judging from the exterior shot, the Spearfish detonated about 80 yards off the port side, so the damage makes more sense. Had it detonated below the ''Nathan James'''s keel (the preferred way to kill a surface ship with a torpedo), the blast and resulting water hammer would've broken her back.
** Several episodes in Season 3 have the ship get hit with weapons that would sink the ship in reality. Episode 9 of Season 3 the ship gets pounded with a land-based anti-ship missile that does damage but does not sink the ship, while the two other ships of the same class in their squadron get sunk & put dead in the water respectively.
** It's also oddly averted, as an ''Arleigh Burke'' destroyer should be able to easily defeat all the threats that have been launched at it on the show, in any of the episodes. The Aegis combat system was designed to defeat Cold War era missile attacks from large Soviet fleets or bomber wings. In particular, the episode where three ships of their class are targeted, the combat systems in the three ship fleet should have kept them completely protected.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: The fact that the Russian rebel's choppers are CGI is very obvious, what's worse is that they are American military choppers.

* LifeImitatesArt: In the first season, a virus ravages Italy and an Italian cruise ship. In 2020, a virus also did the same to Italy, with cruise ships particularly being hard hit.

* HarsherInHindsight: The GreaterScopeVillain in season three tells Chandler, before [[spoiler: he kills her,]] that the America he knew is gone. Since the 2016 Presidential Election, there are probably a lot of Americans who are feeling the same way.

* WhatAnIdiot: In the pilot, they are in absolutely no hurry to get off the Italian Cruise Liner. They've established that it is free of any dangers aside from the obvious virus. Despite this, Danny and Frankie Benz ''run'' from the galley, with bags loaded down with food, down a stairway they obviously hadn't come up in the first place or they would have remembered the bodies/trip hazards.

** To be fair, it's later stated that they were taken from NATO bases abandoned due to the virus.

* SpiritualLicensee: Possible similarity with SpaceBattleshipYamato (military ship saving the human race) and ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Days Of Ruin]]'' (last surviving military fighting against AfterTheEnd warlords).

* InternetBackdraft: The fanbase's take on "Friendly Fire" has not been pleasant to say the least.

* HilariousInHindsight: [[RealPersonCameo Ray Mabus's appearance as the now-deceased Secretary of the Navy]]. After having repeatedly placed political correctness ahead of readiness, among other complaints, and most recently his quickly-reversed decision to abolish the Navy's traditional system of enlisted ratings (which generated harshly-worded backlash from ''[[ZeroPercentApprovalRating literally every enlisted Sailor in the Navy]]''), Mabus is quite possibly [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating the most reviled and despised SECNAV the United States Navy has ever had]]. Sailors and Marines of every political preference have called him a useless political hack, and his demise in-universe would almost certainly be an example of AndThereWasMuchRejoicing.

* HilariousInHindsight: [[RealPersonCameo Ray Mabus's appearance as the now-deceased Secretary of the Navy]]. After having repeatedly placed political correctness ahead of readiness, among other complaints, and most recently his quickly-reversed decision to abolish the Navy's traditional system of enlisted ratings (which generated harshly-worded backlash from ''[[ZeroPercentApprovalRating literally every enlisted Sailor in the Navy]]''), Mabus is quite possibly [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating the most reviled and despised SECNAV the United States Navy has ever had]]. Sailors and Marines of every political preference have called him a useless political hack.

** If the Ramseys didn't cross it by [[spoiler: destroying the cure labs]], they were truly over the line when they destroyed [[spoiler: New Orleans]].

* HilariousInHindsight: [[RealPersonCameo Ray Mabus's appearance as the now-deceased Secretary of the Navy]]. After having repeatedly placed political correctness ahead of readiness, among other complaints, and most recently his quickly-reversed decision to abolish the Navy's traditional system of enlisted ratings (which generated harshly-worded backlash from ''literally every enlisted Sailor in the Navy''), Mabus is quite possibly [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating the most reviled and despised SECNAV the United States Navy has ever had]]. Sailors and Marines of every political preference have called him a useless political hack.

* HilariousInHindsight: [[RealPersonCameo Ray Mabus's appearance as the now-deceased Secretary of the Navy]]. After having repeatedly placed political correctness ahead of readiness, among other complaints, Mabus is quite possibly the most reviled and despised SECNAV the United States Navy has ever had. Sailors and Marines of every political preference have called him a useless political hack.

* HilariousInHindsight: [[RealPersonCameo Ray Mabus's appearance as the now-deceased Secretary of the Navy]]. Afternoon having repeatedly placed political correctness ahead of readiness, among other complaints, Mabus is quite possibly the most reviled and despised SECNAV the United States Navy has ever had. Sailors and Marines of every political preference have called him a useless political hack.