99 Words About … The familiarity of TNT’s ‘The Last Ship’

Eric Dane stars in TNT's "The Last Ship." (Karen Ballard/TNT)

A drama about the crew of a Navy destroyer returning to a global pandemic shouldn’t feel derivative.

Yet “The Last Ship” (9 p.m. Sunday, TNT) does.

It’s a lot of “Last Resort” and a little “Battlestar Galactica” with the societal collapse of “The Walking Dead” or even “Falling Skies” (10 p.m. Sunday, TNT).

Captain McSteamy, err, Tom Chandler (Eric Dane) butts heads with the sexy paleomicrobiologist (Rhona Mitra) searching for the deadly virus’ primordial strain.

It’s not great.

But at least it’s not another of TNT’s ampersanded investigators (“Rizzoli &Isles,” “King &Maxwell”) or lawyers (“Franklin &Bash”).

— CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE