Hank Steinberg's television gives people urgent jobs to do. We appreciate the writer and occasional director's practical approach in The Last Ship, but thin characters and over-explained dialogue keep our enthusiasm in check.
Fi1m perspective
In The Last Ship (2014), securing resources is enough to keep the action moving; the programme does not need an elaborate mystery to make the next task matter. Hank Steinberg and co-creator Steven Kane understand the usefulness of a clear objective. We stayed interested because survival was treated as work, with practical problems to solve. That makes for decent action television, with characters who are less compelling than their work. His occasional directing credits sit within a career principally spent creating and writing television.
He began with biographical television films, writing 61\ (2001), directed by Billy Crystal, and RFK (2002). With Without a Trace (2002), which he created, the missing-persons investigation became the basis for a continuing series. His stated interest was in the people involved in the search as well as the person being sought. That is a useful ambition to bring to a procedural; The Last Ship* shows how easily it can be crowded out by the next urgent task.
As co-creators and credited writers, Kane and Steinberg keep the naval action purposeful, but too much dialogue explains what the action should make clear. We grew impatient with the accumulated technical explanations because they interrupted tasks that already held our attention. Rhona Mitra's Dr Rachel Scott and Sam Spruell's Dr Quincy Tophet are among the characters who need more room for personality. It is difficult for a cast to establish a rapport when so much of the dialogue is there to brief us. The survival problems remain worth following, but the conversations too often feel like additional duties.
His later work includes the legal drama For Life (2020) and Doc (2025), his adaptation of an Italian medical series. On Doc, Barbie Kligman shares the showrunning duties. The question for us is how much room the people get once the urgent business has been explained. For the naval-action enthusiast, The Last Ship is worth a try; anyone hoping to get attached to the crew should lower their expectations.
Biography
Hank Steinberg is an American television writer, producer and director. He was born on 19 November 1969 in Manhasset, New York, and raised in nearby Great Neck. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 with a degree in English literature.
Steinberg created the CBS series Without a Trace (2002–2009) and co-created the TNT series The Last Ship (2014–2018), on which he also wrote and directed episodes. He created the ABC series For Life (2020) and has written for the Fox series Doc (2025). Earlier film credits include the teleplays for 61 (2001) and RFK* (2002).
In 2013 he published his debut novel Out of Range. He has been married to Kara Dors since 2007.
