• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, September 6, 2022

The apocalypse drama “Last Light” coming to Peacock on Thursday plays like a network show originally earmarked for NBC that NBC Universal decided to steer straight to streaming.

The five episodes that Peacock made available for preview all clock in at a little less than 44 minutes in length. That sounds like prime-time network length, not subscription TV.

Moreover, the only real difference between this show and any other network show is that the f-word makes occasional appearances, which -- believe it or not -- is still verboten on our quaint, old broadcast networks.

“Last Light” is another in a very long line of end-of-the-world dramas that have piled up one after the other on TV over the last few years.

This one seems aimed primarily at the First World's legions of Chicken Littles who always believe the sky is falling and cannot be convinced otherwise.

In “Last Light,” it appears to be the twilight's last gleaming as the globe finds itself under some sort of an attack.

All of the oil being processed in the world's refineries has been rendered un-refinable, ships and other vehicles using gasoline or diesel fuel are bursting into flames, and electric grids are starting to fail one by one.

In the first episode, we do not learn who or what is behind this blitzkrieg on the vital energy resources that fuel the world's commerce and sustain the people of the world so that they don't die.

“Last Light” tells its story mainly from the point-of-view of a single family led by a globe-trotting petro-chemist (a job I have never heard of before) who works for a Middle Eastern oil giant.

Played by Matthew Fox (pictured above), the man's name is Andy Nielsen -- yes, just like the ratings!

While Andy seems to be an American, the rest of his Nielsen family are English -- wife Elena (Joanne Froggatt), young son Sam (Taylor Fay) who is blind, and teenage rebel daughter Laura (Alyth Ross).

They live in England, but seem to get around quite a bit. As the show opens, mom Elena has brought Sam to Paris to undergo a radical new kind of surgery aimed at vanquishing his blindness.

At the same time, Andy is in the sandy deserts of the Middle East somewhere testing oil samples at a refinery. Judging from the look on his face, the news is not good.

While her parents are gone, Laura is home throwing a huge party in the Nielsen household that her parents made her promise she would not do.

As a teen who has simply had it with fossil fuels (because they are bad!), she struggles with the career her father pursues with an oil company at an apparently high salary that puts food on her table, clothes on her back and a beautiful home in which to throw parties while her parents are away.

And so, when disaster strikes, this Nielsen family is spread out all over the place -- from Great Britain to the Arabian peninsula.

Nothing in particular is wrong with “Last Light.” It is a very good apocalypse show as these things go.

The locations -- Paris, the Arabian desert -- are eye-catching, and there is considerable action, including an exciting car chase through the desert sands as a massive sandstorm threatens on the horizon.

Is this sandstorm evidence of climate change brought on somehow by fossil fuels? Sample this Nielsen show and find out.

“Last Light” starts streaming on Thursday (September 8) on Peacock.