With the upcoming Transformers: Age of Extinction right around the corner, it’s hard to imagine anything else with Michael Bay’s name on it would be building nearly as much excitement, but that’s just one of the things that makes TNT’s upcoming series, The Last Ship, so cool. Later today, we’ll run the full version of an interview with showrunner Hank Steinberg, a portion of which you good readers will recall we recently released where Steinberg confirmed Bay, who serves as executive producer on the series, did in fact direct some second unit for a key action sequence in the pilot. Now, with series set to premiere this evening (9/8c to be exact), TNT has made that very scene available in a special five minute clip:

Military talk, quick edits, explosions, circling aerial shots; yeah, that’s a Michael Bay sequence if we ever saw one, and it’s fantastic. So much so in fact, we kind of wish Bay would just free up his schedule a bit and go direct a full blown pilot already.

It’s always interesting to watch what Hollywood’s action film poster boy does on a small budget. Pain & Gain was one of his best films in years, and that sucker ran under $30 million. Somehow, Bay was able to pull off Bad Boys II level action on a budget that would barely clear Bad Boys II’s catering. That’s impressive.

Does this scene get you interested in checking out The Last Ship? Are you already looking forward to it? Let us know in the comments below!