Designated Survivor on ABC

So I missed the series premiere last wensday because it's at 10 o clock and I have to wake up for work at 3am, but I streamed it online today, and I was pleasantly surprised.

The basic premise of the show is as follows: Keifer Sutherland plays Tom Kirkman, the secretary of HUD who is chosen to be away from the State of the Union Address while Congress, SCOTUS and the Cabinent attend the address. Sutherland is in a secure location, swigging a beer, eating pizza and cozying up with his attractive wife, when suddenly the TV goes out, and then the Secret Service storms his room and takes them to the White House without delay.

There is about 10 minutes of flashback where we learn the president had intended to fire poor Keifer Sutherland, and that was to take effect tommorow. Too bad KS is now in charge.

We meet a few other characters, Maggie Q plays Special Agent Hanna Wells an FBI explosives expert, Kal Penn is a speech writer, Kevin McNally plays a character, General Harris Cochrane, who is shaping up to be the villian of the series. These characters are all still being developed but you are left with impressions of each.

Spoilers Below

There are some scenes that were really well done, Sutherland gets sworn in by some retired district Judge (supreme court is dead and all) and taken to the command bunker to find a room full of suits and uniforms arguing six different topics just shouting over each other, and he has to lay down the law to get them to shut up and explain to him what's going on. This is where we meet General Cochrane and he's immediately established as a problem child, he's screaming orders at people over the phone, and attempting to initiate military action and bring the military to DEFCON 2 without approval. Cochrane is basically a loose cannon, in the span of 20 minutes with President Sutherland there he orders military strikes on Iran and wants to send messages to other countries saying the US is on "war footing" without even consulting the new president.

At the ruins of the US Capitol Agent Wells is heading the FBI investigation into the bombing of the capitol, she deduces there might be more attacks coming, based on lack of movement on people under investigation on the watchlist.

And there's a scene that's kind of funny and a jumpscare at the same time where Sutherland's son had gone out to a rave while telling his parents he'd be somewhere else, too bad for him as he's now the first son in the first family the Feds wast no time busting up his rave and hauling his a$$ back to the White House, it's a well made subplot because when the Secret Service agent is telling the new president they can't find his son and they're dedicating resources to finding him, you know the son is just being a stupid teenager doing stupid teenager stuff but the backdrop of a terror attack making his dad president means his lie to be somewhere else is now serious and dramatic.

Anyway if anyone else saw this show I'd love to hear your thoughts

I didn't read your spoilers but thanks for the reminder. I'll check it out tonight. I am a cable cutter but the pilot is available for free on Amazon. I have been looking forward to this because I like Keifer Sutherland but was burned out on 24. While the premises seems far fetched it sounds like a fun idea for a show.

BrewerBob said:

I didn't read your spoilers but thanks for the reminder. I'll check it out tonight. I am a cable cutter but the pilot is available for free on Amazon. I have been looking forward to this because I like Keifer Sutherland but was burned out on 24. While the premises seems far fetched it sounds like a fun idea for a show.

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Yeah but then again shows about real life are boring.

I think it's a fun idea to explore, how would it work if our institutions were instantly demolished and we have to regain control, and who will be the various competing factions? I don't want to spoil it so I won't be specific but I like how they're already exploring civilian v military control in the event of a leadership vacuum.

Episode 2 of Designated Survivor I just finished, and all I got to say is WTF?!

OK so most of the episode is OK, A Plot: Keifer Sutherland is still trying to adjust to being president following the events of the pilot. His speech which he began at the end of last episode is not being recieved well by the talking heads, he seems to be spending most of this episode coming to grips with the pressures of being thrust into this position. Very little character development occurs for Sutherland although in the B plot he has to stand up to insolent local officials and we learn he's a democrat (see spoiler section below). Maggie Q in the meantime is hot on the case (and hot in general, but I digress) her character Spc Agent Wells has about 4 lines of dialog this whole episode and it's setting up a plot twist where we're supposed to learn who the bombers actually are. This meshes with the Plot line of General Cochrane who, based on the initial lab results from the FBI of the detonated bombs wants to set up a fictional islamic terror group as the fall guys and basically go to war. Maggie Q however believes the sparse evidence linking this islamic group to the bombing is a set up, and of course it is, we're going to learn the bombers are caucasian later in the series. mark my words.

OK The B plot, real simple, the entire country is believes moslems did it, Kal Penn the presidential speechwriter because of his dark skin is hassled by the DC 5-0 while walking to work. There's some really dark humor here where Kal gives the officer his characters name, which is "Seth White" and the officer asks "is this your real name" clear racial profiling. of course just showing his white house credentials gets him on his way. Another dark skinned young man is not so lucky, see spoilers, that subplot involves Gov Rick Snyder declaring martial law in Michigan and rounding up moslems leading to civil disorder in the streets. Kiefer Sutherland tries to reason with him but Gov Snyder says "drink my water" and hangs up the phone ignorning him until the end of the episode.

(cont)

part 2
OK spoiler recap.

There were serious problems I had with this episode. I get the show is trying to do social commentary on how prejudice can effect our decision making, and I don't mind that, but this stuff is all one dimensional and almost the characters are caricatures, they're strawmen and I think rather unbelievable ones. I can see Kal Penn getting stopped and ID'd by police on the streets, that happens every day in America, but there is like one part of the sub plot where like there's a liveleak video of some brown skinned teenager in michigan, compliant, in cuffs getting the snot beat out of him by a police officer with a baton who's enforcing the moslem curfew Gov Snyder (oops, Royce is his name in the show) declares. he later dies and the president has to bluff him to get him to stand down, and that was another thing that bothered me, was that this housing secretary was able to play him like a fiddle in the ending segment of the episode. at the beginning of the episode this Michigan Governor basically tells Keifer Sutherland to go piss up a rope because he thinks the feds are out of commission. that's absurd, so congress got killed but every department of the federal government is still fully functional and that's when you don't want to get in pissing matches with "the president" because even the HUD sec turned president has more bodies loyal to him then this doofus governor and not only that with no congress in the picture he has almost no checks on him unlike you who has a state legislature still in commission, and not only that but he defends his clearly illegal actions by repeating this one line "I got to keep my people safe" corrupt officials are masters at skillfully justifying their actions, Gov Royce would've said something like "our actions are totally legal, we have open law enforcement investigations giving us probable cause, we've been monitoring this imam who was being stuffed in a crown vic in front the news and he said 'put the kaffirs to the sword' and take us to court" They would come up with some quasi legal justification that sounds more convincing then "have a glass of water in flint with me and i'm keeping my people safe" I really though WTF this whole subplot because it is so one dimensional, it lacks any depth, and doesn't really reflect the reality of how discrimination takes effect. remember there was a guy who killed a sihk after 9/11 and he got sentenced to death for it, even after 9/11 once you start hurting people because they look muslim it was not sanctioned in any way. It was a dissappointing plot line.

The other complaint I had was Maggie Q looks at the bomb at the lab and immediately says "this bomb was a plant" and she goes to acting FBI director with this and he's like "uhh do you have any evidence of this" of course she doesn't but she's upset that he won't tell the president about her speculation, and instead of like being an investigator and trying to picture what occured using the evidence she's basically decided what happened and is trying to get other people to color the investigation with her biases. This plot line could definitely have been written better. of course instead of writing a scene with everyone analyzing the evidence and drawing conclusions and chasing down leads, they have to portray this good looking attractive professional woman in the man's career field being blown off and she has to set them straight, it's an old trope and really it's boring as heck, it was better then governor Snyder's goons beating handcuffed moslem youth on liveleak, but it wasn't optimal.

Here's to the hope of a better ep 3

Say the first two episodes and I like it a lot. Sutherland is pretty good.

On a side note, streaming services (Netflix, etc.) have ruined TV for me.

azgreg said:

Say the first two episodes and I like it a lot. Sutherland is pretty good.

On a side note, streaming services (Netflix, etc.) have ruined TV for me.

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The first episode was excellent, the second was ok but as I explained in my spoiler recap, those two old tropes just ruined it for me. I'm hoping 3 is better.

EMNofSeattle said:

The first episode was excellent, the second was ok but as I explained in my spoiler recap, those two old tropes just ruined it for me. I'm hoping 3 is better.

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I get the problem with taking liberties. I've learned to get past that kind of stuff and just enjoy the show. I've got a friend that I can't watch WWII movies with. He gets all bent out of shape when the soldiers have the wrong buttons on their uniforms.

azgreg said:

I get the problem with taking liberties. I've learned to get past that kind of stuff and just enjoy the show. I've got a friend that I can't watch WWII movies with. He gets all bent out of shape when the soldiers have the wrong buttons on their uniforms.

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I don't think the problem is with taking liberties but just bad 1 dimensional writing.

I just got done watching the first 2 episodes, it's got potential but they need to tighten up the writing and storylines.

Crovax said:

I don't think the problem is with taking liberties but just bad 1 dimensional writing.

I just got done watching the first 2 episodes, it's got potential but they need to tighten up the writing and storylines.

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I don't disagree it's just that when it comes to movies and TV shows I'm just not that critical. If I get through a movie without checking my watch I'll call it good. :2razz: