Designated Survivor -- the First Two Seasons Were Great

This is another one of my recent guilty pleasures: Designated Survivor. I started watching it when it first came on ABC, and you can read my impressions of the first season here. I caught the second season on Netflix -- and now you can catch the whole run over there.

The first season follows what happens after a terrorist attack takes out the Presidential staff and the entire Congress. Only one member of the staff survives -- the Designated Survivor (which is a real thing, by the way). Tom Kirkman, the director of HUD becomes the next president, but he has many enemies, and often feels underqualified for the position. Still, he chooses to rise to the occasion.

Since he is mostly an outsider, he decides to do things the "right" way instead of how the parties would have him act. And as you may guess, this upsets a lot of people. He describes himself as a moderate and an independent. However, throughout the first two seasons, he often pushes forward what may be considered to be liberal agendas today. And the preachiness certainly pushed away several of my friends from continuing the show. I guess it didn't bug me that much.

The funny thing is -- I think Tom Kirkman, if he existed in real life, would be exactly the type of person I would like to see running our country. So much so, that if Keifer Sutherland were to run for president, I just might have a hard time NOT voting for him. I liked his character that much. And didn't that happen in real life in the Ukraine?

The second half of the first season and most of the second season spend more time on the politics, which I think I may have enjoyed more than the terrorist angle -- though that part was fun as well.

The main thing that irritated me was how poor Agent Hannah Wells gets treated. She's very good and very capable, but for some strange reason, no one takes her seriously. So many times we see her superiors and peers sending her to her room without listening to what she has to say. It's a very convoluted way to build up artificial suspense. Though -- I must admit that it mostly worked. I did like following her character.

I was at first excited about a third season, exclusively on Netflix. I watched the first episode and realized I wasn't even going to try to finish it. The writers changed the formula -- as if some executive said, "I want to see a lot more House of Cards." So, we got introduced to F-bombs and affairs, unexplained changes to people's characters, and really bad writing and ... well ... it just ruined the whole feel and show for me. And it felt ... fake. Eventually I'll get around to watching House of Cards, which is probably good, but it did not fit in Designated Survivor. 

I see that the show was cancelled for good after about 10 episodes in Season 3. Perhaps if enough people tell me it's worth watching I'll finish it out. But for now -- I got a lot of other good shows on my plate. For now I'll just pretend the 3rd season never happened and that it stayed cancelled after Season 2.

I strongly advise watching the first two seasons -- and then you can continue one at your own risk.