Designated survivor – review

 

I’ve been a big time fan of Keifer Sutherland, ever since I saw “24”. He was the Bruce Willis of TV shows and every single episode of that series was testimony to that fact. The way he blinks his eyes, looking down and up like a bobbing head, his choice of coolers and his angry reaction to most of the situations (have rarely seen him smile across any of the series!!) and even though every single person on the set/scene might be atleast couple of feet taller, the way he carries his character which was devoted to the post of president in 24 and the president himself in this series, is a treat to  watch.

Having seen chasing bad guys  and protecting president after president in the 24 series, he gets to play the role in this series. Guess more than any politician, this man must be quite aware of the layout of white house with half his series seems to be set on that location. 

Designated survivor begins with a bang, literally and couldn’t have been anything bigger to kick start a series!! The capitol building gets bombed when state of the union address is in progress. Meaning the entire American political setup being in attendance, the building is destroyed. As per the American paranoid setup, that has a back up plan for every disaster, a couple of people are marked as on duty in attendance, to overcome such rare eventualities where in, Tom Kirkman(Keifer) gets to be the designated survivor, who happens to survive the blast. The unassuming, housing department secretary, whose job was about to be terminated post the address by the sitting president, gets to become one, where in the entire cabinet and congress along with every elected representative of the judiciary and the legislative, gets killed. The initial 2 episodes of the series are so realistic that it would be impossible to start watching and not stop till you finish them. The same curiosity factor that drove 24 is visible in this one as well and in no time, you would be hooked on to the series. There are surprises after surprise that gets thrown in where in a second designated survivor turns up, with one miracle survivor of the blast and how a supposedly foreign hand on the attacks translates into a homegrown plot, the challenges that haunt the unprepared president and how that non-political appointee to the most politicized post in the world, overcomes those hurdles in his own layman way has been interestingly told. Second season picks up right from the last episode of the first one, with no disconnect. Having already spent close to an year in the post despite having his own misgivings about the same, the president bumbles and stumbles across one plot after another, treachery, back stabbings, personal tragedies and eventually the season ends with him planning to run for a second term. I was surprised to find that the series was wrapped up in 3 seasons with the 3rd one being just 10 episodes!! 

One noticeable difference was the language used between the characters once the 3rd season moved into Netflix from studios. In fact even some of the characters themselves quip about the amount of swear words being used, a clear indication of sleeping censor even in US for OTT platforms. The other change being the transformation of Tom’s character from a regular joe president to a shrewd politician with diminishing scruples. The charm of a commoner president is lost and even though the factors making him change are interestingly told, the ratings drop apparently has led to the termination of the series. I loved the last episode, wherein Tom has a chat with his therapist and the entire election result and the events preceeding that, his action/reaction towards them, his own evaluation of his deeds are told from the perspective of the audience and the final dialogue with which the series closes, reminds of Mudhalvan (kadisila ennaiyum arasiyalvaathi aakiteengalayda). In fact the entire premise carries lot of similarities to Mudhalvan and makes it an interesting watch.

The support cast is also top notch, with the lady who plays his wife or his  advisor/chief of staff (very cute 😍) for his NSA are all very realistic and carry good screen presence. Kal pen who plays the press secretary role is also credit as series consultant. The lady who plays kick ass FBI consultant is awesome as well. I would’ve loved to have this series extended for couple of more seasons at least, but the rushed ending also gives it a kind of completion. One another aspect for the drop in rating, apart from the character transformation, I believe could be the sheer volume of the first 2 seasons. With such a high speed thriller, where in every episode runs for close to 50 minutes and whole 24 episodes of them per season, might’ve caused writer fatigue. It would be literally impossible to think of so many situations to fit in every hour across every episode of every season. It could’ve been a 35 to 40 minute run with couple of episodes spaced out that would’ve given them a longer run I felt. A great series nevertheless for action/thriller series buffs.