User Reviews

Even if the president's statement was taken out of text, how would he ever allow himself to say suckers when talking about the American people. Certainly, reporters and the opposition party would definitely go about misinterpreting what he said either for political gain or to enhance an already juicy news story. How do you allow this story to gain legs?

Enough already with Kirkman's mother-in-law being investigated for getting her husband's name pushed up on a heart transplant list by accepting a bribe with a company doing business with the government. Wouldn't anyone in such a precarious situation do something similar? Kirkman even admits that to his wife who is at least given the opportunity to appear on the show.

Let's better relate current issues of the day to our episodes.

When I rate episodes of a TV series, I usually pick a number that I believe is representative of all the elements that go into bringing that episode for our entertainment, looking for the average that includes direction, scripting, acting, SFX, scenery, locations, sound, music, etc.. However, I'm realizing in this second season of Designated Survivor that I'm much more inclined to try and find a number that best represents how I feel after watching the entire episode, that indicates rather I feel that I just witnessed something memorable, relatable and even inspirational. Then I try to average that number into my overall opinion of the episode.

I had very high hopes for this show when it was first broadcast; most likely because I'd become a real fan of Kiefer Sutherland and the "24" TV series. Even after the first season, I was hoping for yet another season. It had not turned out to be as polished, exciting nor memorable as "24," but given other shows, it was still good entertainment and I felt that the character of President Kirkman was interesting, believable and appealing. I enjoyed watching most of the main characters on the show and the mystery of the first season - who was responsible for the death and destruction of the Capital bombing - was interesting and not very predictable.

So far, I've enjoyed the addition of Lyor Boone (Paulo Costanzo) to the cast; Lyor gives us someone to admire and dislike at the same time and adds in a nice bit of tension through his dealings with the other characters. The character of Kendra Danes (Zoe Mclellan) as an attorney seems to be another good choice since the legal scenes add yet another interest/dimension to the series.

Overall, my rating of the episodes for the second season are lower than the first season - scripts often seem awkward and predictable and even the delivery seems more stiff and less enthusiastic. Some of the fights have appeared to be more drawn out, but less exciting or logical. There just seems to be an overall lack of enthusiasm. Because her mother was involved in the legal dilemma this week, it was somewhat expected for FLOTUS, Alex Kirkman (Natascha Elhone), to be emotionally involved and make a few poor decisions, but it ended up feeling as though the intelligent FLOTUS of the first season had been replaced with a less capable impostor.

The highest ratings given by me for the second season are for the actions and especially the speeches of President Kirkman. I was grateful and relieved when he didn't lower his standards to smear the reputation of Senator Alan Rouse this week and I was inspired by his conduct, conversations and speeches regarding SuckerGate and the pension bail-out. Even though the plot was mostly straight forward and simple, it drives home the truth that regardless of political affiliation, if a person stays true to their higher selves, they are best able to serve as an elected representative to the citizens.

There are also ample opportunities to witness how the media has too much influence over elected representatives and tend to steer headline stories in whichever direction and with an intensity designed to increase ad revenue. Really, why are situations like SuckerGate given so much attention in the media? Because of the attention given to certain "stories" in the media, they influence citizens to behave as though the stories are true and, even worse, that they define those involved and are actually important to improving or protecting our way of life. In a similarly harmful manner reasonably intelligent, elected officials are swayed to give too much attention, focus and importance to fake or garbage news. Just look at the proliferation of "news" stories based upon Twitter comments!

So, this was not a terrible episode of Designated Survivor, but the show continues to be an absolute mess. They tried to do a ripped from the headlines storyline yet again with President Kirkman essentially using Hillary Clinton's "deplorables" remark, but they failed to capture the right reaction to it.

This show doesn't know what it wants to be and that is a problem because the ratings aren't giving ABC patience to wait for them to discover what to do.