Designated survivor – not for me I guess.

Designated survivor starts off as a nice 'fish out of the water' story. But it quickly changes into some kind of 24-style series in which Sutherland has to fight back all kinds of outside attacks.

Which is quite a shame because this show could’ve been a thrilling political game which exposes one of the biggest flaws in American politics: that fact that it's united, but not whole.

Each and every state has their own laws and opinions, so something as earth shattering as the destruction of every single governmental layer could lead to the disintegration of the USA as we know it. The glue is gone, it all falls apart as it were.

The show toys with this notion, but not enough in my opinion. Rather it opts for Kirkman's reactions on outside influences that are all pretty much brought to us in a crime of the week fashion (a captured sports coach, a foreign country's aggression, a gossipy reporter, a wiki leaks leak).

Designated survivor hinges on Kirkman as the clueless protagonist who takes the viewer by the hand and together with him we learn.

But we don't really learn political games, instead we get to see 'our' president shine while the rest of the world is being mean to him. This balance is uneven.

My second biggest critique has to come from the investigative subplot into the bombing. I feel that the show dropped the truth far too early which results in having to come up with some strange character-choices and developments to keep Kirkman from learning the truth early on.

I mean, I understand, the Hitchcockian sense of suspense coming from informing the audience of the truth instead of the main protagonist. But stretching it out with some rather unbelievable twists and turns just makes the audience (or me at least) groan in a sense of: tell him already!

I can't spoil too much, but one cliché character choice isn't the strongest in the scriptwriting textbook.

After that cliché after cliché pile up just to keep the president from learning the truth.

I think that the show would have been far better if President Kirkman was far more of a fool instead of Jack Bauer.

In the very first episode Kirkman showed some highly impressive negotiating skills. Where did that come from?

I would have wanted him to tumble over himself episode after episode causing mayhem in the world because of his ineptness. And then, in the final episodes, him getting a grip on it all and becoming the best president ever.

In this version the President is a lovable guy who shares my (left-wing) world view. Who is also rapidly becoming very capable of his job.

Why not let him be a lovable guy who, in his goodness, accidentally turns the world to shoot? We all know that nice guys finish last, But we also know that (in fiction) good always overcomes evil. So why not that route?

Anyway, I stopped after ten episodes. I just read how it all went down on wikia. In the end I was rather glad I stopped watching. It was too much of the same old 'everybody is in on the conspiracy' (some heavy Prison Break vibes here) and far too little on the political games. Too bad, not for me I guess.