With my final thoughts, I think that this is a series that is well worth watching. Season 1 has its high's and its lows but performs strongly enough to make those lows seem minuscule at best. If you are a fan of politics and shows such as House of Cards or The West Wing, then I highly suggest that you give this show a chance. Having that said, I can't wait to see what the writers have in-store for Tom Kirkman and Co. in Season 2.
Designated Survivor season 1 starts the series off in the right place. Going into this series, I was leery of whether this show was going to be good or not (Me being a hater of most things political) but I must say that I was astounded by the quality of this first season. Viewers are first introduced to Tom Kirkman (Portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland), the Housing and Urban Development member on the President’s cabinet. Quickly, things seem to change once a terrorist attack is launched on the U.S. Capitol building resulting in the death of thousands and thrusts Kirkman into the presidency seeing as he was left as the “Designated Survivor”.
Within this season, I found it easy to like many of the characters that you are introduced to throughout the series and I feel as though both the actors/actresses did an excellent job at portraying their roles. The writers of this series did an excellent job at utilizing character growth within this season as well. Specifically shown with Tom Kirkman going from being an “unqualified candidate” that no one wanted as president and growing into a smart, confident, and an excellent leader of our nation. Seth Wright who is portrayed by Kal Penn is also another great example of this as well as he goes from being just a speech writer to becoming one of the President’s most trusted friends and aides.
Like I said previously, I came into this series with a very bland mindset and I thought I was going to get very little out of this first season. However, to my surprise, I could not believe that I thoroughly enjoyed it as much as I did. When it comes to storytelling, I believe that this is one of this series strongest aspects. At times, the episodes can be bland and very exposition-filled (It is a show about politics) and sometimes you can lose focus because of that, but most exposition-filled the series bounces back from that with very strong ending scenes. Throughout all 21 episodes of this season, most of them have a cliffhanger at each end that leaves you wanting to know what is going to happen next. Many times, throughout the time I spent watching this, I was thrown off by many of the twists that were thrown at me and that’s an excellent trait for a show to carry.
With my final thoughts, I think that this is a series that is well worth watching. Season 1 has its highs and its lows but performs strongly enough to make those lows seem minuscule at best. If you are a fan of politics and shows such as House of Cards or The West Wing, then I highly suggest that you give this show a chance. Having that said, I can’t wait to see what the writers have in-store for Tom Kirkman and Co. in Season 2.
