Designated Survivor season 1

Not long after subscribing to Netflix, I wanted to look beyond their biggest titles in search of something different. My love/hate relationship with House of Cards helped me in deciding it would be fun to start something new and the intriguing political thriller, Designated Survivor, that stars Kiefer Sutherland seemed like a good choice.

Used as an insurance choice should every political member from their party dies, Kiefer is put on this unceremonious duty but is then shocked when the President and almost the entire Cabinet are killed in an explosion, making him first in line to take control. Thrust into a position he never wanted, he takes on the difficult task of helping his country recover, meanwhile trying to figure out who was responsible with the help of Maggie Q's secret service agent.

It sounds a little silly to begin with but I found the beginning to be enjoyable and made for good easy-watching entertainment. However, the show takes a massive U-turn and shifts focus away from everything that made the show engaging in favour of melodramatic subplots and light-hearted fantasy politics, all the while DC is still smoking from the explosion. I gave-up on concentrating around the half-way point and the show then became background noise from there on, whenever I wanted to pass the time on a train.

This deliberate manoeuvre, and the daunting 20+ episodes for this season, show this as a series light on ideas to create something truly engaging, and instead drags the story out to have enough episodes to sell to Netflix and other broadcasters. I looked on Reddit after finally conquering this season and it doesn't look like it gets any better. Sutherland is worthy of stronger material than this fluff, and I can say with confidence that this is not worth watching.