I'm somewhat excited about this...

"Designated Survivor is an upcoming American political drama television series created by David Guggenheim, and starring Kiefer Sutherland, set to air on ABC. The series was ordered straight-to-series on December 14, 2015, with a teaser trailer released on May 6, 2016, and a full-length trailer on May 17, 2016. The series will premiere on September 21, 2016. The series is produced by ABC Studios and The Mark Gordon Company."


Plot:

"On the night of the State of the Union, an explosion claims the lives of the President and all members of the Cabinet except for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Tom Kirkman, who had been named the designated survivor. Kirkman is immediately sworn in as President, unaware that the attack is just the beginning of what is to come."

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_f1v0Nx5Sw

im too excited about this. my prediction is that i'll love the pilot, even though it's not that good. and then the rest of the series will be pretty bad.

It looks hilariously awesome

cant wait

wayy too early for a designated thread

Am so used to seeing Kal Penn give advice to Harold - and that never seemed to work out so hot for the two of them lol ..




Guess he actually worked in the White House in real life after playing Kumar, did he?


The trailer for the show looks so good!

looks like it will be good

Has Keifer Sutherland always had that weird whisper voice, or did he just develop it during 24 and never got rid of it?

never got rid of it, full time alcoholic, asthma, whatever, it suits him.

I'm a fan of Keifer. Enjoyed most of 24. Expect to enjoy this, as bad as it may be.

has pretty good reviews so far on RT (85%) which is good to see

Will he get to shoot/torture people?

Can't wait. I hope they troll the world by having him say "Damn it"

certified badass so far

Solid.

I'm pumped for episode 2. Can't wait.

Meh. Very "ABC." Mundane and simple writing, manipulative, "who cares" BS about the druggie son. Completely unrealistic and stilted dialog. The person who wrote this is in love with the Blacklist and Magnum P.I. and has likely never even seen The West Wing or the Wire.

Nothing special, but the concept is good enough to watch another episode or two.

i've always said that there are tons of amazingly talented actors who could play a great jack bauer. i've never thought much of keifer sutherland as an actor. but i'm now realizing that he has a certain something that is rare, or maybe even unique. it's hard to describe. but he has a relatability. there is something about him that makes you sympathize with him and want to be on his side.

anyway, super fun episode. i wish i could watch episode 2 right now

lol at how lame teenagers ALWAYS are on these shows

but yes, this is total absolute trash

I do like having a chance to see Natascha McElhone every week. Good lord, she's still ridiculously beautiful at 47.

It's funny how Sutherland always has the most neutral sounding white names.

Jack.

Tom.

He'll probably be Bill on the next show.

i read the script for the pilot while back and it was god awful.
i didn't watch the actual pilot but curious if they resolved almost every story line like they did in the script.

they had everyone doubting him and his ability to lead as well as the whole "i don't get along with my son who's also on drugs" and by the end of the pilot he had shown his character and won everyone over and his son was all proud of him and they reconnected and everything was groovy.

i was writing some sample coverage for different scripts and i just absolutely trashed this one (goes to show how much i know i guess) and one of my criticisms was that they resolved way too many storylines in the first episode and didn't see how they could stretch it out for multiple seasons.

wondering if they addressed some of those issues or if in the actual pilot that made it to air he also patches everything up with his son and wins the respect of his constituents and subordinates.

Meh, I enjoyed the first episode. Eager to see how it starts to unfold. Sure the writing isn't emmy worthy but I like the onset and I'm on for the ride with Jack Bauer's not-yet-sure-he-has-what-it-takes-to-play-with-the-big-boys cousin!

he didn't win anyone over. but two people are starting to think that maybe he is a good president, the speech writer, and his new male assistant who watched him bitch slap the iranian ambassador, and handle the usa general.

nothing really happened with his son. probably the less of the son in the show the better.

I liked it, didn't love it, but it's something to watch. One thing that bugs me, and it's nitpicky, but it seems like something a network show could get right. Iran does not have an ambassador in the US. They don't have an embassy. They have a chief of interests who uses space in Pakistans embassy. Maybe they thought calling him ambassador would make it easier for people to understand, or maybe it was just lazy writing which doesn't bode well for the future.

Also really nitpicky but what is the point of having the designated survivor in DC within eye sight view of the CApitol? If they get nuked, he dies too. Surely the designated survivor is 100's of miles away. it was reasonable fun though, I'll watch