When ABC cancelled Designated Survivor last year, I was not that upset about the cancellation. When I heard that Netflix picked up for a third season, I was like that is nice. Maybe I will watch it. Then I saw the trailer for it, and I was like this looks totally amazing. I am so going to watch the show about Kiefer Sutherland becoming President when everyone else in the government was killed except for him.
The third season is centered around President Kirkman (Sutherland) running for President for real as a third party candidate. The season starts off with him losing it at the State of the Union and the results are disastrous. Luckily, Mars Harper (Anthony Edwards), his new Chief of Staff, is there to steer him in the right direction. Not only that the White House Press Secretary Seth Wright (Kal Penn) always finds a way to get the press to talk about him and not his boss.
Meanwhile, as all of that is going on in DC, Emily Rhodes (Italia Ricci), Kirkman’s most loyal employee even before he became POTUS, is in Florida by her dying mother’s side. Seth calls her up and tells her she needs to return to DC to help out Kirkman. She begrudgingly agrees and winds up staying there. Asking her mother to come live with her during her final days. This storyline is so brilliantly acted out by Ricci, she will make you cry harder than she did when she was the one with cancer on Chasing Life.
Kirkman needs a really good campaign manager to help him do the impossible, win the race as a third party candidate. He picks Lorraine Zimmer (Julie White) as the woman to lead his campaign. She will do anything to win, and I do mean that. She will ask Kirkman and his staff to do things they don’t agree with in order to win. She is a tough lady who really uses the ability to curse. Now that the show is not on broadcast television they can say words that they could not say before.
Yes, that is right, there is cursing and a lot of it. It feels natural and gives the show a whole new dynamic with the writing. It is something the drama needed and we did not know it until now.
Back to the show. Besides dealing with the contentious election against Kirkman’s Conservative Secretary of State Cornelius Moss (Geoff Pierson), the show, as it has in the past, will take on current hot topic issues. Throughout the season, they are going to tackle marriages between a minor and an adult, opioid abuse, transgenderism, being HIV positive and undetectable, helping an undocumented child who needs a transplant, assisted suicide, finding out you are the father because you were a sperm donor in college, being proud of your heritage, nuclear threats, domestic terrorism with biochemical warfare and so much more.
And yes, the season ends with us finding out who will be the next President of the United States.
While the show is not as much about the heart that it had the first season, it is still there. Except for this time around Kirkman finally found his balls. He is not being pushed around like he used to be thanks to the strong people around him. He is still the president I want. Can Sutherland run in 2020? If Canuck Ted Cruz could run in 2016, so can fellow Canadian Kiefer Sutherland with the writers of the show writing his presidency for him! Totally realistic right?
The show has a much different feel, one that makes you glad it is bingable. Like a good book, you will want to watch it all in one sitting. You cannot even wait two minutes to find out what happens next.
Why is does the show feel different? Besides being on Netflix and being able to swear, Neal Baer (ER, Law & Order: SVU) took over as EP (something that was always the plan). He helped to make this show more realistic and got rid of the over the top, unnecessary conflicts for the White House to deal with. Those storylines took away from the premise of the show which is about being President when you are not supposed to be. This show is now about a President running the country and running to keep his job.
Whether you have watched the show from episode one or this will be the first time you have seen it, you are going to be hooked from minute 1 of the third season. This is what saving a cancelled show is all about. Thanking the fans for saving it by making it even better.
