Emergency POTUS, Or 8 Reasons Why You Should Watch “Designated Survivor”

4. Anarchy in the USA!

With America itching to get at anybody who’s even slightly involved in the attack, a terrorist group is named as the likely suspect as the country begins to move their subs and ships into an attack position. Then said terrorist group’s leader is spotted in Algeria but the country doesn’t want to support U.S. troops into their borders. Looks like every country is looking to test the new guy in the oval office. So, after realizing that diplomacy isn’t going to work with Algeria, President Kirkman decides the send the Navy SEALs on a mission to investigate if the leader of said terrorist group is exactly where intelligence says he is.

3. Who Said the Attacks are Over?

Prevailing theory: the explosion at the capitol was just the first in a wave of attacks that will plunge the U.S. into total anarchy. This is why nobody has claimed it yet and this is why FBI agent Hannah Wells is uncovering deep and pre-planned contingencies that suggest this was a conspiracy, years in the making.

2. Jack Bauer, President.

Without a doubt, Kiefer Sutherland carries this show’s gravitas and drama on his shoulders. It helps to posit him as a family man and his wife and kids’ challenges and tribulations (oh, no, my dad’s now leader of the free world!) give it context but never distract or veer off too much into what is essentially fodder for small talk in political shows like this.

Sometimes he does let the old Jack Bauer of 24 shine through, ruthless and determined, but Kirkman is genuinely a non-confrontational and soft-spoken good guy. Someone who’d blend into the swank wallpaper. I think this is exactly why we’ll keep watching to see if an ordinary guy, picked last in the dodgeball game of politics (but still picked to carry on, just in case), can surmount his own shortcomings and serve on the right side of history, in a dark time that will require retribution for murders done in malice.

All photos courtesy of ABC/Netflix

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