Is anyone watching ABC's new Designed Survivor? It's about a routine night of a state of the union address. As a rule, there is always one member of congress that is put in a secret location, just in case something bad happens to POTUS, etc. Keifer Sutherland plays that guy - Tom Kirkland, a low-level Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He was also fired the same day, and assigned as an ambassador in a non-position. As it turns out, terrorists bomb the capital, killing POTUS, V-POTUS, Sec of State, and most of the Congress.

Suddenly, Tom Kirkland is being swept away by the secret service to an underground bunker. He is sworn in as President Kirkland, and reluctantly starts to assume command. Many think he's not qualified, and they're probably right, including a speech writer in a bathroom stall next to Kirkland, who is going off on how unqualified Kirkland is. Little does he know but it's Kirkland in the other stall. Kirkland asks the writer if he believes everything he just said, and the writer confirms it. Instead of firing him, he tells the writer "you have 57 minutes to help me convince the American people otherwise". The first episode ends with Kirkland sitting down and reading from a prompter "My fellow Americans..."

Episode 2 is on tonight, and picks up the next day. I'm not one for political shows, or cop shows, or lawyer shows. They're all very predictable to me. But I watched this one, and it intrigued me. So for now, I'll stay with it. The first episode felt more like a movie, instead of a TV show.

The cast is:

Keifer Sutherland - President Tom Kirkland

Natasha McElhone - his wife (formerly of Californication)

Adan Canto

Italia Ricci

LaMonica Garrett

[Edited 9/28/16 21:07pm]

I saw the commercial and I thought that was Tom Arnold at first

[Edited 9/28/16 23:01pm]

I am hoping to catch up with this online. The premise is cool and I love Jack Bauer.

RodeoSchro said:

I am hoping to catch up with this online. The premise is cool and I love Jack Bauer.

His character is very much not in the vein of Jack Bauer, too. He's sort of meekish, but not shy. He's really a middle management type that gets to be CEO through the course of weird events. Oddly, this is similar to the premise of Night Court, when Harry gets the job as judge, because everyone else in the town was at a picnic or something, and he was the first person on the list to get the call (and the last on the list in general).

There are only two episodes aired, so a quick 90 minutes will get ya caught up.

Ive only seem episode 1 but I really liked it. Will be watching 2 tonight.

VANITYSprisonBYTCH said:

Ive only seem episode 1 but I really liked it. Will be watching 2 tonight.

Better hurry, ep 3 is coming up this week.

If it gets too predictable after a while, I'm going to ditch it. The one thing about The West Wing was that it had some really interesting turns and twists. So many CSI/NCIS/Law shows today have the same kind of story ad nauseum, and it's lame as fuck. D.S. has a good premise, and lots to work with (a new terrorist threat, possibility of war, naysayers, change in family life at the drop of a bomb dime, etc).