Designated Survivor Review [1×02]: “The First Day”

Off the back of a strong premiere, ‘Designated Survivor’ doesn’t fall flat on its face, instead delivering a solid follow-up.

Last week, ABC’s ‘Designated Survivor’ kicked off with a pilot that intrigued and entertained, stamping its authority as a new fall series worth watching. Notoriously, second episodes – particularly those on broadcast networks – are tough, and often don’t work. There’s a tendency to retell the pilot, an exercise that only hinders the show in repeating itself. ‘Designated Survivor’s’ premise limits the extent to which it would be able to do that, and – unsurprisingly – the problem is mostly avoided.

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“The First Day” explores Tom Kirkman’s (Kiefer Sutherland) first full day as President of the United States as he attempts to calm the nation and discover the perpetrators of the devastating attack. Matters are not helped when Michigan Governor Royce (Michael Gaston) has his police officers enact a curfew focused on Muslims. Meanwhile, Alex Kirkman (Natascha McElhone) is keeping daughter Penny (Mckenna Grace) from learning the truth of the situation, enlisting son Leo’s (Tanner Buchanan) help in doing so, and Agent Wells (Maggie Q) continues to try and uncover what really happened on Capitol Hill.

President… Jack Bauer?

When Sutherland was cast in the role, there was always going to be some expectation that, sooner rather than later, ‘Designated Survivor’ would make use of the characteristics of his role on 24. That they refrained from exploring it in the pilot is impressive; falling down on it in the second episode is interesting, if not perhaps concerning.

Certainly, it was entertaining to watch. Sutherland is a tour de force when given the material to intimidate and show intensity. Both the scene in the bunker as Kirkman is told Al-Sakar is probably behind the attack and his lying to Royce demonstrated that Sutherland still has it in him to unearth Jack Bauer. In the former, he even carts out a trademark “Damn it” in frustration.

“Come back to me with more than 75%, and I’ll launch the damn missiles myself.” – Tom Kirkman

And therein lies the potential problem. When actors play a role for so long, viewers can become accustomed to seeing them as that character and only that character. So when they take on a new role, separating them from the old one, at least early on, is key. Giving Sutherland shades of Bauer to work with narrows the gap. In a show like this with a lead character like this, that’s worrying because the essence of the show in its current form is seeing a somewhat ordinary man deal with being appointed President. Part of the appeal is that he’s naïve and scared. Here, that temporarily fades away, and it doesn’t do a huge amount of justice to a character we’ve known for just over an hour.

That’s not to say a Bauer-like demeanour isn’t what ‘Designated Survivor’ should eventually aim for. But to hint at it so early is risky.

Terrorist attack + panicked people = racial profiling?

It’s basic human nature to be scared in the aftermath of a shocking and horrible tragedy. That’s the case in the real world and on television. The trend on television is usually that Muslims are looked at as if all of them committed the attack. “The First Day” did no different, with Seth (Kal Penn) receiving a suspicious look from a neighbour before being unnecessarily harassed by police officers. During much of the hour, Michigan is in a state of civil unrest with officers targeting Muslims, even beating a 17-year-old boy to death.

That ‘Designated Survivor’ explored this topic is no surprise, given its subject matter. But when handling something as sensitive as this, a show absolutely must have something worthwhile to comment on it; simply stating that it exists in reality and is a problem is the worst option since it shows an ignorance and a lack of a desire to make meaningful television.

The use here is, at least, better than that. Kirkman’s insistence that something needs to be done above all other priorities suggests a lot about him; Royce’s stubborn stance a competent antithesis to Kirkman’s view. While it feels like “The First Day” could have done a lot more in this area, there’s certainly something there, which means that it doesn’t come across as completely manipulative.

Hey, at least Kirkman – temporarily, I’m sure – fixed the problem in Michigan and Seth wasn’t questioned by the officer at the memorial. That’s something, right?

Power is everything, and others have a taste.

Virginia Madsen plays Kimble Hookstraten, a Republican congresswoman whom the GOP chose as their designated survivor. Despite their opposing political stances, Kimble believes that “it doesn’t matter anymore. We’re all Americans today.”

And yet, there’s reason for suspicion. In the closing moments of the hour, she’s seen researching Kirkman. That could be seen either as a benevolent attempt to learn more about her new Commander-in-Chief, or a fact-finding mission to allow her to usurp Kirkman’s position. Knowing TV shows, it’s almost certainly the latter. If ‘Designated Survivor’ does want to be an actual political series, then this type of drama is virtually inevitable. And so far, it’s textbook: Potential threat appears to provide support, only to begin coup attempt covertly. It’s almost guaranteed that there will be a power struggle by the midseason finale.

Plus, it’s not just her to worry about. Following on from his comments last week, General Cochrane (Kevin R. McNally) is still trying to convince Aaron (Adan Canto) that Kirkman is too incompetent to be running the United States. It’s only a matter of time before he makes a move.

Final Verdict: A solid follow-up provides a slight sense of direction, though there’s still distance to go yet.

After the pilot, I expressed hesitancy over where the series actually goes on a weekly basis. “The First Day” clarified some of my concerns, though not all of them (how does Wells stay a part of the show without the investigation being dragged out for the series’ entire run, or using terrorist attacks again and again?).

But it’s clear that there’s a show here, certainly on the White House side of things. The breadcrumbs are being laid and as it goes along, ‘Designated Survivor’ is sure to find itself. For now, it’s just getting there, and that’s fine.

Questions and comments:

• I get the angle that ‘Designated Survivor’ is trying to utilise, but kids on TV are almost always bad/unfathomably uninteresting. There is no exception here.
• So, Wells doesn’t think that Al-Sakar is truly behind the attack. That seemed pretty obvious from the get-go – and her logic holds up. Still, I’m concerned that this will fall into the “lone agent has theory, is rejected, goes rogue” cliché.
• Also, there’s a survivor. I’d bet money that it isn’t Scott, whom Wells is resigned to having lost but we know nothing about.
• When Kirkman is at the Hill building, he’s holding the microphone in his left hand. The shot then cuts to behind him and it’s in his right hand, before cutting back to in front of him where it’s in his left hand again.
• Kirkman’s codename as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development was “Glasses”, and that gave me more amusement than it should have done.
• The shot of Kirkman seeing his chair as we see the back of it was very nice indeed.
• On Thursday, ABC gave ‘Designated Survivor’ a full pick-up, which means we’ll have 22 episodes this season. That may end up being too many, but we’ll see.

‘Designated Survivor’ airs Wednesdays at 10pm on ABC.