Designated Survivor - Season 2 (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Creator: David Guggenheim
	Actors: Kiefer Sutherland (Flatliners, 24 TV-series), Natascha McElhone (The Truman Show), Adan Canto (Narcos TV-series), Italia Ricci (Supergirl TV-series), Maggie Q (Naked Weapon), Kal Penn (Superman Returns)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: September 2017 - May 2018
Synopsis: One year after being appointed President of the USA, Tom Kirkman (Sutherland) still tries to be the best man possible in both family and politics.
Review: As it was easy to start watching the first season of this series, it was easy to continue. The episodes are still easy to follow and digest, don't require much brain power and easily put you to sleep. I sleep much better after watching Designated Survivor than the depressing Black Mirror for sure! But is that a valid quality criterion for a series? I don't think so. The series doesn't seem to really know where it is going on the long-term, but rather quickly reacts to include current political events in some episodes. Unfortunately it does it in a not very subtle way (the government shut-down, medical care...) or by introducing fake countries obviously inspired by real ones: the ridiculous East/West HanChu copied on North/South Korea, the state of Kunami behaving like several Arabic countries, and those are not even the only examples. The terrorist threat is now in the background and re-appears when convenient, while the series still offers his lot of discussions about who is the most faithful to Kirkman, who betrays him, and every episode has virtually the same structure that concludes on how a great guy he is. That is heart-warming for a while but quickly feels repetitive. Add to that a mid-season twist motivated by an actor leaving the show, some romance, and some more trials-and-error by a series still trying to find its pace after two seasons and trying to give something to everybody (family, technology, future, past, global warming, politics, spies, action, romance, good intentions, rivalry...), and you will understand that I was not thrilled by it. This lack of direction is clearly my main criticism to the series. As in the first season, product placement is still very present and culminates when Hanna hands over her wireless headpiece while saying "here is my Bluetooth" (who says that?!?) in a shot perfectly framed around a Range Rover logo. Somebody must have been proud of this double combo... On the positive side I liked seeing in small roles 80''s actors like Bonnie Bedelia (Die Hard) and more importantly Michael J. Fox (Back to the Future) playing fantastically a lawyer. The audience seems to have liked him as well as it looks like he has been peppered in all the sub-sequent episodes, in the apparent usual manner of the series to quickly adapt to ratings and current events. I just found out that the series will not be renewed for a third season (not a surprise to me) except if saved by an online distributor like Hulu or Netflix.
Rating: 3 /10