Two episodes into its run, “Designated Survivor” (10 p.m. Wednesdays, ABC) continues to pay lip service to the idea of a president who is in over his head. Indeed, President Tom Kirkman (“24’s” Kiefer Sutherland) SHOULD be overwhelmed by this job that he’s thrust into after the 10 people above him in the line of succession are killed when the Capitol blows up during a State of the Union speech.
Unable to change clothes after being whisked from a conference room where he’s holed up as the “designated survivor,” Kirkman — the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development – is whisked to an underground bunker where the heads of the military and surveillance departments are gathered. He’s still wearing a Cornell sweatshirt, jeans and glasses that presidential speechwriter Seth Wright (Kal Penn) says are “unpresidential.” The top military general and adviser, Harris Cochrane (Kevin McNally), openly calls Kirkman a “figurehead.”
In the next 24 hours (no pun intended, although the “24” similarities are very much present), Kirkman proceeds to 1) call off the Navy on attacking Iran, 2) use diplomacy with the Iran ambassador to get its fleet to back off in the Strait of Hormuz, 3) resist attacking an Al Qaida spinoff group that Cochrane is “75 percent sure” is the perpetrator of the bombing, and 4) get the rogue Michigan governor to call off the police he had ordered to arrest the entire Muslim population of Dearborn.
This, then, is the point of “Designated Survivor.” It’s not about a man in over his head, but rather it’s a fantasy story that the TV viewing public no doubt craves in 2016 (high ratings suggest this is the case): Kirkman is not an imperial president. Cochrane is the imperialist, to the degree that he even conspires with one of the president’s aides, Aaron Shore (Adan Canto), to remove Kirkman from office. (Assassination is implied, but not stated.)
This is a direct contrast from the reality in 2016, when U.S. voters will likely elect a president with a track record of extreme imperialism, at a time when polls remarkably show that a plurality of military officers and enlisted personnel favor a third-party candidate who is anti-intervention. A presidential-military clash perhaps looms, but in the opposite fashion of how it’s portrayed on “Designated Survivor.”
So far, it’s a stretch to say Kirkman is a constitutional president, although I hope upcoming episodes delve into this further. When Michigan Gov. John Royce (Michael Gaston) declines Kirkman’s request to call off the police from arresting people because they are Muslim, Kirkman calls in his legal advisers, who suggest a Presidential Proclamation or an Executive Order. Ultimately, Kirkman chooses a bluff – he tells Royce there are undercover federal agents among those arrested, and if he doesn’t release everyone, he’ll be charged with impeding a federal investigation. That’s not ambiguous even to the thick-skulled governor, so Kirkman gets his way.
We get a scene where Kirkman calls the parents of a Muslim boy beaten to death by the police, and he also visits the Capitol ruins to personally thank the rescue workers for their service. That shows he’s a good-hearted person. But I’m interested to find out if he’ll seek justice for the boy in Michigan. While it might take a constitutional scholar to work out the details of how this would be done, the Constitution is clear that individual rights trump state’s rights, and indeed, that’s a primary reason why the U.S. has a federal government.
I’d like to see “Designated Survivor” explore a legal case where the police officer and the governor are put on trial. Much like the concept of a non-imperial president, it would be a fantasy to show the justice system working effectively in a police-brutality case, but it’s a fantasy we desperately need to see. When the police investigate themselves and clear themselves of wrongdoing, many people feel helpless; “Designated Survivor” could possibly map out another legal course. It will be most satisfying if it does so within the reality of the Constitution and legal theory.
Created by David Guggenheim, “Designated Survivor” has a deft touch so far when exploring these hot-button issues. While I have used the word “fantasy” to describe it, the show doesn’t have a Pollyanna outlook. There’s an overhead shot of Kirkman standing in the Oval Office, wearing a perfectly cut suit (even though he borrowed it from a White House staffer), having successfully reined in Cochrane. As a viewer, I sense the power of his position, and I get the feeling that Kirkman does, too. He’s not a power-seeker, but he does hold power now, and some theorize that power inevitably corrupts.
Less appealing is the idea that there might be gamesmanship between the two major political parties – the Republicans’ Congressional designated survivor, the ridiculously yet wonderfully named Kimble Hookstraten (Virginia Madsen), researches Kirkman online at episode’s end. This could be innocent, but I got a “digging up dirt” vibe. It would be nice if “Designated Survivor” presented a post-corruption government, but in fairness, the corruption is a little too baked into D.C. even for the wiping out of 99 percent of the leadership to eliminate it. Indeed, such an event would likely make the police and spy states more powerful than ever.
Additional wrinkles to the narrative might come from the Capitol ruins. An FBI forensics scientist, Hannah Wells (Maggie Q), believes the dud explosive device found at the site (which leads to the “75 percent sure” assessment of whodunit) was meant to be found by the investigators. She also makes an ominous point: In the wake of terror attacks, there’s usually an inordinate amount of chatter among the terror networks being watched by the FBI. In this case, there isn’t; thus, she believes the Capitol is the first of a string of planned attacks.
Oh, and Hannah’s husband is probably buried in the rubble somewhere; episode two ends on a cliffhanger where a survivor is found. Another possible wrinkle could be that one of the 10 people above Kirkman in the line of succession will be found alive, and that will lead to a legal challenge for the presidency. If that survivor ends up being a war hawk in favor of interning Muslims, “Designated Survivor” might get a little too hoary for my tastes.
But so far, it has found a good balance. It shows the stark reality of a terror attack on the Capitol and a quick change in the presidency, while also presenting viewers with the appealing-if-illusory concept of a people’s president who isn’t hungry for war.