S01.E15: One Hundred Days

[paigow]

As President Kirkman releases an agenda to reset his presidency, Alex makes a controversial public statement that threatens to derail it; Wells finds herself in the center of a dangerous trap.

[marinw]

Unless the camera has a zillion megapixels, there is no way that you can get fingerprints off of a photo of a wineglass in the background of a photo on a phone.

I didn’t recognize Aaron with the curly hair.

Other than that, I kinda loved the episode. I found the Town Hall riveting. Kiefer’s acting, I can’t even. Oh, that voice.  His acting is just so...delicious. 

Great fight scene at the end.

Edited April 6, 2017 by marinw

[paigow]

HYDRA is obviously running this conspiracy because no matter how many heads get cut off, twice as many grow back!!!

[Primetimer]

Now that Kirkman has decided he would rather lead the country than react to crises, how will he ZZZzzzzzzz…

View the full article

[Danielg342]

So Kiefer gets:

Man, what a performance. I actually cried during the town hall...it was so beautiful and so powerful. What's this guy doing on a middling TV series?

This episode gets:

Still feel too much is going on and there's too much meandering, but I do feel like we're starting to get some payoffs. It was still a fun hour.

[Frozendiva]

I too was moved during the Town Hall. Kiefer knocked it out of the park. I'm not even American.

Didn't feel that the camera could capture a fingerprint on a wineglass. But maybe there are some computers that can create something.

The bit at the end was interesting with more prospective bombs.

The show is still a bit of a must-view show for me that rarely gets recorded and watched later.

[The Wild Sow]

3 hours ago, marinw said:

I didn’t recognize Aaron with the curly hair.

Yes!  He looks very different (and younger) with his hair un-slicked.

[fellini]

I felt the town hall scene went on for too long. I am more interested in the investigation of who was behind the bombing than anything else.

[scarynikki12]

Aaron's cousin is deeply stupid. Unemployment suits him perfectly. Yowza. 

[Blue Plastic]

Not as bad as previous episode. It kind of seemed like in the town hall they were making comments about the current political situation in the US if I may say so. Was interesting but as far as this show goes I'm most interested in who is behind all the attacks.

[Happy Harpy]

I just started watching and why is the son still here? WHY?

[Happy Harpy]

6 hours ago, fellini said:

I felt the town hall scene went on for too long. I am more interested in the investigation of who was behind the bombing than anything else.

Same here. I thought it'd be the weakest link when I started watching this show. Now I'm thankful for it because it brings action, and Maggie Q. Glad that Jason is back on the job. Malik Yoba is nailing it as a grieving father.

Otherwise, I wore off my FF button.

Way too much Alex, and why is the whole family still here? If their role is to endear Kirkman to me, it's a fail. I don't know what they're doing with him, by the way, but I'm liking him less and less which is problematic since he's the main character.

I like the politician BTS, the alliances/power plays etc, because they're realistic. They're interesting because they allow a world of grey areas which was what I expected when I started watching. But the self-righteous political stances and speeches, nope. The attempt at emotional manipulation was so blatant in the town hall scene (like in those Oscar bait tearjerkers) I rolled my eyes in annoyance instead. They have a Kiefer Sutherland, and they give him lines worthy of an after-school program.

Why didn't I FF Aaron's cousin? Oh, I know, I actually like Aaron. I also like that they acknowledged the actor's Latino origins, used them to give a background to the character (reducing the sob story to a minimum for once) and how they used this personal storyline to give a glimpse into Washington's inner workings through his interactions with the congresswoman and Hookstraten. Shallow: Aaron, set your hair free all the time, will ya?

Hookstraten!!! She makes everything better. She's a true grey character, which I'm thankful for. Her association with Aaron and Hannah's investigation are why I will watch next week.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Happy Harpy

[Cthulhudrew]

This show really has no idea how to balance its ridiculous conspiracy plot against its only slightly less ridiculous politics. Tonight was especially bad. The transitions were not unlike what I imagine it would feel like to have my brains smashed in by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick.

It does some things fairly well when it does them, but too much of the time the cacophony of clashing elements overshadows it all. That "haunted mansion" scene tonight especially was really overwrought...

[Dowel Jones]

Hannah thought that Atwood overreacted during the near collision scene, but consider this; she was almost killed in a very similar occurrence.  I would think an FBI agent that knew the Conspiracy was after her and anyone else in on it would come out of that car, weapon drawn, and yelling at the other driver to follow orders until they established his identity. 

And, as long as we're on proper procedure, why didn't she scream out for help down there in the basement?   Get her partner there right away.  Now, I realize that, 1) a fight scene was needed, and, 2) their only source to the Conspiracy had to die, because that's the way it is, but, for pete's sake, agents, put your suspect face down on the ground and get some cuffs on them. 

Hannah's friend is a bit light on the brains.  "Oh, yeah, the gas company was here and they said it was a leak.  No problem."  Hello?

[EthieWraston]

This show is going downhill rapidly.  Pulling fingerprints off a photograph, especially one with terrible resolution, is just another "enhance... enhance... enhance..." nonsense macguffin.  When the perpetually ridiculous events where characters, though fairly-well acted, behave in seemingly random and unbelievable manners which go against everything we've learned about them so far, it strains the credibility of the show far too much.  I can suspend disbelief, but not enough to chop and change to adhere to the often-atrocious dialogue and writing.

Speaking of which, there's an increasing amount of unnecessary Leftist narrative creeping into the script at exceedingly obvious moments - but I imagine everyone's noticed this already, as it's too painful to ignore.  And there was I thinking nothing could be worse than the blatant cringeworthy advertisements we so often see crowbarred into shows with absolutely no relation to the product.  Remember the Prius adverts in Warehouse 13, back in the day? Urrrgh.

In this episode I'd finally had enough - when the "gender pay gap" was purposely mentioned front-and-centre by a main cast member, wielding the words with such poignant gravitas, I immediately switched off.  Although a fictional series Is probably the best place for the fictional gender pay gap to exist, the fact that the hack writers put it in the script in the first place, and then that it managed to get past all the checks and balances to make it into the final broadcast says a lot about the political leanings of the show and those that make and support it.

Won't be watching again, and will be spending those 42 minutes each week advising friends, family, and strangers to avoid the show like the plague.  Though I am kind of curious to witness how off-the-rails this show gets - perhaps in a few weeks there'll be an alien invasion, or the First Son will have a difficult discussion with his parents about wanting to transition to female.  Tragically, the more I think about it, the more likely I believe it is.

[calipiano81]

Well, I'm still very invested in this series and find it entertaining. If I want political reality, I'll watch CNN.

At first, I was wondering why the conspiracy woman thought it was a good idea to pull her gun out when both Hannah and Atwood had theirs trained on her. Then my mom pointed out...she probably WANTED to get shot so they couldn't interrogate her, a la Beth MacLeish. If so, wow.

[marinw]

6 minutes ago, calipiano81 said:

Well, I'm still very invested in this series and find it entertaining. If I want political reality, I'll watch CNN.

Aren’t there now something like a hundred Independent seats in Congress? How that plays out could be fascinating, if this shows deals with it well, which it won’t. It would be so interesting to see how a non-partisan Congress could work. This is fiction, as you pointed out.

Kiefer deserves more awards.

Edited April 6, 2017 by marinw

[marinw]

8 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

What's this guy doing on a middling TV series?

The Sutherlands have a long history of ending up in projects that aren't worthy of them. Donald and Kiefer have about a hundred bad films between them.

Back to the Town Hall: I loved Tom’s response to the ex-factory worker. It is the sort of honest response from a POTUS who isn't trying to get elected or re-elected (that we know of).

Edited April 6, 2017 by marinw

[The Wild Sow]

15 minutes ago, calipiano81 said:

Well, I'm still very invested in this series and find it entertaining. If I want political reality, I'll watch CNN.

At first, I was wondering why the conspiracy woman thought it was a good idea to pull her gun out when both Hannah and Atwood had theirs trained on her. Then my mom pointed out...she probably WANTED to get shot so they couldn't interrogate her, a la Beth MacLeish. If so, wow.

 

Obvious suicide by cop.

I think it's interesting how the conspiracy's True Believers we've seen so far (Beth MacLeish, Brooke Whatserface) have been women.  The men we've seen so far have been pressured (Peter), threatened (Jason) or blackmailed (the guy from last week whose name has escaped me!)

And was Leo  chewing on the string of his hoodie?  WTF?

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

Hannah thought that Atwood overreacted during the near collision scene, but consider this; she was almost killed in a very similar occurrence.  I would think an FBI agent that knew the Conspiracy was after her and anyone else in on it would come out of that car, weapon drawn, and yelling at the other driver to follow orders until they established his identity. 

And, as long as we're on proper procedure, why didn't she scream out for help down there in the basement?   Get her partner there right away.  Now, I realize that, 1) a fight scene was needed, and, 2) their only source to the Conspiracy had to die, because that's the way it is, but, for pete's sake, agents, put your suspect face down on the ground and get some cuffs on them. 

Hannah's friend is a bit light on the brains.  "Oh, yeah, the gas company was here and they said it was a leak.  No problem."  Hello?

These plus, as also mentioned upthread, the fingerprint pulled from the acknowledged-to-be grainy image, all managed to distract a little from the real problem (IMO) that there's been way too little political world re-building for business-as-usual to be happening. An example of a missed opportunity to demonstrate this (again, IMO) was the "walking back" of FLOTUS's remarks; instead they could've had her maybe go on to say (while still at the luncheon) that maybe she wasn't being appropriately evasive about such a controversial topic, but she almost just joined the ranks of the Washington DC Widows Club (while her eyes actually reddened withreal tears). Something like this and a little more grassroots uprising, fear-and-trembling, doomsday stockpiling, nutty apocalyptic preaching, and so on in the distant background and on a muted TV in the corner.

[Ina123]

5 hours ago, Happy Harpy said:

...But the self-righteous political stances and speeches, nope. The attempt at emotional manipulation was so blatant in the town hall scene (like in those Oscar bait tearjerkers) I rolled my eyes in annoyance instead. They have a Kiefer Sutherland, and they give him lines worthy of an after-school program.

 

2 hours ago, EthieWraston said:

Speaking of which, there's an increasing amount of unnecessary Leftist narrative creeping into the script at exceedingly obvious moments - but I imagine everyone's noticed this already, as it's too painful to ignore. 
...
Won't be watching again, and will be spending those 42 minutes each week advising friends, family, and strangers to avoid the show like the plague.  Though I am kind of curious to witness how off-the-rails this show gets - perhaps in a few weeks there'll be an alien invasion, or the First Son will have a difficult discussion with his parents about wanting to transition to female.  Tragically, the more I think about it, the more likely I believe it is.

Agree.

[Princess Lucky]

On 6/4/2017 at 7:41 AM, scarynikki12 said:

Aaron's cousin is deeply stupid. Unemployment suits him perfectly. Yowza. 

Ha! Tell me about it. He looked amazing.

On 6/4/2017 at 9:35 AM, Happy Harpy said:

Why didn't I FF Aaron's cousin? Oh, I know, I actually like Aaron. I also like that they acknowledged the actor's Latino origins, used them to give a background to the character (reducing the sob story to a minimum for once) and how they used this personal storyline to give a glimpse into Washington's inner workings through his interactions with the congresswoman and Hookstraten. Shallow: Aaron, set your hair free all the time, will ya?

Hookstraten!!! She makes everything better. She's a true grey character, which I'm thankful for. Her association with Aaron and Hannah's investigation are why I will watch next week.

I agree with everything, especially the bolded part. I do think that, now that we've seen Aaron with his normal, non-villain hair, we can safely rule him out as a suspect. From now on he'll just be a frenemy. I was hoping he'd go work for Hookstraten (by the way I'm still hoping they hook up, they have great chemistry) and I'm glad it happened. Also, I continue to love his little connection with both Seth (loved the texting!) and Emily. I swear, those actors are creating their bonds out of thin air. It's not the writing, it's their performances.

Same goes for Kiefer. He's so compelling. If only the writing helped him more.

Poor Chuck's house was destroyed! But it was his damn fault. A gas leak? You should be a little more paranoid, Chuck. Look at your boss, Jason Atwood. 

Speaking of, when Atwood "falsely" suspected that reckless driver, and then he walked away, I was fully expecting another car to run him over. He did overreact, but can you blame him? I'm sure we all thought the same thing he did, that it was an ambush. I'm surprised Hannah didn't think the same thing. She was the one who got t-boned.

On 6/4/2017 at 0:57 PM, calipiano81 said:

At first, I was wondering why the conspiracy woman thought it was a good idea to pull her gun out when both Hannah and Atwood had theirs trained on her. Then my mom pointed out...she probably WANTED to get shot so they couldn't interrogate her, a la Beth MacLeish. If so, wow.

Definitely. I'm sad to see her go, but now I'm even more impressed with the conspiracy. This woman's father was military, as was MacLeish. Could this be an all-American paramilitary group? A conspiracy from within? Disgraced or disgruntled former soldiers and generals (and politicians? MacLeish was both), trying to take out the government in order to replace it? Rebuild the nation from the literal ashes? Using the information they were able to get by virtue of their former positions? And the moles which might still be there?

I love that there's a greater plan, and it's an awesome one, at that ("make everything go boom!" I do love a good explosion.). I don't love that we have no actual actors connected to the conspiracy anymore, and we can't put a face to our villains. That's an ongoing problem for this show. We have someone to root for, now we need someone to hate.

Edited April 8, 2017 by Princess Lucky
I wrote "gas leek" and I only realized it 3 days later.

[waving feather]

6 hours ago, Happy Harpy said:

But the self-righteous political stances and speeches, nope. The attempt at emotional manipulation was so blatant in the town hall scene (like in those Oscar bait tearjerkers) I rolled my eyes in annoyance instead.

This show has been sanctimonious from the beginning but that town hall scene was barf-worthy. Enough with the emotional manipulation. If the writers are good enough, they can write touching and impactful stories that doesn't sound like a PSA or roll out sob stories. And is there a more cliche plot than the wife putting her foot in her mouth; causing a big a hoo-ha and they have to do damage control? I think I saw that plot too many times on TV.

Does anyone else find Emily kind of snotty? She turned her nose down at Aaron when he told her about his new job. Her reaction as a friend is bad. If I were Aaron, I wouldn't want to have anything to do with her anymore. I think it's the actress; she's not good at exuding warmth. So different from the actor playing Seth, because he is good at it.

I'm only interested in the conspiracy. Day-to-day political play in this show is boring because the writers don't know how to keep it interesting.

I'm just watching for Aaron and a side of Hannah at this point.

[mwell345]

3 hours ago, marinw said:

Kiefer deserves more awards.

I've always felt he was underrated. 

I thought the episode was a little slow, but perhaps what they're trying to do is set up next season (assuming it comes back) to be more like a West Wing type of show. The terrorism plot has to be resolved at some point before the audience gets tired of it. 

I also think the episode last night was somewhat disjointed.  The Town Hall, the terrorism, the first lady, the Montana guy, Aaron with the Curly Hair and his cousin...alot of moving parts, maybe too many.

Personally, I'm waiting for Kirkman to go into a closet and come out as Jack Bauer. : )

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Princess Lucky said:

Ha! Tell me about it. He looked amazing.

I agree with everything, especially the bolded part. I do think that, now that we've seen Aaron with his normal, non-villain hair, we can safely rule him out as a suspect. . . .

Heh. They just better not kill him off; more of Aaron's morning jog hair would boost ratings.

[yogi2014L]

I was also annoyed at the sheer stupidity of Jason and Hannah for basically blowing it. We need her alive. ORLY!!! put her ass in cuffs ASAP. Blew it big time. 

IDGAF about the town hall/politics. I agree it was like they were trying to tie in today's politics with the show. I personally feel beat to death by politics lately- I just wanna see some good guys hunt down terrorists. Wish they would focus more on that vs making is a political drama. 

Also- I give zero fucks about Kirkmans family. can we just leave them out. 

[misstwpherecool]

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed the political subtext ooops ment blatant obvious sanctimonious political pandering.

And talk about cliche. Maggie Q and Malik drive up to this big old unlit house in the dark at night? While roaming the house with flashlights I thought it was a Supernatural epi.

The whole epi seemed rushed. The initial plot was wrapped up I guess in case of a short run. But I don't think they know where to go now.

There's a lot of way to showcase politics without debating or discussing those hot button issues' -AGAIN.

[Happy Harpy]

4 hours ago, Princess Lucky said:

Also, I continue to love his little connection with both Seth (loved the texting!) and Emily. I swear, those actors are creating their bonds out of thin air. It's not the writing, it's their performances.

Absolutely. The show struck gold with them, but the screentime that should go to them goes to the First Annoyances.

One thing ticked me off. Emily kept on saying "the First Lady", wasn't she supposed to be a close friend of the family? Between that and her attitude with Aaron, I hope it isn't a case of "with power women lose their heart" cliché. Since the show already pulled a "what girls love sports???", I'm a bit wary.

1 hour ago, yogi2014L said:

IDGAF about the town hall/politics. I agree it was like they were trying to tie in today's politics with the show. I personally feel beat to death by politics lately- I just wanna see some good guys hunt down terrorists. Wish they would focus more on that vs making is a political drama. 

Also- I give zero fucks about Kirkmans family. can we just leave them out. 

Preach! 

For me, it isn't the agenda in itself, it's the way I'm hit over the head with it and the emotional manipulation. I had the same problem with CSI:NY in their later seasons, and it was the opposite on the political spectrum.

3 hours ago, waving feather said:

If the writers are good enough, they can write touching and impactful stories that doesn't sound like a PSA or roll out sob stories.

Exactly. It's even easier when you have good actors, like here. I had high hopes with the change of showrunner but it seems that unfortunately, it didn't change anything in that respect.

[marinw]

Random Note: I laughed when Seth imitated a citizen alarmed by Porn during the practice session.

[paigow]

34 minutes ago, marinw said:

Random Note: I laughed when Seth imitated a citizen alarmed by Porn during the practice session.

Then he should have asked a follow up question about legalizing pot...as Kumar

Edited April 6, 2017 by paigow

[Mrs peel]

4 hours ago, waving feather said:

Does anyone else find Emily kind of snotty? She turned her nose down at Aaron when he told her about his new job. Her reaction as a friend is bad. If I were Aaron, I wouldn't want to have anything to do with her anymore. I think it's the actress; she's not good at exuding warmth. So different from the actor playing Seth, because he is good at it.

Well, they aren't long term friends.  And Emily is the one who is loyal to the President, from back when he was a Cabinet Secretary.  Aaron Is a late-comer, having worked for the former president.  Considering the Majority Leader is from the other party and has acted against the President before, I wasn't surprised at her reaction.

I'm getting sick of the FBI response to the conspiracy.  This is a conspiracy large enough to kill most of the government, have the VP's wife kill him and herself, kill a terrorist when he's in a super-max prison under the tightest security we can imagine, abduct and kill a small child - so Hannah:

     (1) calls her old boss - who's son was killed by the conspiracy - to go after the woman who took his son;

     (2) shows up alone at night to what she thinks is the house the woman/others are in, then when no one is home takes no action to see if there are bugs/cameras/etc.  but instead, in full view of the camera focused on the front door, calls her pal to update him (those cameras were probably high resolution enough to pull the number from her phone!);

     (3) then she again, without any backup (except for Atwood who is trailing her), goes into another supposedly inhabited house.  And when they subdue dark-haired terrorist, leave her on the ground for a couple of minutes while they talk, instead of immediately checking her for more weapons.  She also, while in the basement of a suspect's house, turns her back to the door to look at the items on the desk instead of calling for backup.

[piequinn35]

Hah! how many will die before they get to the Big Bad.

[slowpoked]

Has Emily seen Aaron without gel in his hair? Because....wow! I didn't recognize the actor immediately too. When he was first shown jogging, I thought he was a new character and would be part of the Conspiracy Group who brought down the government.

1 hour ago, Mrs peel said:

I'm getting sick of the FBI response to the conspiracy.  This is a conspiracy large enough to kill most of the government, have the VP's wife kill him and herself, kill a terrorist when he's in a super-max prison under the tightest security we can imagine, abduct and kill a small child - so Hannah:

     (1) calls her old boss - who's son was killed by the conspiracy - to go after the woman who took his son;

     (2) shows up alone at night to what she thinks is the house the woman/others are in, then when no one is home takes no action to see if there are bugs/cameras/etc.  but instead, in full view of the camera focused on the front door, calls her pal to update him (those cameras were probably high resolution enough to pull the number from her phone!);

     (3) then she again, without any backup (except for Atwood who is trailing her), goes into another supposedly inhabited house.  And when they subdue dark-haired terrorist, leave her on the ground for a couple of minutes while they talk, instead of immediately checking her for more weapons.  She also, while in the basement of a suspect's house, turns her back to the door to look at the items on the desk instead of calling for backup.

Is this related to the Prez telling her that she works directly under him? But I agree on the ridiculousness. I understand that they feel like they don't know who to trust in the government, so they have to have few people involved as much as possible. But still, there should be a Seal Six kind of team dealing with this, not some semi-rogue agent and a semi-rogue assistant. What happened to the FBI Director who was cleared? I'm sure he can find some good people in his team. 

[Matt1]

I love this show, but I felt like they let their Hollywood left-wing political bubble get to them in writing last night's episode.  The pro-2A Republican Senator from Montana is the bad guy?  Kirkman and his wife go off on gun control, his wife on the mythical "gender pay gap" (and did anyone else notice the not-so-subtle attack on Trump with the factory worker).  I don't want to be too political on here, but this show got so political (out-of-nowhere, really) last night.  I bet it was the first episode written after the inauguration.  Kirkman may call himself an "Independent", but his entire staff are Democrats and he served in the Democratic administration.

 

This is all a shame because I love this show, but I don't love hearing my values and beliefs mocked constantly by Hollywood.  I will keep watching because I want to find out who is behind the conspiracy, but I don't know how much more liberal propaganda I can take before I tune out.  Let me guess- conservatives will somehow be behind this- and Kimble turns out to be bad, naturally, since she is a Republican.

 

I hope the Designated Survivor of March is back next week, not that atrocity we witnessed last night.

[blackwing]

16 hours ago, Blue Plastic said:

It kind of seemed like in the town hall they were making comments about the current political situation in the US if I may say so. Was interesting but as far as this show goes I'm most interested in who is behind all the attacks.

Agreed.  I know I was supposed to feel bad for the uneducated factory worker and especially for the lady whose daughter was killed, but I didn't.  I rolled my eyes instead, especially when the lady sobbed and pleaded "how are you going to make sure this doesn't happen again".  I was yelling at her "how about you stop dating deadbeat ex-cons and choose better people to bring into the lives of your two remaining daughters".  I couldn't stand the sanctimonious attitudes of these two... it was all about "what are you going to do for meeeeeeeeeeeeee Mr. President" instead of taking a look at themselves and how and why they put themselves into the positions they were in.  If the show continues along this preachy path (SHUT YER MOUTH ALEX KIRKMAN and just go away, go very very far away) I think I will be using my fast forward and/or mute button much more frequently.  Can't Alex and her two useless kids go on a cruise around the world?

I was also surprised that the Town Hall questions weren't pre-approved in advance.  Isn't this how those things normally work?  The people who asked questions were obviously picked in advance so I'm not sure why Seth and Emily wouldn't have vetted the questions and told Kirkman what to expect.  Is it supposed to make him feel more "man of the people" if he is confronted with unexpected questions?  The way he was visibly moved at the lady's story made it seem like it was the first time he was aware of it and hadn't been told in advance what to expect.

I'm in this show for Kiefer Sutherland, Maggie Q and Malik Yoba.  I want to see Kiefer out in the field with a gun.  Since that probably can't and won't happen, I'd settle for more Maggie and Malik kicking butt.

Edited April 6, 2017 by blackwing

[Princess Lucky]

6 hours ago, yogi2014L said:

IDGAF about the town hall/politics. I agree it was like they were trying to tie in today's politics with the show. I personally feel beat to death by politics lately- I just wanna see some good guys hunt down terrorists. Wish they would focus more on that vs making is a political drama. 

Also- I give zero fucks about Kirkmans family. can we just leave them out. 

I agree. When there's a plot to blow up literally all the major US landmarks, and in the meantime Kirkman does a town hall, how can I, as a viewer, be expected to enjoy both of those storylines with the same amount of interest? I get that America needs to be rebuilt, but, like, we're all gonna die! The conspiracy people managed to successfully pull off a gargantuan attack. Maybe focus on that part of the story a little more, instead of Kirkman's random political feud with a senator or whatever? Over gun control, of all things? A matter which will honestly never be resolved in reality?

More Maggie Q please. Maggie, Malik Yoba, Reed Diamond and Chuck. I'd watch that show. If I didn't enjoy the actors so much, I'd do away with all of Kirkman's political staff and Hookstraten (though they are all amazing, and I would hate to lose them). But the family can go. Just have the show be a 24 redo, and have Kirkman be the president who occasionally shows up with Mike and a couple of staffers by his side.

[paigow]

10 minutes ago, blackwing said:

 I couldn't stand the sanctimonious attitudes of these two... it was all about "what are you going to do for meeeeeeeeeeeeee Mr. President" instead of taking a look at themselves and how and why they put themselves into the positions they were in.

Who was it that said: "...ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country" ... Lincoln? FDR? King Arthur? Churchill?

[shapeshifter]

27 minutes ago, paigow said:

Who was it that said: "...ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country" ... Lincoln? FDR? King Arthur? Churchill?

JFK, who was assassinated.

[secnarf]

I thought the questions were pretty typical of a town hall, but it was a pretty cheesy scene.

I'm not American, and I fail to understand what the big deal is about needing to have guns or why Kirkland's statements (which struck me as more right-centre than left) are so divisive and offensive. Nor do I understand why mentioning the gender wage gap, which has been well documented, is offending people on here. It's the same with Madam Secretary - the president on that show came out and said he believes in global warming and it was earth shattering. It is science, not a partisan issue.

I guess this is part and parcel with an American political drama, but I have no desire to watch huge issues be made out of what should really (IMO) be non-issues. It feels tiresome and pointless. I am, however, still interested in the conspiracy/investigation and I like Kiefer Sutherland. I was also interested in watching a government rebuild, but that seems to have taken a backseat to the inane politics that we see enough of in the real world.

[shapeshifter]

@secnarf, ITA with you're whole post, and I'm a voting American. I guess I do expect some political drama because of the basic premise of the show, but the enormity of the show's initial event makes me expect more of something like Battlestar Galactica (the reimagined version) rather than like West Wing or Madame Secretary where it's all business-as-usual.

[StaceyNotStacie]

I liked this episode, but it felt like I was watching two different shows -- one about politics and the other about catching a bad guy. It just seemed strange that the two stories weren't intertwined. 

[piequinn35]

^Me too! they should put a "MEANWHILE" ;) when example Kiefer brought pizza to family and then it changed to MaggieQ/Antwood going after the bad girl.

[Dowel Jones]

2 hours ago, blackwing said:

I was also surprised that the Town Hall questions weren't pre-approved in advance.

They should have had someone stand up and ask "Mr. President, the infrastructure of this country is falling apart.  What do you plan to do about, say, the Golden Gate Bridge, or Hoover Dam, for example?"  Then Kirkman could cluelessly launch into a scholarly monologue about studies and funding, blah blah blah.

[albaniantv]

This was my last episode. But I came on here to see what everyone else liked and disliked. Though a liberal, found myself agreeing more with the conservative comments. For example,  I don't come to a show about terrorism, espionage and politics to find out about gender pay-gaps, please!!! 

For me, the acting on this show is fine but the writing is mostly cliches and soapy stuff. The plots are not well developed, not enough depth or follow-through. Yet, the camera is always too long on a face, especially the principals, perhaps trying to grind or tease out from their reactions some information or innuendo that is not on the page.

Especially poor Kiefer, whose every eyelash is scrutinized by the camera for possible evidence of how well he means to do good...Same with the wife whose expressions range from "earnest but intelligent" to "hurt like a doe but leaving now" to "doe-like but smarter than you think." 

Edited April 6, 2017 by albaniantv
English language is a good one

[oakville]

  15 hours ago, EthieWraston said:

"Speaking of which, there's an increasing amount of unnecessary Leftist narrative creeping into the script at exceedingly obvious moments ""In this episode I'd finally had enough - when the "gender pay gap" was purposely mentioned front-and-centre by a main cast member, wielding the words with such poignant gravitas, I immediately switched off.  Although a fictional series Is probably the best place for the fictional gender pay gap to exist, the fact that the hack writers put it in the script in the first place, and then that it managed to get past all the checks and balances to make it into the final broadcast says a lot about the political leanings of the show and those that make and support it."

"...or the First Son will have a difficult discussion with his parents about wanting to transition to female."

 

 

2

Are you kidding me? It's a fictional TV show for God's sake! Don't take it so seriously...And, seriously? with the transphobic comment?  Transitioning isn't a pithy punchline.

The West Wing covered political issues much better. In this show, Kirkman is supposed to be Independent with large members of Congress who are newly elected Independents. There is very little explanation for how the two parties would collapse after the terrorist attack. There is very little political discussion as to Kirkman's political philosophy. It's a weakness for the show.

[nutty1]

Why does Hannah never do anything with backup?! It drives me crazy!

What happened to the drug selling first son? He seems so normal all of a sudden. 

I adore Seth!

[HoneyBadgerJr]

3 hours ago, oakville said:

The West Wing covered political issues much better. In this show, Kirkman is supposed to be Independent with large members of Congress who are newly elected Independents. There is very little explanation for how the two parties would collapse after the terrorist attack. There is very little political discussion as to Kirkman's political philosophy. It's a weakness for the show.

 

I agree that WW did political much better. My ire was at the comments about "Leftist narrative," etc. and the use of the idea of a storyline where the First Son would be trans* as a joke. 

[thuganomics85]

I actually kind of want to know what Kirkman's stance on pornography is.  As for giving that a personal feel (um.... not an euphemism?), all he has to do is say "Well, I have a teenage son, so anytime I see that the browser history on the computer is suddenly gone, I wonder..."

Ah, so it's now time for gun control to enter into the picture.  I.... well, I can actually buy that, because that is one of those topics that would be debated no matter what.  Totally not surprised that the Kirkman's are on the more liberal side, since while Kirkman may be an Independent, I do think he leans Democratic on most views.  It is cliched that the Republican Senator ends up being a backstabber and Kirkman's new foe.  Not to mention Hookstraten, who is still kind of ally, but also a bet shady herself.

Aaron's working for Hookstraten now.  I guess this is a way to have him remain involved for now, plus it will probably put him and Emily at odds a few times, which will no create some "drama!"

The debate prep scene was fun.  Stuff like that is what I want to see more of.  The little things that a President has to deal with. As for the Town Hall itself, Kiefer Sutherland was great, but the writing certainly got pretty cheesy at times.

The most preposterous thing about this episode was them identifying a fingerprint from a computer screen.  The runner-up was Brooke gaining the advantage on Hannah, but that's mainly because I'm on my second rewatch of Nikita, and I can't buy a Maggie Q character getting outfought that easily!  Kind of looking forward to seeing her and Mariana Klaveno together again after co-starring in that hilariously bad Stalker years ago, but she's already dead now.  I guess they're just cleaning the slate, and introducing new villains later on.  I'm glad Jason is assisting her, but is there a reason Reed Diamond's character is no longer riding shotgun?

Still could care less about the First Family, although I feel a little bit bad for the actor playing Leo getting bumped down to guest status.  As to sting a little basically being told "Sorry, we no longer think your character is that important."  Even if it's true.

[MaryPatShelby]

8 hours ago, nutty1 said:

Why does Hannah never do anything with backup?! It drives me crazy!

I adore Seth!

And why does she never do anything with a ponytail?

I feel the same about Seth. No matter how crazy this show gets, I'll stay in it for Kal Penn.  Although, I truly hope that it doesn't turn out that he's part of the conspiracy, because then I'll be done.  It won't be organic either, as far as I can tell, but some of the throwaway lines about his past are bothering me.  

[Danielg342]

Maybe I'm different, but I think the show handled alt-left idealism pretty well.

"Oh, you want a 'common sense solution'? How about one that looks like it gives you everything you want but really doesn't, which the public will never know about and make you look like a hypocrite if you reject my bill. That's what you get for preaching, Mr. President."

Of course, I'm in total agreement that this show should focus on the conspiracy and be more of a "cop show with the President as police chief" than a straight up political drama. Solving the conspiracy should have been the storytelling priority in S1..."getting back to normal" should be the S2 storyline. That way they can do the political stuff and give it the attention it deserves.