S02.E01: One Year In

[thuganomics85]

Sheesh, I agree this was dull.  When this show debuted, I knew it was going to be a political show, but I thought it was going to be a different one about a nation building itself back up after a horrible tragedy.  But a premiere involving a hostage situation on a plane?  I mean, yeah, in real life that is totally harrowing and suspenseful, but that's pretty much par for the course on shows like this.  And they're already busting that out, now?  That is not a good sign.

Certainly seems like they are now going to a potential Seth/Emily pairing which is just bizarre, since while I'm not usually wild about romance, I thought Aaron/Emily had chemistry in spades.  This just feels like it is being forced upon and neither Kal Penn or Italia Ricci seemed like they are putting effort into it.

New characters are here with Paul Costanzo (who I use to refer to as Royal Pains guy, but he's now been upgraded to Shed from The Expanse) as Lyor, the new public director, who doesn't mince words and pretty much gets on everyone's nerves.  Then there is Hannah's new partner, played by an Australian guy, pretending to be a British guy.  Man, I remember when it was all about British actors playing Americans, but now the poor guys are getting their roles stolen by the Aussies!  Maybe American actors will start playing Australians, and it come full circle!

Speaking of Hannah, she's off on her own little world, trying (and failing) to hunt down Patrick Lloyd.  At this point, I wish they just went full-blown fan service and gave her new partners played by Shane West and Lyndsy Fonseca.  Just go all Nikita on this!

Aaron is still the best part.  Followed by the brief moments we get of Mike.  Almost feel bad over how little Alex is used, but I can't say it is surprising.

Man, I hope they step it up, because this is easily a contender for a show I might drop if it keeps this kind of pace.  I've gotten way more ruthless now and cut the cord on other shows, and this could easily happen.  Kiefer and the rest of the cast are good, but the show in general really seems to be in a slump.

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Aaron is still the best part.  Followed by the brief moments we get of Mike.

And Aaron's hair!
And I'm a sucker for Keifer's soliquies. I don't know if this will make much sense, but for me it's like Stephen Colbert's opening political bit filtered through a mashup of Mr. Rogers and Tom Selleck.

Edited September 30, 2017 by shapeshifter
Spelling

[marinw]

3 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

And I'm a sucker for Keifer's soliquies. I don't know if this will make much sense, but for me it's like Stephen Colbert's opening political bit filtered through a mashup of Mr. Rogers and Tom Selleck.

Well said. No one does sincerity like Kiefer. No matter how ridiculous the circumstances, Kiefer manages to be completely unironic. 

[aemom]

On 28/09/2017 at 1:16 AM, dwmarch said:

Hannah is still chasing bad guys while wearing big-ass heels. I seem to recall her having much more sensible footwear when this show started.

This drove me INSANE!

Hannah, you are a badass agent who may encounter any baddie at any time. Why are you wearing a filmy camisole and high heeled pumps? You should be wearing proper clothes that will allow you to sprint and tackle someone at any given time.

[jhlipton]

On 9/28/2017 at 3:12 AM, Danielg342 said:

Maybe they thought having Kirkman's friend on board added urgency but, seeing as we never met him before, it fell flat.

If it isn't "This time it's personal!!!!", it doesn't matter!  But he blowed up real good! #ThanyYouMcKensieBrothers

On 9/28/2017 at 2:58 PM, willco said:

Man, I loved this show last season. I still love Keifer ( as an actor, not "Love", ha ha ) and I even watched "Touch" and I think I was the only one !

I liked Touch (Season 1 more than Season2, but still quite a bit) and David Mazouz has become a very good actor.

On 9/28/2017 at 6:06 PM, Dowel Jones said:

That was one hell of an explosion they got out of one little oxygen canister, especially since it happened on the tramway.

If I were Emily, I think I would have taken a day to go buy some of that fru-fru water, and placed an open bottle in every room.

It's like they've never had oxygen on a plane before!

Totes agree about that drink.

16 hours ago, Cthulhudrew said:

Ha! This is what went through my head at that press conference when Seth said: "We've got our best people on this."

How many people is that? Two?

"Our people" is just Hannah.  Mr "MI6 doesn't do facial recognition on suspects either" was British.

[J-Man]

Quote

glad to see no gold drapes in the oval office

Maybe they'll be there after Grace Adler finishes redecorating.

So... White House staffers negotiate directly with ambassadors? Isn't there like a State Department or something that should be involved somehow?

[Danielg342]

2 hours ago, J-Man said:

Isn't there like a State Department or something that should be involved somehow?

Or the Secretary of State. Didn't Mr. "Retired" President speak Russian? Why wasn't he available?

Edited September 30, 2017 by Danielg342

[piequinn35]

6 hours ago, jhlipton said:

 

"Our people" is just Hannah.  Mr "MI6 doesn't do facial recognition on suspects either" was British.

I believe Chuck is FBI agent as well or FBI tech, if not for him they wouldn't find out about McLeish, etc. so technically Hannah and Chuck are looking for Lloyd.

[Catronia]

I still love this show, though I admit it's partly (mostly?) because I love Kiefer so much, but it definitely has issues. I thought the struggle to bring the regions/states under control was the most interesting and dramatic part, and it is seemingly just dropped. There was an underlying thematic thread there that added complexity to Kirkman's character, which was that the conspiracy was aimed at making him President because he'd be weak. They never really exploited that thread -- once he realized this, would he bend over backward to be a hardass and prove he's not weak? Would he back down from challenges? Etc.

I definitely miss the characters of Kirkman's own age or older -- both "President Emeritus" and Hookstratten added balance and challenged Kirkman (Virginia Madsen was great). I'd also like to see Kirkman lose from time to time. He wins every political battle.  More shades of gray are needed to stimulate more debate. Hijackers = bad. Not so interesting.

I enjoy Maggie Q in general, but I agree that the heels and braless tank were more suited to a club outing than hunting an international terrorist. I, too, would much prefer to see her dressed to kick ass.

But I'll still watch :-)

ETA: The new guy -- Lyor, I think -- entertains me. If this were a Harry Potter book, his name would be a hint.

Edited October 1, 2017 by Catronia
Fixed typo

[jhlipton]

3 hours ago, piequinn35 said:

I believe Chuck is FBI agent as well or FBI tech, if not for him they wouldn't find out about McLeish, etc. so technically Hannah and Chuck are looking for Lloyd.

True, I forgot about Chuck.  "Our people" == both of them.  LOL

[Catronia]

On ‎9‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 10:12 PM, TimWil said:

First...ALEX IS EVIL! Yes, there I go again and will continue to do so until she is exposed.

I wish we saw more of Alex. I thought she was kind of interesting in the beginning of the first season, but she's really been sidelined.

As to her being EVIL, hmm. Was this the first time we heard of her being Russian? He didn't just say her parents were Russian, he said she was Russian. That would certainly make things a lot more interesting, but I think we need more of her before Evil is exposed to make a real impact on the audience (including me).

Until I read this thread, I had forgotten about Leo. He was interesting, too. I don't know why he's gone now. Loveable rugrat can be thoroughly sent upstairs, but Leo's old enough to contribute to the storylines.

[MaryPatShelby]

12 hours ago, AEMom said:

This drove me INSANE!

Hannah, you are a badass agent who may encounter any baddie at any time. Why are you wearing a filmy camisole and high heeled pumps? You should be wearing proper clothes that will allow you to sprint and tackle someone at any given time.

AND YOU SHOULD HAVE FULL BACKUP!  I'm insane as well, watching her running around in her heels, alone, gaining access to secret hiding places with the flick of a wrist.  And no, armed-guy-she-met-at-bar doesn't count as backup.  That whole storyline is ridiculous and I was hoping it was going to be sidelined this season.

I, too, was bored during this episode, and despite my deep and abiding love for Kal Penn, proceeded to cancel all future recordings.  I'll still stop by here for updates though!

[marinw]

Why is it so hard for Kiefer to find material that's worthy of him? 

[Guest]

I came away thinking that they are going for a new direction which was basically trying to make this as much like The West Wing as they could pull off.  I can't remember.  Did they do the walk and talk as much last year as they did in the opener? 

I think if this show hadn't been originally been half Kiefer led political drama and half Maggie Q led spy drama that they would have dumped the spy part.  I think they'll eventually pull Maggie Q into the White House stuff if they can figure out how to avoid the  Lowe situation (where he quit because he was supposed to have a more elevated role).

Edited October 1, 2017 by ParadoxLost

[J-Man]

They need to merge this show with "Madam Secretary." Tea Leoni can be the Secretary of State, and Tim Daly can pair up with Maggie Q.

[KaveDweller]

On 9/29/2017 at 0:25 PM, oakville said:

I think that they had special elections to replace the Congress & Senate in Season 1.

 

On 9/29/2017 at 1:57 PM, Dowel Jones said:

Obviously they did, but somewhere you have to get back on the same timeline as written in the Constitution, if they intend to hew to that line. 

Special elections would have filled the open seats for the remainder of the original person's term.  If the last election had just happened, that means by the time the special election happened, they'd still have almost two years left (for the house) and two to six years left (for the senate). One year in leaves almost a year to an election for the house and a third of the senate.

But, if it was right after an election, it would have had to be either the year the president took office, or two years into the president's term.  It couldn't have been the year he took office, because then it's unlikely Kirkman had time to be in his position long enough to be asked to leave. If it was two years in, right now we'd be 3 years into the original president's term, and definitely time for the next presidential election to be ramping up.  If it had been one year into the president's term, Kirkman would still have two years left after this time jump. But the congress people would have already had to go through a re-election. That could have happened offscreen during the time jump though.

I just spent way too much time thinking about that.

Edited October 2, 2017 by KaveDweller

[paigow]

On 29/09/2017 at 2:18 PM, Biggie B said:

It's odd that there is no vice president after a whole year has passed. 

Kirkman has probably had 2 or 3 since he lost the first one...like a Spinal Tap drummer, they just keep spontaneously combusting...

21 hours ago, Catronia said:

Until I read this thread, I had forgotten about Leo. He was interesting, too. I don't know why he's gone now. 

Dude is probably in Witness Protection because of his drug dealing....

[Catronia]

LOL (really). The Spinal Tap reference -- so funny!

[Danielg342]

On 30/09/2017 at 7:49 PM, Catronia said:

I thought the struggle to bring the regions/states under control was the most interesting and dramatic part, and it is seemingly just dropped.

I thought having Kirkman do all he can to avoid a civil war would have made a great storyline for S1. The country didn't necessarily have to collapse, but more should have been made of Michigan's attempt to undermine the President's authority. I mean, President Tom Kirkman didn't just confront the Michigander Governor James Royce- Kirkman arrested him. That's not something you just brush off as if nothing happened.

Yet that's precisely what the show did, giving us instead some awkward "drama" about gun control from the Montana Senator.

On 30/09/2017 at 7:49 PM, Catronia said:

I'd also like to see Kirkman lose from time to time. He wins every political battle.  More shades of gray are needed to stimulate more debate. Hijackers = bad. Not so interesting.

I'm not sure if it was the same episode where Royce was arrested, but I do recall early in S1 a plane full of refugees landed in Miami and no state was willing to take them. Kirkman had to find a solution and scramble to do so since one of the refugees was pregnant and anyone born on U.S. soil is an American citizen. It was a bit of a contrived solution in that Kirkman so easily found them a home in Canada, but at least, early on, the show was willing to put the President in situations where he truly couldn't win.

[paigow]

Kirkman facing the Kobayashi Maru every week would also get old very quick... how many China / Russia / North Korea / FakeItStan plots can be crammed into a season?

[rab01]

My DVR didn't realize that I'd given up on this show so I had this episode sitting on it and gave it a whirl ... Lord, it's still so relentlessly mediocre.  The writers just aren't politically savvy enough to pull off West Wing lite.  I would, however, like to give credit to the things they improved:

1) No kids in the opening episode.

2) Emily believably laying down the law twice - once while telling Seth that he had until the end of the day to choose sides and once while ordering Aaron to follow her orders. 

3) Less attention of the show's characters on the plot stuff.  After the main conspiracy is outed, a president can't spend every day dealing with cloak-and-dagger stuff and the show seems to recognize how absurd that would be.

But, it is laughable how the show keeps telling us that Kirkman is unpopular without ever showing why. No one would really complain about a mere $7 billion to replace the Capitol building. We spend a half-billion dollars per federal courthouse for god's sake!  As for building it in a year, I remember that was Giuliani's request for the Twin Towers.  He wanted them rebuilt identically and completed by the first anniversary.  As for Kirkman's polling numbers, how many victories can US voters expect the man to have in one year?  Seriously, any president that accomplished as much as he did in the year after the entire government was destroyed would still have 75% job approvals at this point while everyone at the Pentagon would have been facing a dozen congressional investigations over their lack of security allowing military information to be stolen.  

Unfortunately, taking out some of the terrible stuff doesn't help unless you replace it with entertaining alternative content and a  kindergarten level West Wing isn't it.

[Danielg342]

2 hours ago, rab01 said:

As for Kirkman's polling numbers

I took that as a subtle dig at the show's ratings, perhaps as a metal comment to Kiefer, "you really screwed up last year."

[paigow]

On 9/30/2017 at 7:49 PM, Catronia said:

I enjoy Maggie Q in general, but I agree that the heels and braless tank were more suited to a club outing

Gloria Vander Scully pantsuit in a dive bar would be a worse choice for infiltrating an apartment.

[shafted]

They're really leaning into the West Wing-lite angle this season, aren't they. I did like the lack of the first family though. Kirkman's still Kirman. Stumbling his way into success every episode.

So, the US government has tasked only Maggie Q with tracking down the US government's greatest enemy since Bin Laden? Okay. Glad MI-6 has resources to spare. Maggie Q running around kicking the bad guys in the face without Reed Diamond or Malik Yoba watching her back just isn't the same.

I'm not liking the Seth/Emily romance angle they're trying to force. I really liked them as friends last season though. If there had to be a workplace romance why not go with Emily/Aaron since the chemistry is there, the groundwork for it was laid last season, and they do have natural tension/issues to work through?

Lyor was somewhat amusing in a broad comic relief kinda way. But I don't like that his actual role in the administration is coming at the expense of Seth, Aaron and Emily's previously established competence and political/DC intelligence. Part of what I appreciated about the trio last season was that they were shown to be loyal to POTUS but also hardworking and pretty darn good at their jobs. Former speechwriter Seth, who got the press secretary job because he did know how to phrase things and phrase things well on the fly, doesn't know how to phrase a written statement that puts the administration in a sympathetic light in the middle of a hijacked plane crisis with American citizens as hostages? Aaron, who was deputy COS and then COS to the President before 40, who was Senior Adviser/#2 to the Speaker of the House, and who has been a Senior Adviser/National Security specialist at the WH for the past 9 months, is clueless about the basics of diplomacy, the importance of perception, and knows nothing of Ukraine-Russia politics/Ukrainian sensitivities? It doesn't dawn on Chief of Staff Emily that having POTUS publicly welcoming and embracing one of his harshest critics from the news media would make him look better not worse publicly? Why does Kirkman even need to keep Seth, Aaron and Emily around when Lyor knows all and has the answer for every situation that anyone in the administration encounters on a given day?

[Driad]

If Lyor won't drink the two types of water that are likely to be available (tap water and plastic bottles) he should bring his own instead of being snippy to people.

[paigow]

On 10/3/2017 at 2:30 PM, Driad said:

If Lyor won't drink the two types of water that are likely to be available (tap water and plastic bottles) he should bring his own instead of being snippy to people.

His private iceberg has not arrived yet...

[Tony Dickson]

Besides, the White House was completely renovated out to the four exterior walls in the 1950s.  Doubt there are any lead pipes.

[Sake614]

What exactly is Aaron's role now? Deputy chief of staff? Special advisor? He attended the meeting in the situation room so he must still have top clearance.  But Emily said he works for her...

[piequinn35]

4 hours ago, Sake614 said:

What exactly is Aaron's role now? Deputy chief of staff? Special advisor? He attended the meeting in the situation room so he must still have top clearance.  But Emily said he works for her...

Aaron is National Security Advisor, Emily being the Chief of Staff is the head of all White House staff.

[Addie1917]

I am completely hooked on this show, have been since last year and couldn't wait for it to come back. But after the long wait  I'll admit I was slightly disappointed in this episode. Not as spectacular as I thought but still good. I don't know how I feel about the new agent, but Lyor is definitely taking a lot of hate but I actually sort of like the dynamic he's bringing. It's funny. Not a huge fan of the Kendra girl, nothing really wrong but imo she's just too simmilar to Emily. 

They escelated the conspiracy too fast, which is disappointing because it's my favorite part of the show. Hannah is effing awesome, if they ever kick her I'll stop watching. Good to see chuck back also. Also  just to clarify, she was only dressed so scandalous because she was undercover trying to lure in the British guy. She rarely wears stuff like that otherwise. 

Overall still a good start and I still reccomend to my friends. Look forward to weds days greatly. Yea some of it isn't realistic but it's tv guys sit back and just watch the show