The premise of the show is fantastic: The Capitol is bombed during the State of the Union address, killing the President, nearly all of the Cabinet, most of the President's staff, the Supreme Court, nearly all of Congress, and a whole lot of other people too.
Basically: With a handful of exceptions, the entire federal government is gone. The Presidency falls to a low-tier cabinet member, never elected to anything.
This is a premise that could spawn a fantastic, dark series, questioning who should be in command, what we would really be like after an attack like that, how could the nation move forward, would the nation even survive...
...but that's not the show we got. There's some darkness, but the signals are clear early on: We're supposed to believe in the new President. Everyone that sides against him? They're wrong, bad, probably evil, maybe complicit or just cynical. Things get back to "Business as usual" within days.
America never feels truly in danger.
There may be better stuff coming, but after 4 hours? The show is just not taking enough risks, it's not doing enough with the premise. The concept is massive, epic in scale, but so often we fall down into small-scale, unimportant drivel.
And it's a shame, because the pilot was so damn good.
Series A Fantastic Premise, a Flawed Execution
Note: This is through Episode 4 of Season 1
The premise of the show is fantastic: The Capitol is bombed during the State of the Union address, killing the President, nearly all of the Cabinet, most of the President's staff, the Supreme Court, nearly all of Congress, and a whole lot of other people too.
Basically: With a handful of exceptions, the entire federal government is gone. The Presidency falls to a low-tier cabinet member, never elected to anything.
This is a premise that could spawn a fantastic, dark series, questioning who should be in command, what we would really be like after an attack like that, how could the nation move forward, would the nation even survive...
...but that's not the show we got. There's some darkness, but the signals are clear early on: We're supposed to believe in the new President. Everyone that sides against him? They're wrong, bad, probably evil, maybe complicit or just cynical. Things get back to "Business as usual" within days.
America never feels truly in danger.
There may be better stuff coming, but after 4 hours? The show is just not taking enough risks, it's not doing enough with the premise. The concept is massive, epic in scale, but so often we fall down into small-scale, unimportant drivel.
And it's a shame, because the pilot was so damn good.