Is DESGINATED SURVIVOR Gonna Make It?

Article published as DESIGNATED SURVIVOR Review on Seat42F.

We all know about the DESIGNATED SURVIVOR, right? During the annual State of the Union speech, one member of the administration is chosen to stay behind at a safe location in case an attack wipes out the rest of the government. This unlikely event has never happened, but it’s a worse-case scenario contingency that is ripe with story potential, as shown in the great reboot of Battlestar Galactica a few years ago. But it was only one element of that show; does it have the legs to support a weekly series?

ABC is going to find out as DESIGNATED SURVIVOR premieres this week. Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland, 24) is the outgoing Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, probably left behind because he’s fallen out of favor with the president and being forced to resign anyway. But when disaster strikes, Tom is quickly sworn in as leader of the free world, thrust into a situation where he must make the tough calls in short order, set the country’s response to the most devastating attack its ever experienced, and assert power from those who don’t believe he can handle the job.

One such critic is Seth Wright (Kal Penn, House, Harold & Kumar), a speech writer for the POTUS that does not think the new guy has what it takes. Nor do any of the military leaders. This is understandable, not just because Tom is not a combative guy, but because the first things we see him do do not inspire confidence in his ability to lead and make the tough calls. It seems like he will not be able to make this work.

But if that were to remain the case, there would be no show, right? Tom is our hero and he will step up to the plate. That’s a given before we even start watching the series.

The problem is, Tom finds his inner strength way too easily. I guess you can take the man out of Jack Bauer but you can’t take the Jack Bauer out of the man. While Kiefer does a fine job finding Tom’s timid nature at the start, he transforms ridiculously quick into what he’ll need to be. Where’s the struggle? This would be a far more interesting show if the focus was on that growth journey instead of moving quickly past it to get to the action.

Funny enough, ABC president Channing Dungey recently said she wished cable series weren’t automatically seen as better than broadcast shows. DESIGNATED SURVIVOR is the perfect example of exactly why this bias exists. Were the series on FX or HBO or AMC, the show would be about the character’s struggle. The cast would likely be smaller, and the story tighter to the immediate situation. Instead, like a lot of ABC shows, it’s bloated and quick moving, wanting to get more action and soapy drama in than worrying about Emmy-worthy performances or fantastic writing.

Though I called the roster bloated, I’m not complaining about the rest of the cast; it’s a strong ensemble comprised of Natascha McElhone (Californication) as Tom’s wife, Alex, Italia Ricci (Chasing Life) as Tom’s aide, Emily, Adan Canto (The Following) as the new president’s, well, tutor seems appropriate though isn’t entirely accurate, Aaron, LaMonica Garrett (Sons of Anarchy) as a Secret Service agent, Mike, and Maggie Q (Nikita) as an FBI agent, Hannah. But most of them are underdeveloped, such as the First Lady being a very bland type, or poorly used, in the case of Q. This could improve over time, but these supporting players are not well established in episode one.

I really want to like this show, and I kind of do. It is exciting, I do enjoy the actors, and I am curious about the mystery that we start with. I just worry DESIGNATED SURVIVOR is not set up for success, and that things will get hokey and insincere as the season plays out, forcing twists where they aren’t needed, and skipping over the potential deep bits beginning to be explored based on the unevenness and flaws of the pilot. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if this one can be great or not.

DESIGNATED SURVIVOR premieres Wednesday at 10/9c.

MIXOLOGY A Bad Brew

Article first published MIXOLOGY Review on Seat42F.

ABC’s MIXOLOGY, a new sitcom about ten single people spending one night in a bar, premieres this Wednesday. In the first half hour, “Tom & Maya,” we are introduced to most of the cast and the premise as Tom (Blake Lee, Parks and Recreation), recently dumped by his fiancé of eight years and dragged out by a couple of friends, hits on Maya (Ginger Gonzaga, Legit), a ruthless, ball-busting lawyer.

MIXOLOGY is a little bit of an anthology series with a tone similar to the quickly canceled Love Bites because it will jump around from person to person each week. But it’s not quite an anthology because the main story only takes up a little bit of the episode, with other players being featured throughout the half hour, too, even when their names aren’t in the title.

This structure is very confusing. The characters are easy enough to tell apart, to be sure, but there’s a lot of them for a sitcom, and the pacing is rapid enough to really prevent the viewer from learning even the names of the characters. After two installments, I’m still having to use the show’s website for help in telling you who these people are.

There’s Tom, of course, and his well-intentioned, but kind of douchey, friends, Cal (Craig Frank, 8.13) and Bruce (Andrew Santino, Crafty). Maya is there to meet her wishy-washy friend, Liv (Kate Simses, What’s Your Number?), who chooses the safe relationship over passion. Jessica (Alexis Carra, Incredible Girl) asks her sister, Janey (Sarah Bolger, Once Upon a Time), to go with her to meet a date she set up online. The man Jessica is meeting turns out to be Brit Ron (Adam Campbell, Touch), who is having the worst day of his life. And their waitress, Kacey (Vanessa Lengies, Glee), tries to break up with the jerk bartender, Dominic (Adan Canto, The Following).

To make matters more confusing, Janey disappears before episode two and is replaced by an annoying friend of Jessica’s, Fab (Frankie Shaw, Blue Mountain State), whom we don’t really get a read-on yet. This means a character who has a touching interaction with Janey has to immediately forget about her and turn his attentions elsewhere. Plus, flashbacks grow the cast even more, making MIXOLOGY one hard show to follow.

Not that viewers will be tempted to try to puzzle it out because there isn’t a single likable character in the whole group to connect through. Tom may be the stereotypical “nice guy,” but he’s a wimp and way too much of a pushover to be the hero. And will anyone really want him to get with Maya after they see just how cruel she can be? It’s not like she’s an obvious happy ending for him. The others are equally flawed and detestable, with horndog men and easily manipulated women who like being put down.

To be fair, the setting of MIXOLOGY, a bar where people come to hit on strangers and many of them just want to get laid, isn’t the ideal place to find good people. Good people go to bars, sure, but the types of friends we’re used to seeing portrayed are either frequenting those establishments while enjoying one another’s company, or are having a bad day and acting a bit out of character. Rarely do they make a habit of trolling. Now, this series asks us to see this as a viable place to find love and change one’s life for the better, and that just doesn’t work.

The premise also extremely limits the structure. As mentioned, the episodes do take time to show us other places and events, but the main story is confined to a single place and time. This will grow old week after week. How I Met Your Mother is getting mixed reviews doing its final season over the course of one weekend. Having multiple seasons, assuming the series goes on for any length of time, on one night is just not tenable. Either it needs some serious changes, or it can’t possibly last.

Two episodes was more than enough for me. I don’t think I’ll be checking back in on it again, assuming it even lasts beyond that pair of installments, which is not a certainty at this point.

MIXOLOGY premieres Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. ET on ABC.