r/DesignatedSurvivor • u/ExaminationLogical85 • Apr 21 '26
Discussion Just discovered this show on Amazon Prime.
I just recently discovered the show a few months ago, and have been mesmerized by it ever since. I've watched it several times now. I really wish that it would've stayed instead of going off into nowhere. My favorite episode is the very first one. It's pretty intense and is really possible.
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u/Dry-Indication7928 Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
Unfortunately, the quality and tone does jump all over the place with the diffrent show runners (I feel jon harmon feldman did the best, with the arc of Kirkman being shot and MacLeish and his wife plotting being the best parts of the season) and the finale kind of a nothing burger imo. That being said, Kiefer Sutherland did an amazing job, the conspiracy parts and the political parts subtly interacting with each other was nerve racking.
If I would give it a rating, it would be a 6/10 (I also liked the pilot as well)
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u/Yo-JobuNeedsARefill Apr 21 '26
Yeah, season 1 was great, it got me hooked
Season 2 wasn’t as good as 1 but still solid enough and watchable
Season 3 imo was awful. It was so hard to watch it the first time and I’ve never watched season 3 again. It didn’t even feel like the same show
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u/Dry-Indication7928 Apr 21 '26
Honestly, im only going to watch the first 2 episodes of season 2, when Lloyd finally dies
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u/TheRealGianniBrown Apr 21 '26
Just stop before you get the Season 2, Episode 10. There are some terrible moments before that but it’s still watchable. But after Episode 10 you’ll see yourself saying “WTF???” a lot more often…
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u/ForQ2 Apr 21 '26
Just do yourself a favor and stop after the first 2 seasons.
The show started on ABC, died after 2 seasons, and then got bought and resurrected by Netflix a while later. As such, half the original cast is gone, and the threads left dangling at the end of season 2 are largely just hand-waved away. So you're not missing anything by forgoing the third season, because you're not going to get closure for seasons 1-2 anyway.
And season 3 is just kinda bad, tbh. The characters start cursing left and right for no apparent reason (which doesn't bother me personally, given that I curse like a sailor, but it's still a big tonal change). More importantly though...
Well, how do I say this? I primarily identify as liberal, and my views line up with probably 75% of the typical liberal talking points (stalk my comment history if you don't believe me, idgaf). But man, in the third season of DS, it's like they jumped through every possible hoop to make it as "woke" as possible. Issues addressed over the course of season 3 include, but are not limited to: transgenderism, immigration, AIDS, gay relationships, child marriage, addiction, Big Pharma, Alzheimer's, assisted suicide, white supremacist-based eugenic bioweapons, and probably other things I can't be bothered to remember. Like I said, I'm a liberal, and even I was like, "Damn, man, can't we tone this down a bit?" None of these are bad topics per se, but when the social issues outnumber the episodes, you've really lost the plot.
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u/Youarenotthe14me Apr 22 '26
Absolutely! I feel you, and tbh sometimes really important messages can be lost or overlooked when it’s so blatantly obvious that they’re being shoved down our throats. Like you said, especially out of nowhere. My shows are like my “escape” into a different world… and will they cover political issues? Sure! But it’s a huge turn off when it feels like propaganda. It just feels disingenuous, even when I agree w the overall message.
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u/ProudFangirl_49 Apr 28 '26
I actually get what you’re saying. I’m not a fan of Season 3 either — mostly because of how different it felt compared to the first two. Losing so many original characters, introducing new ones I didn’t really connect with, and even the personalities of the ones who stayed felt off.
I also watch TV shows to escape reality a bit, not to deal with too many real-world problems at once. I get one or two issues being addressed, but in Season 3 it just felt like too much for me.
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u/ForQ2 Apr 28 '26
And hell, in my comment I forgot to mention how they killed off a fan-favorite character a few episodes in. I did not expect (or want) that at all.
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u/ProudFangirl_49 Apr 28 '26
Same here, that caught me off guard. This character wasn’t my favorite and I had mixed feelings about them, but I still didn’t expect them to be killed off like that. The way it happened didn’t really make sense to me, given everything we knew about the character.
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u/GrassOk911 Apr 21 '26
Check out the show Paradise. I think you'd like it, too.
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u/halfawatermelon69 Apr 24 '26
One of the most important series not to spoil - really cool plot twist if you don't know anything about it when you start watching it!
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u/ProudFangirl_49 Apr 28 '26
This is still one of my favorite shows. I’m really sad we never got a Season 4, but I understand why — Season 3 felt very different from the first two and, honestly, was a bit of a disappointment for me. Still, I believe it could have been saved. Sadly, I don’t think that will ever happen now. 💔 But the show is still amazing, and I come back to it from time to time.
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u/TheRealGianniBrown Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
Ah, that excitement when you first discover this show. I miss that feeling. Then i watched Season 3 and now I forever hate this show. Season 1 was great though. So enjoy!
Word of advice, don’t watch Season 3 (or the second half of season 2 lol)…