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Designated Survivor starring Kiefer Sutherland, Natasha McElhone and Maggie Q

Posted on May 21, 2017 Written by Pinar Tarhan

Designated Survivor starring Kiefer Sutherland, Natasha McElhone, Maggie Q and Adan Canto. Image via pinterest.

With Designated Survivor renewed for a second season, and the season finale already having aired, it’s time I reviewed this engaging political drama/thriller starring Kiefer Sutherland. Watch out for a separate post dedicated to the finale.

Premise of Designated Survivor

Secretary of Urban Development and Housing Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) is an idealistic and decent man who doesn’t care about power. He’s happily married to lawyer Alex (Natasha McElhone) with two kids, little Penny (Mckenna Grace, Gifted) and teenager Leo.

But soon after he is “reassigned” from the cabinet, the unthinkable happens. First, he is addressed as the Designated Survivor during the President’s state of union address. Second, Capital Hill is blown up – killing everyone, making Tom the president of the United States.

He agrees to the job in a state of shock. His family is located to the White House, and Tom is left to handle a grieving country, a second designated survivor from the opposing party, two qualified but disagreeing candidates for Chief of Staff, a governor who is ready for a coup, a general who wants to see him gone and many, many more complicated-as-hell problems. Can Tom handle it?

Thoughts on the show

Designated Survivor has a great premise with a cast to match. Kiefer Sutherland has always been a joy to watch. I’ve been a fan of his acting long before 24 aired, and I remain so to this day. And while 24 got us used to Kiefer saving the president and the country in the field as an agent with unparalleled skills and perseverance, he definitely has the voice, attitude and looks to make one hell of a president, even though he is initially unprepared for the job.

This is my second time watching Adan Canto (who plays Aaron Shore) in a regular and much more likeable role. Sure, he can stab you in the back any moment as he has his own plans for his career, but a politically ambitious and succesful young man is still more likable than a serial killer groupie, like the one he played in The Following.

Maggie Q returns as an FBI agent. Sure, Nikita was not FBI, but she enforced law, justice, or both, one way or the other. However, she makes sure she adds subtle nuances and lets us know Hannah Wells is a different, albeit still impressive, badass character that holds her own. She’s immune to bullshit, and she won’t let public perception betray her gut. She is, however, still a human being, occasionally influenced by her grief and questions her own abilities.

I always rejoice when we have a fictional president who is a loyal and loving family man. We haven’t seen that enough in real life, and we surely haven’t seen it enough on TV.

The show also does a good job with strong female characters. Hannah is one. Natasha McElhone’s Alex is a good lawyer, and a dedicated wife and mother who does her best to make sure her family adapts to this unique situation. She tries her best so that her clients, immigrants or immigrant candidates in difficult situations, aren’t negatively affected by her change in circumstance. She is not drunk by her new status, but she is not afraid to call in favors if it means she will massively help someone in need.

Then we have Emily (Italia Ricci), Tom’s assitant and friend who is totally the opposite of the political warrior Aaron is. She is direct, honest and cares more about doing what’s right than what’s convenient. This of course hinders her career advancement in the White House, but she is not completely without ambition . She is also not shy in reminding Aaron that staff changes happen all the time.

And let’s not forget our antagonist, congresswoman Kimble (Virgina Madsen). She is confident, pretty honest for a politician and ambitious. She wants to be president next term, right after the country will, according to her, have gone to hell under the Kirkman presidency. While she pisses off us of as viewers, she pleases me as a writer. She is strong. She steals scenes. We know she can’t be trusted, but yet, we can’t predict her every move. It also helps that so far she has proven that, while she is not to be trusted, she is not evil.

Who are the villains that blew up the capital? Well, they are way too close to home for us to ever be comfortable…

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Conflicts and Antagonists

Luckily for the audience, Tom’s marriage is the only place where his abilities and whether he is the rightful person to be the president aren’t questioned every second.

Right now, apart from Emily, and of course appearances can be deceptive, everyone seems to be out to get him. Aaron does research and collects dirt behind Tom’s back, the general wants to replace Tom, the governor of Michigan’s practically given the police to do whatever they want to Muslims, other governors are sceptical and we can see the second survivor’s supporting attitude is just initial smoke screen. Oh, and many more problems and crises to come, personal, professional and nationwide.

Obviously, you expect a show set in Washington and around a new, inexperienced president to be full of conflicts, but writers are taking great advantage of a premise, and sort of a metaphorically post-apocalyptic America. Only the congress is in ruins, but anything and everything can go wrong any second. And it does.

Check out Designated Survivor if:

1) You like quality political dramas
2) You are a fan of the cast, especially Kiefer Sutherland.
3) You are a fan of 24, and want to watch Kiefer take on a role with less action and more conflicts.

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Created by David Guggenheim.

Gone Girl Movie Review: Gone Girl starring Ben Affleck & Rosamund Pike

Posted on January 2, 2015 Written by Pinar Tarhan

(There are some spoilers.)

Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck)’s beautiful wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) is missing under suspicious circumstances. Police detective Boney (Kim Dickens) and officer Gilpin (Patrick Fugit) get right on the case, with Boney giving Nick the benefit of the doubt and Gilpin ready to blame Dunne.

As the audience we’re neither with Boney nor Gilpin: if he did it, it’s too obvious. If he’s innocent, also too obvious. But we know it’s a David Fincher movie, and it will probably not be black and white. And expectedly, things turn out to be all shades of grey:

While Nick tries to manage his in-laws and the media reaction with the help of his twin sister Go, we see he’s not exactly the doting husband he wants others to believe. He seems clueless about his wife’s daily activities, friends or diary, and to top of it all, he’s having an affair with a 20-year-old (and going to great lengths to hide it from others).

From the beginning of the movie, we have some flashbacks, with the voice-over from Amy, guiding us through their relationship, from the great start to troubling times, until we see Nick’s violent and dangerous side. And around the time cops are sure Nick’s behind her disappearance, and possibly murder, we hear this brilliant line from Amy:

“I’m so much happier now that I’m dead.”

So yes, she’s making a run for it to make Nick pay for being a lying, cheating bastard. And if you think she is taking things too far, just wait till you see how much further she’s willing to go, and how she handles her back-up plans…

Gone Girl is one crazy, psychotic mystery/thriller/drama that might make you question certain things in life, like how well you actually know the people you are with, how dangerous certain kinds of people can be and well, whether or not getting married is a sane idea in the first place.

Despite the original elements in its story, and some seriously fantastic acting from Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl is far from a smooth, fast ride. I’m aware that this was intentional, but the unevenness in pacing created moments, at least for me, where I struggled to stay engaged in the movie. It flows faster and better once we find out what Amy is up to, and how truly disturbed and calculating she is, but until then, I kept wishing some scenes were left in the editing room.

Because no matter how different and captivating a movie is, 149 minutes isn’t generally the amount I’m ready to give to a mystery/ drama/ thriller. Well-done epic movies? Sure. A decent piece in a trilogy where you don’t have the chance to get bored because every scene (and interaction) is necessary? Yeah.

But for me, Gone Girl would be even better at 139 minutes. Hell, at 129 or a little less, I could have jumped at the “masterpiece” wagon.

Because when a film is rated at 8.3 on IMDB (already grabbing a place on the site’s 250 best movies list) and has earned more than 350 million dollars at the box office against its 61 million budget, you want to be blown away by every second of the movie. There’s no place for boredom.

Call me sentimental, traditional or whatever, but I still prefer Se7en. At a little over 2 hours, it is tighter, creepier and has the more satisfactory ending. (Se7en is also on IMDB 250 and rated over 8 (8.7.,to be exact)-hence the comparison).

And the problem is with establishing your “villain” to be so brilliant is this haunting question: didn’t she have anything better to do with that Harvard degree and brain of hers than to take revenge? No attempts at world-domination? Trying to save the world or destroy it? And why let herself stoop to such a level if she is so awesome? Isn’t pretending to be someone else to find yourself a partner something losers, or at least very irrational people do?

Her motives and actions don’t match the IQ and OCD-thinking we’re given, and that’s another con if you think about the movie too much.

That said, I love Fincher, and this was a solid movie. But worth the rating and the box office-smashing? Not to me.

How did you feel about the movie? Please let me know in the comments.

Fun Gone Girl Trivia

The movie was written by Gillian Flynn, who adapted it from her own novel.
Scoot McNairy, our lovely protagonist from Monsters, plays one of Amy’s victims.
Director David Fincher (Fight Club), while mainly known for his dark mystery/thrillers (Se7en, Zodiac, Panic Room, The Game) has also found huge success with dramas (The Social Network, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.)
In the shooting script, Nick Dunne is mentioned to be in his 30s. Ben Affleck is in his early 40s.
Some of Rosamund Pike’s films include Pride and Prejudice, Jack Reacher, Surrogates and Fracture.

Also on Ben Affleck

State of Play starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel Mcadams and Helen Mirren

The Company Men starring Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Maria Bello & Kevin Costner

Also on Rosamund Pike

Surrogates starring Bruce Willis, Rosamund Pike & Radha Mitchell

Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen

Fracture starring Ryan Gosling & Anthony Hopkins

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The Americans starring Keri Russell & Matthew Rhys: Complicated, Flawed, Engaging – Just Like It’s Characters

Posted on August 11, 2013 Written by ripitup

The Americans – Premise

1981.

To outsiders, Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip (Matthew Rhys) are a typical, young American couple with 2 kids, Henry (10) and Paige (13). They try to raise their kids the best they can while they run a travel agency together.

In reality, they are two highly trained KGB agents, partnered up to get married and pose as an American couple while they get their missions done. While they love their kids, their feelings for each other are a bit more complicated and difficult to define.

Their latest mission, however, brings back horrible memories from Elizabeth’s past, and how they deal with it brings them a lot closer.

And as if their jobs, their new relationship dynamic, and raising two kids who don’t have a clue what their parents are up to weren’t hard enough, the father of the new family next door is a good FBI agent (Noah Emmerich), whose mission is mainly about catching KGB agents…

Review: Slight Spoilers

The Americans is a solid spy drama/thriller with its own brand of comic relief. I don’t know about you, but it is truly entertaining to me to watch a married couple dispose of a body (or some other dangerous mission/setback of the sort) and then prepare breakfast for their kids in the next scene.

The relationship of our couple is also one of the most original and intriguing I have seen so far. There is always the feeling that Philip has always been into Elizabeth, though she seems to be just falling for him. It’s fun to watch two partner agents falling in love after about 15 years of marriage, 2 kids (and working together).

And them falling in love complicates the hell out of things, because Elizabeth is no Sydney, and Philip is no Vaughn. And no the difference isn’t just that Syd and Vaughn weren’t married and worked for the CIA.

Sydney and Vaughn, despite a whole lot of obstacles they had to overcome to be together, never crossed certain lines. Like they never killed a relatively innocent person to not to be exposed. Or Sydney never had sex with someone for a mission. She’d tease and flirt, but then she’d use her fighting skills to get the rest done. And Vaughn, though he spent less time on the field than her, never slept with someone for a mission either.

Then there are the exes who came before Liz, and Liz’s feelings for Philip. And they have two kids, an actual company to run, deadly missions to compete, pasts to confront… Man, their life is hard…

It’s also an almost constant battle of wills as Philip is the more cautious one, while Liz is more reactive and passionate. It’s family vs. country, love vs. duty, honesty vs. deception and their emerging feelings make things riskier and more dangerous each episode.

Sure, Alias will always be my favorite agent-themed series and I’d rather do Sydney’s job if I absolutely had to (it’s more about the lines she crosses and lines she doesn’t cross), and I’d rather date Vaughn (I mean knowing my husband has to seduce/date/marry/have sex with other women is just…. not for me.)….

There’s a lot of grey since there are barely any completely moral characters apart from the kids, and probably FBI agent’s wife.

And I could probably do without the cliché of the agent’s extra-marital activities of the agent (she’s pretty, we get it, but things would have been more original if he could have kept it in his pants.)

I’d also rather have more action than drama, less screen time with the Russian spy chick (after the affair starts) and less flashbacks on Liz’ past.

But despite its flaws, The Americans has a certain flavor of its own and I have a lot of fun watching it. The cast is great, and it’s interesting to root for one character during one scene and totally hate her/him in the next.

Oh, and the soundtrack rocks.

I’m looking forward to season two, though I prefer the first half of the season. And the pilot is one of my favorite episodes.

Beauty and The Beast : It’s Fun – Stop Wishing for Its Demise Already!

Posted on October 15, 2012 Written by ripitup

Beauty and The Beast starring Kristin Kreuk and Jay Ryan

Beauty and The Beast TV Series — Kristin Kreuk and Jay Ryan. Image via onthedemo.com

It probably sucks that most TV writers can only have a short time of relief and feeling of success when a single disappointment about the rating figures can send a lot of movie writers and bloggers predicting the lifespan of the show, and not being generous or optimistic about it at all.

Sure, it is great to have sold a script, and then have your series picked up among so many others- but then you have to worry about keeping the interest level high, all the while knowing not all of your target audience will watch it when it airs on TV, that Nielsen doesn’t reflect the actual popularity of your show, and that a lot of weird viewers will stop watching it just because the lead guy is too “hot”, or the show resembles quite a few old ones…

Yes, a lot of people already started predicting and/or wishing the demise of Beauty and The Beast, but I’m not one of them. Let’s go over the plot, and then I’ll share my reasons of why it might be worth a chance.

NYPD detective Catherine Chandler (Kristin Kreuk) still hasn’t quite gotten over her mother’s death 9 years ago- the two assailants would have killed her too, hadn’t it not been for a mysterious “beast” that saved her. Of course her version of events was attributed to trauma, and she believed it when they said it was probably just a wild animal.

But a current case reveals clues about a dead doctor/military guy named Vincent Keller and as she digs, she realizes that Vincent Keller is “the beast” from that night-he tells her that he joined a military experiment without being fully aware of the consequences, had his DNA changed and gained the ability/curse to turn into a furious and freakishly strong beast when he got an adrenaline rush.

Even though he tries to get her to leave him alone for both their safety, she can’t- she decides that they will both be helping out each other- and make him realize that he is anything but a monster.

So there you have it- a police procedural led by a young pretty female detective, protected by her ally – some drama, action, mystery and romance.

If you expected the wheel to be reinvented, this is not the show for you. If you don’t like to see pretty people on TV, this is not for you- although I have to say they haven’t gone half as overboard as The Vampire Diaries when it comes to casting attractive people. And you will have to live with the fact that the show is sci-fi, and not fantasy- as far as the beast is concerned.

If you’re OK with the cast of attractive actors, the sci-fi element, the case-of-the-week and the upcoming romance, great. So am I.

Now, people compared this to The Hulk. Scientist/experiment gone wrong/uncontrolled power/life led in secret? I see their point.

Some compared it to Moonlight, the short-lived vampire show starring Alex O’Loughlin – and I was too reminded of it. The-not-exactly-human helping solve crimes and protecting innocent people/watching over the girl he saved years ago/partnering up and falling in love with her…Check, check, check all the way.

But come on-as much as I loved Moonlight and was sad to see it go, Moonlight was hardly the first to use the vampire-seeks-redemption-while-falling-in-love-with-the-girl-he-is-watching-over concept. Hello, Angel of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, anyone? He is a good vampire, has watched over Buffy ever since she became a slayer at 16, helped save people, fell in love with her…

But hey, I am definitely not saying Angel’s concept was original. It was cool and fun, but I’m pretty sure someone somewhere did it-many times-before.

So Beauty and the Beast is a fun show, with cliches I’d not change. It’d be a letdown if the Beast didn’t have his human sides, or if he was exactly Fairy-Tale-like-all fury , all the time. It’d sure suck without the emotional bond between its characters. Angel had Buffy, Mick had Beth (Moonlight) and hey, Vincent will have Catherine.

Now, I won’t be complaining a lot of if it is cancelled. I’m still not over Awake– now that show was emotionally gripping, extremely powerful and refreshing- and I still think cancelling it was a crime against creativity and good TV. I know it is all about ratings and revenues, but they give you more seasons, not necessarily good TV.

But I will be enjoying this show as long as it remains fun and on the air. I can’t promise not to mourn over Last Resort, however, should it be cancelled.

So sit back, and tune in if it’s your kind of thing. If it isn’t, good thing you have a gazillion alternatives.