Designated Survivor (TV Series) The Mission (2016) User Reviews

Behind the Scenes

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 14 July 2019]

Kirkman, a non-military man deals with the realities of sending in a Seal team to try to bring in the person who took credit for the destruction of the capitol building and the deaths of hundreds. He is just coming to realize how much power he has over life and death. There is some hard core investigation going on behind the scenes by that FBI agent. I'm sincerely hoping that an element about the first lady's past doesn't drop this into the soap opera category. Kirkman's evolution is adequate for suspense and excitement.

****

[edwagreen · 10/10 · 27 October 2016]

President Kirkman has become so assertive in his firing of the Joint Chief of Staffs and jailing of the rebellious Michigan governor.

Dylan Walsh of the popular Poppy Montgomery series about a woman cop with telekinetic powers, briefly appears in this episode as a Navy Seal in charge of an operation in Algeria to smoke out the terrorist who bombed the capitol and therefore allowed for so much death and destruction. Unfortunately, Walsh is killed off by the episode's end.

Virginia Madsen is quite effective as the Congresswoman from the opposite of Kirkman's party. She wants to be kept involved at every corner.

The president's wife may be a source of embarrassment as the series continues. Her ex-flame is now in jail and details of their trysts may very well be leaked.

Could not continue watching

[forresthopkinsa · 1/10 · 4 December 2023]

One of the worst episodes of serious TV I've ever watched. Cinematography is good, acting is fine, but the writing just gets worse in each episode and this one in particular is so unbearable that I can't continue watching this show. Almost every line made me physically cringe.

Details (spoilers ahead):

• Tom's dialogue is so angsty that you'd think this is a YA novel. All of his lines in this episode are something along the lines of "I was too indecisive before and now we have to actually put troops on the ground, oh no, we can't just flatten the compound with a drone strike, so sad, I'm a bad man" and "Are you SURE that none of our soldiers will get hurt? Are you POSITIVE that we are not risking soldiers' lives at all? I couldn't live with myself if a Navy SEAL got in harm's way :( if you see ANY indication that an American might get hurt, then just play it safe and kill the terrorist dude who is our only lead(!!) on what happened at the Capitol"

• Tom decides that he has to go meet the soldiers who are gonna go on the mission, because he's the one giving the order. And everyone is like, dude, you really don't need to do that. Is he planning to do that for every military operation during his presidency? I guess he has to, so that we can get enough backstory on a couple soldiers to feel like something is at stake (it doesn't work, it just feels forced and corny)

• Now, Alex (the first lady) is suddenly in hot water because their son might actually be illegitimate? Verging on soap opera writing here

• The president's "special advisor", who is present for every conversation all the time, suddenly gets shut out because they're talking about Top Secret Military Stuff. I guess that makes sense. But then why do they talk about this with everyone else? They tell all of Congress about it, they offer to tell the Press Secretary (?!), they tell the first lady, they even talk about it openly while walking around the White House hallways. They share key mission updates over their personal cell phones. This show is constantly pushing suspension of disbelief to the edge, and in too many cases, far beyond it.

• Hannah is at the FBI trying to prove that one of the two remaining members of Congress is a conspirator of the bombing. She runs out of leads but handily gets an anonymous tip telling her exactly where to look: room 105 in the Capitol. Unfortunately, her map of Capitol offices shows 103, 104, and 106, but no 105. Turns out it's a secret room! Too bad no one thought of the missing number being, I dunno, a dead giveaway? Apparently the secret office was under construction, but all of the info is under lock and key and she has to personally petition someone from Congress to give that to her. Why doesn't the FBI already have access to that? Why does Congress? Why is an individual congresswoman able to hand over this apparently highly classified info, just in a random backroom deal? Why does Hannah agree to update the congresswoman on the progress of the investigation (!!?!) in exchange for the documents required to do her work? This plotline is baffling at every single turn and, once again, we fly off the edge of the cliff of suspension of disbelief, full throttle.

There is honestly so much more that I can comment on here but I don't have the energy. I made an account on this website because I was so irritated at how shamelessly awful this episode is. How this show was renewed for two more seasons, and won awards, is beyond me. I can't stomach any more of it.