DVD/TV Series Review: Designated Survivor Season 2

 

The 22-episode second season of Designated Survivor aired during the 2017/2018 TV season. It would be the last that would air on ABC before going to Netflix for its final season. The season starts out essentially wrapping up the Patrick Loyd storyline, which ties up the original storyline of the show. The remainder of the first half of the season deals with a political scandal involving the first lady, which leads into a big cliffhanger going into the mid-season break. The second half of the season is where the show really ramps up and gets very strong. There are plotlines involving a British spy working for the Russians, a palace coup against the administration, and a hacker storyline (which actually starts out early on but keeps ramping up throughout the season. Mixed within is the same political intrigue and maneuvering that made season one enjoyable.

There was some cast turnover this year, both in terms of the main cast and guest stars. Paulo Costanzo (who was on the show Royal Pains as well as the 2000 cult comedy Road Trip, among other things) was the main addition to the main cast, coming in as Lyor Boone, an advisor to the President (and the staff). While Virginia Madsen did not reprise her role, Michael J. Fox joined the series for a multi-episode arc, as did 24 alum Kim Raver. The season ended on a pretty big cliffhanger and, of course, was promptly canceled by ABC, only to be picked up by Netflix for a final season.

The DVD set is a six-disc set. Despite Amazon's listing, there is a Region-1 Canadian DVD release that will work in US DVD players. There is also a Region-2 set that is available on Amazon UK, but others have said this listing is for a Region-1 set. I bought mine elsewhere, and it was the Region-1 Canadian version. The video transfer is okay, but definitely not a high-definition transfer. The only extra/bonus feature is a 10-minute interview with Paulo Constanzo about joining the cast. Otherwise, all you get are the episodes. No deleted scenes, commentary tracks, or behind-the-scenes material.

The show does have a bit of a different feel than season 1, which is not surprising considering season 1 was centered around unraveling a conspiracy. While the second season started out a bit slow, it definitely picked up as it went along. I cannot guarantee everyone who liked or loved season 1 will enjoy this season, but I definitely think it is worth a look and will probably be enjoyable for most if you do not bail on it early on.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Nikita: Season 4

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from season three, but no major season four spoilers.+++

Nikita's six-episode fourth and final season aired in the winter of 2013. It was always a bubble show on the CW, but thankfully, it was given a very short final season to wrap up the remaining storylines. The story picks up three months after the events that ended season three, with Nikita on the run after being framed for killing the President. She returns to the United States in an attempt to clear her name and faces multiple setups by Amanda to deepen the frame. Ultimately, the episodes amount to Nikita versus Amanda and the effort to bring Amanda to justice. I will not spoil anything, but the show wraps up the lingering storylines and provides the fans a glimpse at how life turns out for the various characters.

The Blu-Ray is a single-disc set that is basically a MOD disc. There are no commentary tracks, behind-the-scenes material, or the like. The show packs a lot into the six episodes to tie everything up. That is a blessing and a curse because there is no filler, but the plotlines seem rushed. The Blu-Ray is very expensive to get six episodes and no extras, so the only reason to get it versus streaming the show is to keep a physical disc collection complete. The show looks and sounds great in HD, but you are paying for a full-season release and getting less than half a season's episodes and no bonus content. But, it is good that the show did not end on the season three cliffhanger and was allowed to wrap everything up.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Nikita: Season 3

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from the prior season, but no major season three giveaways+++

The 22-episode third season aired during the 2012-2013 TV season. It picks up after a short time jump from the events that ended season two, with Percy being killed and Amanda dispatched (and now on the run). Nikita (Maggie Q) is now back in the fold at Division, running it along with Michael (Shane West) and a CIA analyst named Ryan Fletcher (Noah Bean). They are trying to hunt down Amanda (Melinda Clarke) who is now fully the series' "big bad" and Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca) has mended fences with Nikita and is again a part of the team. The show continues to blend mission-of-the-week self-contained stories with the larger arcs that run throughout the season. The big story arc being the cat-and-mouse game between Amanda and Nikita/Division that plays out throughout the entire season. The season ends on a minor cliffhanger, although a fairly closed-ended one because the showrunners were not sure whether the series would get a fourth season.

The Blu-Ray set is a four-disc set. As was the case with the first two seasons, the A/V quality is stellar, but the bonus content was very scaled back from the prior physical media releases. There are only 11 minutes of deleted scenes and a five-minute gag reel—much less than the season one and two releases received. Overall, the season was very good, even though the ratings did not really reflect the quality. This season definitely took the show in another direction, which was good, and necessary to keep it from becoming stale. All of the actors did a wonderful job with their characters, and the new cast members fit in well with the existing cast. So, if you liked the first couple of seasons this is definitely worth sticking with. If you are a fan of action/dramas and are looking for a show you have not seen, you definitely need to see seasons one and two to really track what is going on in season three since most of the characters are established and the serial storylines are an extension of the prior seasons.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Nikita: Season 2

 

+++Warning, this contains minor spoilers from season one but no major season two giveaways.+++

The 23-episode second season of Nikita aired during the 2011/2012 TV season. It picks up right after the events of season one, with Nikita and Alex's relationship effectively having ended and Nikita and Michael's relationship restored. Now, Nikita and Michael are on the run with a hard drive called "the black box" containing the Division's darkest secrets and they plan to right the wrongs that Division has committed over the years. This allows the show to keep the procedural case-of-the-week format and then tie in larger serial arcs throughout the season. This season sees Miranda in charge of Division and Percy locked up in a cell in the basement, with Miranda manipulating Alex to keep tracking Nikita down. The season does have some twists and turns, which are, like the case-of-the-week elements, sometimes work and are sometimes silly. It does not ever stray too far from the formulaic approach, which I think is partly good and partly bad.

The Blu-Ray set is a four-disc set. As with the season 1 release, the show looks and sounds great in HD. The extras include a commentary track on the season finale, a documentary on the writers and the writing process, a feature on Maggie Q's health and nutrition regimen, just under half an hour's worth of deleted scenes, and a short gag reel. So, there is a decent amount of extras, especially for a show that has more of a cult following than wide, mass appeal.

Overall, the season is good. You definitely have to like action shows (or movies) whose plots can get a bit silly at times and be willing to just go with it. If you overanalyze things too much, you will definitely not enjoy it. The fight scenes are good and all of the actors do a great job with their characters. Melinda Clarke's role as Amanda is expanded a lot this season, and as she did on The OC, when she got more of a leading role, she crushes it. As in the first season, there is a lot of violence and some sexual content. Obviously, since it aired on regular broadcast TV they could not get too extreme with either, but they do take every opportunity to show off Maggie Q in skimpy outfits. Just, just be aware if that is an issue for you.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Nikita: Season 1

 

This is the latest adaptation of the French movie La Femme Nikita, which was also adapted as an American movie called Point of No Return and a 1990s TV series that aired on the USA network. The 22-episode first season aired during the 2010/2011 TV season and starred Maggie Q, Lyndsy Fonseca, Shane West, Melinda Clarke, and  Xander Berkeley. In this variation, Maggie Q stars as Nikita, who escaped from, and is now trying to bring down, a secret government organization called Division, which performs any number of black ops, including assassinations. Division "recruits" young men and women to perform operations, basically by giving them a choice of prison (or worse) or working for them. Nikita, who escaped Division three years prior to the events of the show, enlists the help of a young woman named Alex, played by Lyndsy Fonseca (best known for her role in the Kick-Ass movies) to take down Division. The show is basically a case/mission of the week procedural, with larger arcs that run throughout the season. Nikita, with Alex's help (unknown to Division agents), does what she can to sabotage the missions and throw a wrench into the plans of the organization. The show has a very strong supporting cast including Melinda Clarke (from The OC), Xander Berkeley (from 24), and Shane West (from ER).

The Blu-Ray set is a four-disc set. The A/V quality is excellent, with the colors looking very crisp. The show does not have a ton of special effects, but what there are do not look fake (as is definitely the case for some shows which tend to stand out even more in HD). The extras include deleted scenes, a few making-of featurettes titled "Inside Division, Part 1: The New Nikita", "Inside Division, Part 2: Executing an Episode", "Profiling Nikita, Alex, Percy & Michael", audio commentaries on select episodes, and a gag reel. So there is a lot there if you like watching the extras.

Overall, the show is very entertaining. It is pretty much a straight-up action/thriller but does mix in some drama. It does have some sexual content, but not a ton since the show aired on network TV, but Maggie Q is put in some very skimpy outfits. So, keep that in mind if that is something that would bother you. It is well written and very well-acted, and the large ensemble cast is balanced very well. So, if you are into that genre of shows, I highly recommend this one.

DVD Review: Designated Survivor The Complete Series

 

Designated Survivor was a drama that ran for three seasons from 2016 to 2019. It starred Kiefer Sutherland, Maggie Q, Adan Canto, Italia Ricci, LaMonica Garrett, Kal Penn, and Natascha McElhone. Paulo Costanzo and Ben Lawson joined the cast as series regulars in the second season, and the recurring characters included McKenna Grace, Malik Yoba, Virginia Madsen, Ashley Zuckerman, Rob Morrow, Breckin Meyer, Michael J. Fox, Kim Raver, and Reed Diamond. The premise of the series is that the HUD Secretary, Tom Kirkman, played by Kiefer Sutherland in his first major role since leaving Jack Bauer behind and deciding not to continue his appearances on 24, is named the Designated Survivor (the one cabinet member that does not attend the State of the Union) and becomes President when a terrorist attack wipes out the entire government (almost) on an attack on the Capitol during the State of the Union address. The first two seasons aired on ABC before being canceled and subsequently picked up by Netflix for a third and ultimately final season.

The first season of the show was great, as it effectively intertwined two storylines. The first was trying to figure out who was behind the attack on the Capitol. The second storyline involved Kirkman figuring out how to be President, trying to rebuild the government, and navigating how to run the country with the majority of the government gone. The two storylines largely remained parallel to each other, only intersecting at certain times. Maggie Q, arguably the second lead of the series, played FBI agent Hannah Wells, who was the lead agent tasked with uncovering the conspiracy. The White House Staff included Adan Canto (playing the Chief of Staff Aaron Shore), Italia Ricci (playing Advisor Emily Rhodes), LaMonica Garret (who played lead Secret Service Agent Mike Ritter), and Kal Penn (who played Press Secretary Seth Wright). Penn was also a consultant on the show and provided insight into his experience working in the White House during the Obama Administration.  The rest of the cast was rounded out by character actors including Natascha McElhone as the first lady, McKenna Grace and Tanner Buchanan as Kirkman's son and daughter, Malik Yoba as FBI Deputy Director Jason Atwood, Reed Diamond as the FBI's version of the head of Internal Affairs, and Virginia Madsen as Congresswoman Virginal Hookstraten, who was the Republican Designated Survivor.

Season two jumped ahead in time by one year and focused more on Kirkman's efforts to govern. The conspiracy from season one was wrapped up very early into season two (which I think was a mistake), and the show tried to shoehorn another conspiracy into the show that I do not think the fans were nearly as invested in. There was some cast turnover in season two (mainly additions to the cast). Paulo Costanzo was brought in to play Lyor Boone, a political strategist; Zoe McLellan was added to play White House Counsel Kendra Daynes; and Breckin Meyer was added to play Tom's Brother, Trey.  Michael J. Fox also had a recurring role toward the end of the season, and Kiefer's fellow 24 alum, Kim Raver, had a recurring role throughout the season. 

The third season involved another time jump. The focus of this season was the upcoming election and the corresponding campaign, and Kirkman trying to get re-elected. He is also dealing with the fallout of one of the major storylines from season two. There was a lot of cast turnover in this season, both with characters leaving and the additions of Anthony Edwards (in his first major TV series role since ER) as Chief of Staff Mars Harper and Julie White as Lorraine Zimmer, the Campaign Manager for Kirkman's election campaign. They also came up with yet another major conspiracy, which somewhat bordered on the ridiculous, and was in some ways prophetic, given the COVID-19 outbreak. And, they definitely made good use of the ability to swear on Netflix, as there were a lot of f-bombs dropped. 

The DVD set is a 15-disc set, comprising 6 discs for seasons one and two, and 3 discs for season three. The packaging is horrible. Instead of giving each disc its own holder, you have to stack discs on top of each other, and they definitely come loose during shipping.  Therefore, you may end up with scratched discs, so it's essential to play them before the return window closes, regardless of where you purchased them. As some may know, Season 1 received a US DVD release, and Season 2 received an international DVD release. Season three had bootleg releases, but no official release until this complete series release. Season one had all the same extras (behind-the-scenes material) as the US release. In the version of Season 2 I had, the only extra was an interview with Paul Constanzo, which was not included in this set, but there were some other behind-the-scenes features that were not included on the set I already owned. For Season 3, only the episodes are included; there are no extras. There are English and French captions for each season, and the DVD menus are in English and French. 

Overall, I would say the series was good. Season 1 was outstanding, but the show's quality declined with each successive season. I think the show would have been much better served to drag out the season one conspiracy longer (at least until the end of season two) instead of revealing it all by the end of season one. I think that made the show suffer from what many shows that were tied up in a mystery face when the mystery is solved (e.g., Twin Peaks). Namely, where to go from there. The writers definitely used events from the current political climate in the series (although there was no direct mention of t***p, you can tell that the show was in part a commentary on the state of the country under his "leadership"). The show was mostly well-written and always well-acted. Although it could not maintain the same quality as the first season throughout its run, I think it is still worth checking out.