Raymond Jones

Loved the premise of the show, an inside-plot to take over the US government. As soon as I read the description I started watching. Loved the first several episodes, but it started to slowly taper off and lose my interest. I just watched S1 E15 and I think that will be my last one. Here are a few thoughts...Spoilers of course: 1. Very political. I had high hopes when Kirkman was presented as an independent, and the first several episodes really didn't delve into specifics on issues, and I was hoping that would continue. I was sadly mistaken. From gun control to climate change to regulation to(fill in the blank), Kirkman and his wife are strongly left wing. I realize it would be impossible to really walk the line here between left and right, but they didn't even try. Every issue he takes a liberal approach. From what I understand, S3(taken up by Netflix) is "in your face" radical left politics, and doesn't even try to appear centrist. I would have been much happier with Kirkman taking a mixture of left and right positions, which we would expect an Independent(especially one who openly claims to foster bipartisanship) to take. Instead, the Republicans apparently are forced to concede over and over again. 2. Disappearing kids. Where did Kirkman's kids disappear to? Leo was dealing drugs and appeared to be a mess throughout the first 2 episodes, then the show seemed to just forget all about it. 3. Obvious bad guys. It was clear by about E4 that the bad guys were far right wing types. Every villain was white. The dumb political positions the temp VP takes when assuming office for Kirkman's surgery. The over-the-top racism. At least try to keep suspense by teasing someone else. The Muslim terrorist angle being a frame job was clearly obvious immediately. 4. Idiotic Secret Service. The capitol gets blown up. Ok. We can accept that. However, a short time later somehow a lone gunman gets loose on the WH lawn and shoots up a meeting of the governors? Not long after, they allow a shooter to take an obvious sniper position(opening exterior window to take the shot, clearly visible from outside) in a swearing in event of the VP? Come on. Security would be ridiculously insane for months after the bombing...especially when they don't even have a Congress in place! 6. I'll throw in a couple things I like here at the end. I really enjoyed the fairly accurate portrayal of the backbiting and idiotic bickering of politicians in Washington. I also liked FBI agent Wells and her quest, although I thought she easily had enough info to warrant informing the President several episodes before the sniper nearly killed Kirkman. Also, she is a bit superpowered. I give it 2 stars because it started off strong, but quickly just broke down. Killing off the known villain, the VP, so early on was a mistake. Killing him off coincided with the show getting bogged down by politics and internal issues really cemented me losing interest.