Sutherland back in Designated Survivor
After a tumultuous year, many people doubted that this unlikely U.S. president would still be in office.
Yet here he stands, President Tom Kirkman – brought to life on the small screen by Kiefer Sutherland, the star of Designated Survivor.
The action-packed White House drama returns for a second season Wednesday nights on CTV and ABC.
At times, the nightmarish scenarios unfolding last season on Designated Survivor made the Donald Trump presidency seem as dull and predictable as an episode of The Apprentice.
Things got off to an explosive start on the series when terrorists attacked and destroyed the U.S. Capitol during a State of the Union address, killing the man who was then president, the vice-president and all of his top advisers. Mirroring actual U.S. emergency succession policy, the designated survivor, Kirkman – at the time the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development – was kept away from the address. He was hastily sworn in as president and had to immediately deal with mutinous military leaders, rebellious governors and the threat of more attacks.
When the series resumes, a new opening sequence features an animated, time-lapse rendering of the Capitol’s iconic dome being restored to its full, flagwaving glory.
“They must have had a lot of people working on that, don’t you think?” Sutherland joked.
It’s a quick way to show that the shot-in-Toronto series has moved on.
“The circumstance in which he became president was so large that it really did take a season to properly deal with that,” said the actor, still Jack Bauer fit at 50.
Season 2 will deal more with throwing a man who has no ambitions to be president into the toughest job in the world.
“Will it corrupt him? Will he actually fix a lot of the problems? That’s now what we’re focused on more than anything,” Sutherland said in a recent interview.
Returning characters include Natascha McElhone (Californication) as Kirkman’s devoted wife Alex and Adan Canto as chief of staff. Italia Ricci, LaMonica Garrett, Kal Penn and Maggie Q also star.
Given the real president’s fixation with television, it would be reasonable to assume that Sutherland has received a tweet or two from the White House. Not so, said the actor.
“I think he’s probably a bit busy with the news channels, but no, certainly I have not heard from him,” Sutherland said. “And the truth is, we’re witnessing one of the most bizarre times in American political history.”
Sutherland said creator and executive producer David Guggenheim and the other showrunners and writers make no effort to weave real events into Designated Survivor storylines. Still, coincidences do occur. “We have an episode down the line that begins with the bringing down of a confederate statue in the South,” said Sutherland. “And that was written seven months before the events in South Carolina. So sometimes someone’s imagination will occasionally collide with an event that actually happens.”
Kirkman is asked in an episode what he wants out of his presidency. His answer seems tailor-made for the times: to restore faith in government.
“That is an incredible challenge,” said Sutherland, the grandson of one of Canada’s most admired politicians, Tommy Douglas. “Have we ever had a time when people believed in their government?”
The actor pointed to Ken Burns’s current PBS documentary on the Vietnam War to suggest faith has been broken for at least 50 years.
Away from the set, Sutherland continues to perform as a singer and songwriter.
“I finished our tour in Glasgow and was on the set in Toronto to start season 2 the next day,” he said, adding that he’s had discussions with CTV about a behind-the-scenes documentary of the recording of his second album.
His biggest thrill lately was hearing that his famous father Donald Sutherland will receive an honourary Oscar at the next Academy Awards.
“I think his work in films – everything from ‘M-A-SH’ to ‘Klute’ to ‘Don’t Look Now’ to ‘Ordinary People’ – he’s been such a support system for everybody I know,” he said.
“I mean, in my opinion, and it’s kind of selfish, but I think he’s not only one of the most prolific actors in the English language, but I think he’s also really one of the most important.” – Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist
based in Brampton, Ont.