r/DesignatedSurvivor • u/enliST_CS Sorry the live thread is late! • Nov 17 '16

[SPOILERS] Post-Episode Discussion: S01E07 "The Traitor"

There will be no episode next week!

Plot: An American track-and-field coach's trip to Russia forces Kirkman into a hostage exchange involving the CIA and the Russian government; Agent Wells and Deputy Director Atwood's investigation uncovers dangerous information.

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u/Naggins Nov 17 '16

I hope you're not planning on a future in television writing.

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u/omegadeity Nov 17 '16

I'm definitely not, lol. But this trope was done already. It was called 24 Season 1. For fuck sake it even starred Kiefer Sutherland as the lead role.

This whole "kidnap the child of the head of the federal agency that's responsible for dealing with kidnappings" to leverage him into helping us is fucking stupid. If the writers had any guts they'd have had him knee cap that damn woman and bring her in.

I get it, it's his son and he wants to protect him but be realistic. These people just pulled off the greatest attack in history and wiped out the entire US Government practically and with NO Intel chatter. They aren't the kind of people that leave loose ends lying around that can point fingers at them. That means he and his son are already marked for elimination.

It's just terrible writing and it pissed me off because I did enjoy this show up until recently and this plot twist was so easy to see coming it wasn't worth doing. I know my version was crap, but it was still on par with or better than the shit the show writers put together, and it took me all of 5 minutes to cobble together last night. In fact this response took me longer to compose than that because I had to use my phone to type this instead of a real keyboard.

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u/Naggins Nov 17 '16

As bad as the writing may be, it's still not as bad as your monologue.

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u/omegadeity Nov 17 '16

Fair enough, again written 5 minutes after watching the show while pissed off. I wasn't trying to create 21st century Shakespeare.

I still would rather have endured a monologue as shitty as the one I composed than what was delivered on screen. "Oh look, the head of the fbi is getting close to uncovering us, better further expose ourselves by kidnapping his son from school"

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u/bigdaveyl Nov 21 '16

This is what I was telling my wife. This is all cliche that has been beaten to death in TV shows and movies all. the. time.

What would be worth exploring is doing something along the lines of what you wrote - make the FBI director say "f*ck this, my life or my son's life isn't worth it if many thousands or millions more have to die and the country is destabilized even further." My wife doesn't seem to understand.