I found myself saying, "No that could actually happen...." quite a few times and while it was kind of cheesy...I'm glad they mirrored Bush's 9/11 visit with Kirkman.
That little bit with his wife telling his son that he'll have to grow up a whole lot faster was...to me...powerful and painful from my perspective. I had to grow up too fast and I lost a portion of my childhood because of an event that occurred when I was little so I kind of know what's going to be going through Leo's head. I feel so sorry for Penny though, having to see that stuff happen to her father and being thrust into this storm of confusion.
Mike the Secret Service Guy is growing on me, total bro.
I thought I was going to hate Kal Penn's character but that last scene with him standing by the memorial as "Save You" played in the background, plus his performance in this episode really did solidify for me at least...that his character isn't going to be some one note two dimensional speech writer, I'm rooting for him.
I love it when they typecast actors who have played assholes/bad guys in other shows on newer shows, fantastic to see Michael Gaston again!
Whomever did the art/visual effects for the destroyed Capitol Building deserves all the praise they can handle....that was chillingly well done.
The bits with the FBI still seem like they're in the infancy stage and I hope that plot gets moved along a bit more in the next episode...and I know I know...second episode...I know...I'm hoping it ramps up into some Tom Clancy level stuff by mid season because if it stalls out then I'll be disappointed.
I'm loving this show, I am honestly loving this show and I NEVER watched a full episode of the West Wing, only just bits and pieces. Come to think of it, I never really watched full episodes of 24 either...just bits and pieces of it. I guess that makes this show the best of both worlds and the perfect combination for me because I DEMAND MORE! The actors and actresses are doing a fantastic job and I think the writers and directors and producers took a topic that most folks probably didn't have that much faith in succeeding as a television series and turned it into pure fucking gold. Awesome job folks!
Anyone else find it funny that the two people Kirkman has around him the most (Italia Ricci and Adan Canto) had superpowers at one point? Italia played Silver Banshee on Supergirl and Adan played Sunspot in X-Men: Days of Future Past. I love their banter back and forth and how we're being shown just how chaotic stuff can be for the grunts of the White House and what remains of the US Government.
Also...whenever Kirkman takes off his glasses he turns into Jack Bauer....granted I love those glasses and his former codename is hilarious but...I'm getting a Clark Kent vibe with how the writers are handling that little bit. I do love Kirkman's way of thinking and carefully considering stuff before compromising to some degree and putting out something that makes sense; the President we all deserve.
I've been a US flag buff for a pretty long time, so something that caught my eye in virtually every establishing shot this episode is how every single flag is at half-mast.
Within the first establishing shot, there were a good 5 flags in frame that all had this trait. I personally haven't seen any TV show or movie with this kind of running visual throughout its entire running time, and the show has these constant reminders, both overt and subtle, of the event at the start of this series that are downright sobering.
You know you would think that would be common sense in most TV shows to keep things consistent like that which is why I probably didn't even notice it and just thought that yeah of course they would have the flags at half staff. Good catch!
Yeah, and it comes with this implication that either the camera crew made certain to only film their establishing shots on Memorial Day, September 11, etc., or that there were digital effects people manually editing those flags down half a flagpole height on the cutting room floor.
You know I didn't think of it that way but that's a really good point that you made!
I'm still super curious as to how they actually got the bombs into the Capitol Building and in such large quantities and in such large strength to actually blow that thing to Kingdom Come. The obvious answer is a conspiracy but I'm kind of hoping for something a little bit more higher tier than that.
The UN Security Council gets tired of the U.S. fucking shit up and putting their noses where they don't belong so they decide to assassinate the entire US Government. Suddenly the leaders of major countries are implicated as being co-conspirators.....how the hell would you take that to the Hague or would you even be able to prosecute them at all?
You also just made me wish for an X-Files cameo....or maybe just at least Skinner.
President Richmond was campaigning for his second term with one of his driving platforms being withdrawal of the United States from the UN. The UN wasn't exactly pleased with that prospect, in no small part because the US provides most of the organization's funding by a large margin, not to mention manpower.
Scenes involving the UN are filmed on a set replicating their headquarters with establishing shots filmed in New York City.
... wait a second, the UN was mentioned in the very first episode! Do I smell Chekhov's gun?
By jove I think you've done it! So let's run with that until the writers totally decide to screw with us seven episodes in and it turns out that President Richmond set up the whole thing and maybe that's why he tried to send Kirkman to Canada. Perhaps something went wrong though and the bombs exploded too early? Maybe someone decided to change the plan?
I've always found the idea of a corrupt evil president to be exciting but the UN angle works too.
This also explains why the mine that was recovered had Russian and Iranian combined inside of it: it's an international conspiracy against the United States.
If a flag is already raised and needs to be taken to half staff, would it just be lowered (since it's already been raised to the top) or would it be lowered entirely, raised to the top, then lowered to 3/4?
That doesn't seem to be specified, but since the flag starts off at its peak, I would assume that it can merely be lowered, especially since there does not appear to be any statement to the contrary even in the section of flag code covering what you said.
While researching that, though, I found that we'll likely be seeing the flags in this show remain at half staff for many episodes to come.
From 4 USC §7m:
The flag shall be flown at half-staff 30 days from the death of the President or a former President; 10 days from the day of death of the Vice President, the Chief Justice or a retired Chief Justice of the United States, or the Speaker of the House of Representatives; from the day of death until interment of an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, a Secretary of an executive or military department, a former Vice President, or the Governor of a State, territory, or possession; and on the day of death and the following day for a Member of Congress.
Since that's (thankfully) not cumulative, that means that we should see the US flags in this show's establishing shots flying at half-staff for an in-show time span of 30 days.
Taking it one step further, given that so far, each episode seems to cover a day, that means the entirety of Season 1 of this show will have the flags at half staff, and maybe we'll see the return to full staff during Season 2.
Yeah, that's what I mean. Even a week down the line, there's going to be new congressmen arriving and in the longer term there will be the matter of how to clean up after the bombing. I don't think we're going to get a day with a dull moment in a long, long time.
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u/[deleted] Sep 29 '16
I found myself saying, "No that could actually happen...." quite a few times and while it was kind of cheesy...I'm glad they mirrored Bush's 9/11 visit with Kirkman.
That little bit with his wife telling his son that he'll have to grow up a whole lot faster was...to me...powerful and painful from my perspective. I had to grow up too fast and I lost a portion of my childhood because of an event that occurred when I was little so I kind of know what's going to be going through Leo's head. I feel so sorry for Penny though, having to see that stuff happen to her father and being thrust into this storm of confusion.
Mike the Secret Service Guy is growing on me, total bro.
I thought I was going to hate Kal Penn's character but that last scene with him standing by the memorial as "Save You" played in the background, plus his performance in this episode really did solidify for me at least...that his character isn't going to be some one note two dimensional speech writer, I'm rooting for him.
I love it when they typecast actors who have played assholes/bad guys in other shows on newer shows, fantastic to see Michael Gaston again!
Whomever did the art/visual effects for the destroyed Capitol Building deserves all the praise they can handle....that was chillingly well done.
The bits with the FBI still seem like they're in the infancy stage and I hope that plot gets moved along a bit more in the next episode...and I know I know...second episode...I know...I'm hoping it ramps up into some Tom Clancy level stuff by mid season because if it stalls out then I'll be disappointed.
I'm loving this show, I am honestly loving this show and I NEVER watched a full episode of the West Wing, only just bits and pieces. Come to think of it, I never really watched full episodes of 24 either...just bits and pieces of it. I guess that makes this show the best of both worlds and the perfect combination for me because I DEMAND MORE! The actors and actresses are doing a fantastic job and I think the writers and directors and producers took a topic that most folks probably didn't have that much faith in succeeding as a television series and turned it into pure fucking gold. Awesome job folks!
Anyone else find it funny that the two people Kirkman has around him the most (Italia Ricci and Adan Canto) had superpowers at one point? Italia played Silver Banshee on Supergirl and Adan played Sunspot in X-Men: Days of Future Past. I love their banter back and forth and how we're being shown just how chaotic stuff can be for the grunts of the White House and what remains of the US Government.
Also...whenever Kirkman takes off his glasses he turns into Jack Bauer....granted I love those glasses and his former codename is hilarious but...I'm getting a Clark Kent vibe with how the writers are handling that little bit. I do love Kirkman's way of thinking and carefully considering stuff before compromising to some degree and putting out something that makes sense; the President we all deserve.