Designated Survivor: Season 3

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Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Ratings

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4.8	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Ratings

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Designated Survivor: Kiefer Sutherland On The Show

Now Playing: Designated Survivor: Kiefer Sutherland On The Show

Season Details & Credits

ABC | Netflix | Season Premiere Date: June 7, 2019

Summary: The political drama moves to Netflix for its third season which also is the first with new showrunner Neal Baer as Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) begins his reelection campaign with some new hires including new chief of staff Mars Harper (Anthony Edwards).

Genre(s): Drama, Suspense

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Season 3 Episodes

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S3:E10. #truthorconsequences
Air Date: June 7, 2019
tbd
S3:E9. #undecided
Air Date: June 7, 2019
tbd
S3:E8. #scaredsh*tless
Air Date: June 7, 2019

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Critic Reviews

The Telegraph Ed Power

Jan 3, 2020

As political drama Designated Survivor season three has the smoke-streaming-from-its-ears quality of a Donald Trump stump-speech. As bursting-at-the-seams pot-boiler it is magnificent. Read full review

Tim Surette

Jun 7, 2019

Is it now good enough to be a must-see TV show? No! But fans of Designated Survivor's run on ABC who aren't afraid of a few changes should notice that the political drama is, for the most part, a better, more fully realized series, even if only incrementally. Read full review

Allison Shoemaker

Jun 7, 2019

The third season is a marked improvement over the two that preceded it; this is still not a show that can manage to be three shows at once, but at least now some of those shows are marginally interesting. Read full review

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User Reviews

Evie1603

Jun 8, 2019

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Wow what a new season! Designated finally did what we hoped it would do and use its brilliant cast and characters to carry the plot. And what a cast! First mentions have to go to Italia Ricci who literally ripped my gut out this season one second ,then gave me full understanding of her character through just one look the next. Her duo pairing with new addition Lorraine was brilliant, the perfect angel and devil arc. Lorraine is a fantastic addition who really showed reality in the ruthless world of politics and was a brilliant female powerhouse. This duo showed two strong women, pummelling forward in the world of politics but with different approaches and agendas. Seth provided the comedic relief and had some great moments, though the new addition of his daughter and her mother seemed sloppy and pointless. Aaron finally got some character development and we learned more of who he is. Unfortunately, most of this came through his new relationship with new character isabel. Dedication to her character almost over took his and I’m not sure her addition added anything else. I thought that they would use her character to push together Emily and Aaron whose unused and forgotten chemistry was one of the biggest scandals of season 1 and 2. However, an unwanted pregnancy is just too cliche for.me, as was her know it all perfect character. Unless they use the story for bringing in the hot topic of abortion, it’s all snooze for me. I’m sick of the, woman books for abortion and changes mind at last second story or couple battle through pregnancy story. Its6not usually the choice for working women. Mars Harper had a great story in relation to drug pricing and pharmaceutical companies sinister behaviour and I like his addition- his wife is a bit meh. Where will they go with that? Crucially, the story I loved was kirkman’s fall from grace (at least in Emily’s eyes) this season. He has always been a little too good to be true, always making the right choice, detriment be damned. It was so refreshing to see that yes, even the best of people get pulled into doing the wrong thing and their morality is compromised. I worry for how Emily and Lorraine will be re added back into the mix. It would be criminal not to pair them up again but I’m hoping they don’t make mistakes in how they re add them. Emily has always been my favourite character as she is so realistic and champions a young woman surviving in politics, flaws be damned. I’m so hoping a season 4 is commissioned so we can see how all of this plays out!… Expand

0 of 3 users found this helpful03

SchroederRock

Aug 7, 2019

Season 3 ends the entire series as Netflix chooses not to renew the political drama. Was it a good send off? I'm not certain of that and that irritates me. Designated Survivor had this soul to it that reflected our current political climate - the senseless bickering and division, theSeason 3 ends the entire series as Netflix chooses not to renew the political drama. Was it a good send off? I'm not certain of that and that irritates me. Designated Survivor had this soul to it that reflected our current political climate - the senseless bickering and division, the intentions to play to a base of voters instead of appealing to the interests of every American citizen and removing blockades that would stymie positive progress. Season 3 of Designated Survivor does continue that trend at times and reflects what is likely the real-world effect of politics on a president that aims to do the right thing at the right time without thinking of themselves. Tom Kirkman's character is profoundly necessary in a growing succession of American leadership that tends to under-deliver. His intention to do the right thing is exactly what a nation needs in its leadership and yet I constantly feel like we have so little of that. Mix in a superb cast that surrounds Kirkman and you have a show that can literally float on the people that make it alone. This is evidenced not only in Sutherland's performance as Kirkman but Italia Ricci's character Emily Rhodes who commands quite a lot of attention and really drives secondary plots in the show's third season at times. Season 3 gets high marks for character development and ending both the season and the series on a strong note but the way it gets there is problematic. Often I felt that the show took unnecessary steps to push an LGBT agenda and went to greater lengths to expose people gratuitously to what most would consider far-left ideologies. It's ridiculous - not the fact that the LGBT community is represented in the show and certainly not that it's horrible to be a member of that community, but that the series had to put such an emphasis when Designated Survivor had become such a centrist-aiming series ideologically and getting so deep by showing a rather uncomfortable gay sex scene in the first half of the series left me feeling off and every time the show hammered that ideology I couldn't help but feel like someone planted their own political ideology into the mix for **** & giggles, not because it fit the series well. A lot of uber-liberal ideologies make their way into the show and while some of them fit the bill properly as to what a Kirkman presidency would focus on (humanity, individuality, charity, among other things) others feel out of place and I couldn't help but be forced to deal with these off-putting themes for the sake of marching through the final season. In the end, I still ended up liking what I was watching. I was sad to learn that Netflix wouldn't continue Designated Survivor, especially with how things ended. I felt like the writers were finally shedding these unnecessary distractions and uninteresting character side-plots and focusing on better stories to tell. I won't spoil the ending but there were some great choices made in how things wrapped up but I felt like there would be enough material to either extend season 3 a couple more episodes with some legal matters following one of the storylines we experience or give the show one more season before putting it to bed - that's not what we seem to be getting here. Unless the most unlikely miracle occurs and Designated Survivor finds life beyond its second cancellation, it's over. Reviving it at this point wouldn't seem all that lucrative unless a network had a tough ratings issue that picking up this series might help bridge, but then you have to make it worth it by being willing to run not just one new season but likely a second or a third AND make it good enough that the show maintains interest. I don't feel like season 3 did the series justice and I'm sure many didn't finish the series because they felt the weird distractions and, frankly, bad side-stories early on diminished the appeal of a political drama. That being said, if you stick with it I felt the final 3 or 4 episodes focused up much better as the boring subplots fizzled out and the man we all came to see is dominantly the focus of the show and it's conclusion. Hang in there if you're just starting out - it does get better and the final episode is quite a thrill overall.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

Stargatemunky

Mar 16, 2022

This show made me finish Season 3 out of spite, just so I could be done with it.

Season 1 has a unique plot device that opens up all kinds of potential and it executed it perfectly, with obvious parallels to 24 with the cast and writing style, it highlights interesting angles of politicalThis show made me finish Season 3 out of spite, just so I could be done with it.

Season 1 has a unique plot device that opens up all kinds of potential and it executed it perfectly, with obvious parallels to 24 with the cast and writing style, it highlights interesting angles of political subterfuge and backstabbing with enough stamina to last 22 episodes.

Season 2 starts off weak, with not much to really make use of now the big bad evil has been dealt with, it hides any interesting back story regarding the next big threat with really lame social issues that just seem vague and uninteresting. It picks up halfway through but there are lots of big budget sets that seem to be used for like 5 seconds with main characters being 'ended' with not much in the way of actual thought. Just filler for rushing back to the dumb 'social issue of the week'. Had ABC had it for another season they might have come up with something interesting

Season 3...... ugh... whilst the plot points are more tight, you STILL have the main plot interest, the bio weapons, pushed the background until the penultimate episodes and then it's literally just dumped like it was nothing to begin with, thus sapping ANY real interest. The swearing and the in your face gay sex scenes are done just to sell to some non-existent mastabatory audience looking to get a fix, as if this show ever was pitched to that demographic. Season 1-2 you could sit with your parents or family and feel ok, Season 3 is full of f-bomb cringe with self-reference to the fact like Netflix is trying to be edgy and cool.... it's neither, it detracts from the plot, the feel of the show and overall competency of any writers worth a damn.

S3 has some good emotional plot developments, again, it was only 10 episodes as opposed to 22 but still managed to drag on worse than Season 2 because of the pig headed lazy writing. I'm glad it's over, I can't recommend the show really beyond Season 1 because literally NOTHING beyond that is anything but cliché, predictable plots that you can copy paste from the playbook of any drama that's gone before it. They introduce characters out of the blue that you know will end up being the bad guy of the week.

Season 1 kept you guessing for a while what everyone's motivations were... then then just dropped the ball. A waste of good actors and production budget.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

godkarl

Apr 9, 2020

Season 3 is just genuinely terrible. In a stupid attempt to increase viewership they attempted to shoehorn as much edge and identity politics as they could as quickly as they could. Normally I can deal with it but this was just ridiculous in a show with zero precedent for it. They lost mySeason 3 is just genuinely terrible. In a stupid attempt to increase viewership they attempted to shoehorn as much edge and identity politics as they could as quickly as they could. Normally I can deal with it but this was just ridiculous in a show with zero precedent for it. They lost my viewership of this show along with quite a few others because of these blatantly stupid attempts to change things up because they got greedy.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Gregholic

Oct 21, 2019

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I binge watched Season 1 and Season 2, absolutely loved it! Season 3 was a huge disappointment though and it's common sense that they had to cancel the show after this mess. One user already said it: It's an LBGTQ(?) propaganda show, the swearing is absolutely unnecessary and cringey. I stopped watching after episode six, was hoping that the season may somehow turn it all around and prove me wrong - but that didn't happen. Cutting Lyor off the show was a big blow, he fit perfectly into the show together with Seth. Also giving that Mars Harper guy an endless amount of air time... jesus christ, I haven't seen such a boring and bad actor before. Is it because everyone else from Season 1 and 2 was absolutely great, or is he just that bad? He looks like he's a good friend with the producer of the show and got a role in Season 3 as a gift or something.

I highly recommend Season 1 and Season 2, but do not touch Season 3. But actually... where is the point in watching the first two seasons, if the third and last one completely sucked? Good question, next question.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

blahhhh

Jun 14, 2019

What did they do to the show that I loved?

Season 1 was a high octane thriller about saving the world.

Season 3 features a tween girl get her first period.

What happened?

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

bowers86

Dec 31, 2019

Loved the first 2 seasons. The 3rd season is complete crap. Really bad. I watched 4 episodes and had to stop. The foul language and sex scenes are put in as a shock factor for the audience. Way to ruin a good show, Netflix.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

SEE ALL 14 REVIEWS

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Seasons & Episodes

71

Series Overview
Season 3

tbd
- Season 3 Overview
  Air Date: June 7, 2019
- tbd
  S3:E10. #truthorconsequences
  Air Date: June 7, 2019
- tbd
  S3:E9. #undecided
  Air Date: June 7, 2019
- tbd
  S3:E8. #scaredsh*tless
  Air Date: June 7, 2019
- tbd
  S3:E7. #identity/crisis
  Air Date: June 7, 2019
- tbd
  S3:E6. #whocares
  Air Date: June 7, 2019
- tbd
  S3:E5. #nothingpersonal
  Air Date: June 7, 2019
- tbd
  S3:E4. #makehistory
  Air Date: June 7, 2019
- tbd
  S3:E3. #privateparts
  Air Date: June 7, 2019
- tbd
  S3:E2. #slipperyslope
  Air Date: June 7, 2019
- tbd
  S3:E1. #thesystemisbroken
  Air Date: June 7, 2019
Season 2

tbd
- Season 2 Overview
  Air Date: September 27, 2017
Season 1

71
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: September 21, 2016