If you have a Netflix subscription, which you most probably have since you clicked into this article, you’d have bound to watched Designated Survivor.
The political thriller that packs a big conspiracy is like a mixture between House of Cards and Homeland, both equally good US dramas that had us all binge-watching.
What you might not know is that the first two seasons of Designated Survivor, despite us seeing that “Netflix Original” before watching Tom Kirkman adjusts his moral compass, isn’t exactly made by Netflix: instead, it’s produced by ABC in the US while Netflix distributes it to regions outside of US.
In other words, it was still aired on mainstream TV in the US, which explains why President Kirkman doesn’t swear.
However, ABC cancelled the series after two seasons, and Netflix picked up the rights to it and produced it for the third season, which means it’s really a Netflix Original globally now.
What does this mean?
With Netflix using data to analyse what viewers like (while keeping it a secret), we can only come to one conclusion: a lot of people are watching Designated Survivor.
And also, with the third season fully distributed online, characters are swearing like nobody’s business.
What is It?
Basically, the first season’s about a Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (a Secretary is like a minister in Singapore) becoming the President of the United States after every leader has been killed in an explosion.
Now known as President Kirkman, he showed his country that he can govern the US even without being elected in, and make decisions that are purely ethnical instead of political.
In other words, a world leader that we all wish to have.
(Though…it becomes a different thing altogether in Season Three, but let’s not go there)
The title is called Designated Survivor as during events whereby all the Government leaders are in one place, one of them would be chosen to sit out of the area so that if something happened in that one place, the chosen one could take over the Government.
Let’s just say that since the second season, the title no longer has much correlation with the plot, but it’s still a nice show.
So nice that the Koreans have decided to remake it.
Designated Survivor: 60 Days
It’s usually the other way around: sleeper hits in Korea were remade by the US for a bigger audience.
But I guess this drama is way too good to be passed.
TvN, a Korean TV network, picked up the rights for the US drama, and the lead would be played by 47-year-old Ji Jin-hee, who looks the part in a teaser poster that was released late last month:
Known as Designated Survivor: 60 Days, the caption aptly states, “Country which lost its president, one person survived.”
The story seems to follow the first season of Designated Survivor very closely, as the Minister of Environment was parachuted into the position of the President of South Korea after an explosion took out every leader.
However, according to the synopsis, he’s supposed to sit in as an acting president for 60 days, unlike the OG Designated Survivor whereby President Kirkman sat in as a president till the end of his term….(and beyond lalala who told you not to watch the third season once it’s out lalala).
Have a look at the trailer which looks dope:
Here’s a list of the cast (gotta admit I don’t know any of them):
- Ji Jin-Hee – Park Moo-Jin
- Lee Joon-Hyuk – Oh Young-Seok
- Heo Jun-Ho – Han Joo-Seung
- Kang Han-Na – Han Na-Kyung
- Bae Jong-Ok – Yoon Chan-Kyung
- Kim Gyu-Ri – Choi Kang-Yeon
- Son Seok-Koo – Cha Young-Jin
- Choi Yoon-Young – Jung Soo-Jung
- Choi Jae-Sung – Lee Gwan-Mook
- Lee Moo-Saeng – Kim Nam-Wook
- Kim Joo-Hun – Jung Han-Mo
- Lee Ha-Yul – Kim Joon-O
The drama will be aired in Korea from 1 July 2019 every Monday and Tuesday, and here’s the best-est news: it’ll also be on Netflix, on the same day, too.
However, because it’s not produced by Netflix, you can’t binge-watch it as two episodes would be out weekly.
But still good enough. We’re all wondering how President Kirkman would look like as an Asian.
Watch this for a complete summary of what REALLY happened to Qoo10, and why it's like a K-drama:
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