While there have been plenty of political dramas on both traditional network TV and streaming services like Netflix, only one three-season hit managed to upend the usual structure of the genre. From the idealistic optimism of The West Wing to the bitter cynicism of The Thick of It, political drama has given TV some of its greatest shows ever.
One of the most acclaimed political dramas of all time, Netflix’s six-season hit House of Cards, was even instrumental in turning the streaming service into a household name. Based on the 1990 British series of the same name, this darkly comic political drama earned a whopping 33 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and eight Golden Globe nominations throughout its run. The show’s story followed disgraced actor Kevin Spacey’s shady political power broker Frank Underwood.
House of Cards was one of the most acclaimed shows of the 2010s, and part of what made the Netflix hit such a success was its unique structure. Like many early streaming hits from the era, such as Orange is the New Black, BoJack Horseman, and Netflix’s gangster show Peaky Blinders, House of Cards prioritized shorter seasons with longer episodes. In contrast, Netflix’s next major political drama, Designated Survivor, returned to the traditional format of network TV shows.
Designated Survivor Felt More Like 24 Than House of Cards
Designated Survivor began in 2016 as an ABC thriller procedural starring 24’s Kiefer Sutherland. The small-screen action star played Tom Kirkman, an ordinary professor who becomes the President of the United States after a disastrous bombing. Not only does the blast kill the president himself, but it also kills everyone in the line of succession before Kirkman, leading the stunned protagonist to find out that he has been thrust into one of the world’s most powerful geopolitical roles overnight.
As the president’s titular designated survivor, Kirkman must navigate the shady world of Washington DC politics, and his previous desk job as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development hasn’t exactly prepared him for this. However, what follows isn’t a straightforward everyman spin on House of Cards. Instead, in terms of style and tone, Designated Survivor was closer to a network action procedural like 24 or the James Spader vehicle The Blacklist than it was to House of Cards.
The main reason for this was Designated Survivor’s longer seasons, with seasons 1 and 2 having 21 and 22 episodes respectively. The leaner runtime of House of Cards limited each season to a mere 13 episodes, an innovation that would soon become commonplace as streaming shows began to outpace both network and cable television series. While prestige cable TV dramas like The Sopranos had only 13 episodes per season, network hits like 24 and The Blacklist released 20-25 episodes every year.
Designated Survivor Was The End of an Era For Political Dramas
While the streaming model could likely have saved earlier shows like The Walking Dead, which were bogged down by trying to stretch out each season’s story, Designated Survivor ironically benefited from its old-school approach. In an era when Netflix was best known for its innovative shows, Designated Survivor’s structure felt comfortingly familiar.
In this regard, the show’s June 2019 series finale felt like the end of an era both for the network model’s dominance of TV ratings and for the political drama as a major cultural force. In the wake of The West Wing’s success, the 2010s had seen a spate of political dramas that varied in terms of tone and style, but all ended around the same time.
House of Cards, Veep, Scandal, Madam Secretary, and Designated Survivor all ended between 2018 and 2020, as it became clear that the public appetite for political drama was waning. While shows like The Diplomat prove that there are still a few political dramas going strong, Designated Survivor’s finale was the end of a dominant era for the genre.
