ALL ABOUT THE FIRST LADIES

DIRECTOR SPINS TIME DIAL TO JUMP FROM ERA TO ERA

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Obama, Ford and Roosevelt are the names of presidents that led America over the greatest obstacles that time and space could throw in front of a nation.

The First Lady (2022) Showtime Streaming Series details the importance of the lady in the Whitehouse influencing, one way or another, the most powerful person in the world.

Viola Davis plays Michelle Obama, Michelle Pfeiffer Betty Ford and Gillian Anderson Eleanor Roosevelt as director Susanne Bier spins the dial on the time machine and takes the camera to each political era within a single episode.

The three narratives also flash back to earlier times before their personalities become public in the political arena.

The narrative idea is to merge the three stories in each episode based on the issues that these important women in history face.

Michelle Obama pressures the president to publicly support same sex marriage. Eleanor Roosevelt has a same sex relationship after falling out with her husband when he has an affair. And Betty Ford goes public about having a mammogram and a partial mastectomy.

Viola Davis is a bit miscast as Michelle Obama. The long eyelashes and the funny facial gestures do not really fit the image of the sophisticated Ivy League scholar that gets thrown into a role tending the rose garden and making appearances on Sesame Street well below her pay grade.

Pfeiffer does a good job as Betty Ford, popping pain killers and mixing in the booze under the negligent direction of her doctor. 

Gillian Anderson does such a good job she just needs a bit of antique wash over the scenes to further authenticate her character. Anderson also did a wonderful job as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the Netflix Series, The Crown (2016-2020).

O-T Fagbenle, Aaron Eckhart and Kiefer Sutherland do fair service as the presidents Obama, Ford and Roosevelt. Fagbenle plays Obama laid back and down to earth but ever the consummate politician, while Ford remains a kind soul despite the political upheaval of Watergate.

Sutherland shows how Roosevelt struggles but overcomes the debilitating effect of polio while settling for living with Eleanor together under the Whitehouse roof but separate as husband and wife. Sutherland and Anderson are cast well in their roles and together as costars, each performing with the facial mannerisms and body language of their biopic characters.

The series as produced does not work though. The reason for the transitions from one era to another is not always clearly apparent, and the individual episodes often seem more set by a time dial than real purpose. The effect is that of scenes bumping awkwardly apart from one another instead of seamlessly blending from beginning to end.

One episode may have better been set aside for one era and then the next episode for a different era. As the narrative runs, the characters never really develop thoroughly enough to create an attachment with viewers. Just when Pfeiffer becomes compelling as Ford, the scenes time jump to 1929 and Anderson portraying Eleanor Roosevelt.

The biopic characters would have been even better served in full length feature biopics with Pfeiffer as Ford and Anderson as Roosevelt. Sutherland too would be a star as the president in a full length feature film, while Jayme Lawson and Julian De Niro, who play the young Obamas in the series, would be cast well as the young Obama’s growing into, with the aid of makeup, the old Obamas in a full length feature.

The script is good though with interesting dialogue between the costars as they navigate their personal lives sometimes hesitantly thrown in the mix with the political machinations of the biggest spotlight going. 

Michelle and Barack talk policy while keeping in mind the children and their important grassroots work on the Chicago Southside, while Franklin and Eleanor discuss the breakdown of their marriage.

Half lit on her vodka based pharma cocktail, Betty seems to be more often than not silently sharing a sophisticated inner monologue, and then reflecting further inward by rolling her eyes and grimacing ever so gently in the public eye.

Lots of good parts to the series, but otherwise a missed opportunity in unravelling a very important subject about the characters and influences of very important historical people.