Commander In Chief marks the return of Oscar winner and recurring TV lead Geena Davis to the small screen. Playing President Mac Allen, first female President of The United States, Davis is in fact, the Commander In Chief. However, this Commander In Chief doesn’t do much commanding of the free world as the show is more about the family and personal issues the Prez must face in her new job.
Created by Rod Lurie, who put a woman in the VP slot in his movie “The Contender” with Joan Allen (as in Mac Allen…) Commander In Chief, now run by Steven Bochco, should be thankful for Davis. She elevates the otherwise lite mediocre drama.
Commander In Chief has said from the get-go-, it doesn’t seek to be the next The West Wing. Good, cause it ain’t. Detail, realism, complex content? Not here. At all. The problems are too simple, the bad guy – Donald Sutherland’s Republican speaker Templeton – is too bad (where’s his twisty moustache?) and seems to be her only political enemy, the monologues don’t always hit the mark, and the staff she deals with, save her husband (Kyle Secor) is weak, young, small, and doesn’t fill out the show. No, not even with Mark-Paul Goesselar on the cast.
As Commander In Chief, President Geena is very good. Her supporting cast has good actors in it, but they don’t really play great character. Sutherland’s Templeton and the others are, eh,a little flat, which isn’t a good thing for a show that is mainly about these characters and not about the political ins and outs. Kyle Secor is probably the most interesting, if not the most likable as the President’s nice, but, “also got some insecurity issues and he’s kind of whiney” husband.
Mac’s press secretary (Ever Carridine) who has a thing for Mac’s husband, is pretty bad. CJ Cregg would have her for lunch and dinner and she’s also sort of whiney. There’s also her chief of staff, and, he;s got nothing going on and some other guy who’s a gay Palestinian.
And well, that’s about it. Plus Mark-Paul Goeeslar as a savvy politico named Dickey and Mac Allen’s kids, two typically annoying and brooding and rebellious teens and one cute little daughter who, awww, you just want to lock in the basement til the show’s over. Awww. Plus Allen’s mom.
Where’s the CJ? The Toby, Josh and Leo on Commander In Chief? Mac Allen could maybe give Barlet a run for his money as the person in charge, but, when you look to her team? There’s no team there. Give us something to work with, Geena, like how bout more of Peter Coyote as Mac’s mavericky VP? And stop having everyone resign and then come back – two of her three staffers did that.
As for the world issues and politics, these truly aren’t handled with a focus on fact, realism, or depth as they would be on The West Wing. Instead, the show is content to have the kids doing their thing, Davis sort of dealing with them, Secor sort of being around and Davis again, sort of dealing with him, and then sort of dealing with Templeton (she seriously needs more enemies, for God sake…) and some presidential stuff. Sometimes, it’s downright goofy how simple everything is and how small the staff is. And how often Davis is just sort of doing nothing.
While the plan to be politics-lite is working as Commander In Chief has become a solid ratings hit for ABC, you gotta wonder : where is it going if it goes to another season? After husband has his affair with the press girl, which he totally will, after the daughter has her virginity-losing date interrupted, again, after her son gets in fights over his dad being a wus, and after the youngest daughter does cutesy things – what’s left? I I don’t see these character has having much arc, not one that can last more than half a term. Where the show’s going?
Personally, I hope it’s in the direction of more deep, topical and in-depth political drama, or at least better drama in general. It doesn’t have to be The West Wing to be good, but a show about the first woman president could stand to be a little more commanding.
