It's been 17 years since Geena Davis won the Oscar for The Accidental Tourist, and with the exception of Thelma and Louise, she's never really done anything that lived up to that early promise. She's never had any luck in TV, either, with two flop sitcoms before the Oscar (a supporting role in Buffalo Bill and the lead in Sara) and a third five years ago (The Geena Davis Show). It was easy to understand why people kept giving her chances at comedy, since that's where she's done her best work (for all the fuss that's made over its sociological import, even Thelma and Louise is at heart a buddy comedy).
So the thought of Geena Davis in a drama, as the first female President, was easy to snicker at. But while the show has its problems, it's a pleasant surprise to report that Davis isn't among them, and that she has the gravitas to be plausible in the role.
How Davis's Mackenzie Allen gets to be President, on the other hand, is not especially plausible. She's an independent, vice president to the conservative Republican Teddy Roosevelt Bridges (played briefly by Will Lyman), chosen for her telegenic features and her appeal to female voters (and only secondarily for her expertise in the politics of the Middle East). When Bridges has a massive stroke that will clearly leave him incapable of continuing in office, Bridges' staff -- and eventually, even Bridges himself -- urge Allen to resign so that House speaker Nathan Templeton, whose politics are more in line with the President's, can take office.
After Bridges dies, Mac has convinced herself to resign, but after meeting with Templeton (Donald Sutherland gives a master class in loathsome sleaze), changes her mind and takes office. Most of the cabinet agrees to stay, and she asks Bridges' chief of staff, Jim Gardner (Harry J. Lennix) to assist her as well. This upsets her own chief of staff, Rod Calloway (Kyle Secor), who also happens to be her husband.
The show comes off as a lightier, fluffier version of The West Wing; I don't think we're ever going to get the sort of rounded policy debates that Martin Sheen and company at their peak have given us. And we're clearly going to spend lots of time with the Allen-Calloway family, which includes twin teenagers (he supports Mom; she doesn't. "You go ahead and be John-John," she snaps. "I'll be Patti Davis.") and a TV-adorable tot.
It's a solid cast of actors, and the inevitable battles between Allen and Templeton should be great fun in the hands of Davis and Sutherland; I'm certainly happy to see Harry J. Lennix get a good role. My biggest fear at this point is that the show will focus too heavily on the family at the expense of the political drama; if it avoids that pitfall, it'll be an entertaining, albeit slightly cheesy, guilty pleasure.
The show is stuck in what is, at least for me, the most overloaded timeslot of the week. House, The Amazing Race, My Name Is Earl -- a lot of good stuff to watch there, and I suspect that Commander in Chief will need to be moved if it's going to find an audience.
(EDIT: LATER THAT EVENING: Or maybe not; preliminary ratings for last night have Commander in Chief as the night's most watched show among all viewers, and a reasonably close second to House among the advertiser-desirable 18-49 audience.)
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