The success of the small screen’s The West Wing
has helped create, if not an actual and substantial increase in public
interest in the political process, at least more of an appetite for
political entertainment. Ergo, something like ABC’s staid Commander in Chief, which stars Geena Davis as the first female chief executive of the United States.

Davis
is Mackenzie Allen, a political independent who is suddenly elevated
from the vice presidency to the presidency upon the natural death of
her predecessor. Hard-nosed Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton
(Donald Sutherland) tries to box in and/or undercut Allen at every
turn, but loyal chief of staff Jim Gardner (Harry Lennix) helps
effectuate Allen’s populist agenda. Sutherland is fabulous, and guest
star Peter Coyote — as an ex-general and political rival whom Allen
wants to anoint as her vice-presidential nominee — is likewise
excellent, but other casting for the series is weird; as press
secretary Kelly Ludlow, Ever Carradine always seems on the verge of
bursting into tears. Commander in Chief is best when churning
through dialogue and various cloak-and-dagger political scenarios
(“First Choice,” “First… Do No Harm,” “First Scandal”), but later
episodes (“The Mom Who Came to Dinner,” “Sub Enchanted Evening”) come
off as mawkish. The series is also shot in an awfully boxy, staged
fashion, which effectively undercuts any true sense of momentum.

Series creator Rod Lurie previously delved into the Washington
backstabbing and other political maneuvering that accompanied a woman’s
rise to power in the film The Contender, but Commander in Chief definitely cops its moves more from Aaron Sorkin’s aforementioned NBC hit and, I don’t know, 7th Heaven?
There’s a clear-cut attempt made to give parallel balance to the two
narrative rails, the personal and professional, but the show’s family
stuff, with a sad-sack Kyle Secor as the first First Gentleman, Rod
Calloway, comes across, variously, as awkward and inept. Worst is a
scenario in which daughter Rebecca (Caitlin Wachs) loses her diary,
which causes a stir amongst the Secret Service, like there might be
state secrets contained in a teenager’s frustrated rants against a
parent.

I’m not quite sure why a single aborted season of Commander in Chief
is divvied up into two separate volumes on DVD, except perhaps as some
straw-poll ballot initiative to see how much fan support there is out
there for this program, and whether its rumored continuation in the
form of either a series of telepics or serial resuscitation is in fact
economically viable. Regardless, this two-disc set — billed as the
“inaugural edition,” part one — reeks of corporate opportunism, and
while its artificially created, mid-season cliffhanger may drum up some
support for this fall’s release of the rest of the show’s debut season,
it still comes across as crass, hardly the way to legitimately win
hearts and minds.

Housed in a regular Amray case, Commander in Chief is
presented in what is billed as “family-friendly” 1.78:1 widescreen,
enhanced for 16×9 televisions, along with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround
sound audio track. Owing, one supposes, to his eventual ouster as show
runner in favor of television veteran Steven Bocho, there are no audio
commentaries or interviews with series-creator Lurie, and not even a
chat with Davis, which is a real shame. Where’s executive-office
transparency when you most need it? C (Show) C- (Disc)