The
success of the small screen’s The
West Wing
has helped create an increase in public interest in the political
process, something stoked even more by our current morass in Iraq,
various corruption scandals and bitter partisan divides. So hey, if
things are so bad in real life, at least one can turn to something like
ABC’s staid Commander in Chief, which
stars Geena Davis as the first female chief executive of the 
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, but the series is shot in an awfully boxy, staged fashion, which effectively
undercuts any true sense of momentum.
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 Secret Service —
like there might be state secrets contained in a teenager’s frustrated rants against
a parent.
I’m
not quite sure why the inaugural, parceled out season of the series 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. Certainly TV veteran Steven Bochco, brought in to oversee the show after Lurie was bounced mid-season, shook things up in an interesting manner. Episodes like “Ties That Bind” and “The Elephant in the Room” find Allen’s appendix bursting while on Air Force One, leading to a power grab by Templeton. I didn’t care as much for the earlier incarnation of the show, but this material — the chain of ascendancy to the presidency that’s always discussed in history books but has never actually played out — is fun to watch, so ripe is it in speculative back-stabbing. It’s like the 2000 presidential election debacle, without the real-life emotional investment one way or another, or the morning-after consequences.
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. There’s some very slight grain on the first couple episodes, but these problems abate. While the first release featured no supplemental bonus materials, this release includes six minutes of interview footage with Davis, three minutes of bloopers, a pair of audio commentaries and 20 deleted scenes. That’s a platform of extras that TV fans of any political persuasion can get behind. C+ (Show) B
(Disc)