When you think of the First Ladies, you probably think of elegant women who focus on decorating the White House and vanity projects that include children. You know — safe, “womanly” topics. Showtime’s new series The First Lady, however, takes more of an in-depth look at three well-known, politically-motivated women who happened to be married to the President of the United States.
The first season of this anthology series focuses on three First Ladies: Michelle Obama (Viola Davis), Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson). Each episode bounces back and forth between the three women, focusing on a specific, themed area of their life. Overall, the series doesn’t just dive into their time as First Ladies. There is an entire episode that shows them in their formative years, including the circumstances of how they each met their husbands — the men who would later go on to each become POTUS in their own right.
While these backstories are somewhat important to develop a deeper understanding of these real-life women, they also feel like something that would be better suited to a series committed to spanning their entire lives. I kind of expect a show titled The First Lady to focus exclusively on their time as, y’know, First Lady.
The episodes are not divided up evenly among each member of the show's main trio of leads. Instead, they jump back and forth in time between the three narratives, and occasionally within the timeline of a particular First Lady. This can lead to a bit of whiplash, but eventually, you get a feel for the rhythm. A date tracker at the bottom of the screen keeps you firmly focused on the right timeline.
Regardless of any confusing timejumps, this is a fascinating take on the White House. We see the struggle for same-sex marriage from Mrs. Obama’s point of view — not through her husband’s perspective, or that of his political advisers. We see Gerald Ford’s sudden rise to the presidency through Mrs. Ford’s eyes, when she was looking forward to retirement. We see Mrs. Roosevelt’s struggle for a place in her husband’s presidency and, barring that, the choice to make her own way — much to the chagrin of many in his cabinet.
The performances are wonderful. Davis does justice to Michelle Obama, the only First Lady of my lifetime featured here. I never thought of Davis as bearing much of a resemblance to Mrs. Obama, but she embodies her grit and determination so well, she disappears into the role. I am the least familiar with Betty Ford, but Pfeiffer portrays her with grace and a poise you rarely see today. It is hard to hide Anderson’s natural beauty behind enough prosthetics to make her look like Eleanor Roosevelt, but she is such a phenomenal actress that it is easy to focus on what a strong, brilliant woman Mrs. Roosevelt was.
I can’t help but wonder if these three women would have been better served by each having their own miniseries. I understand the business of television enough to know that that would not be a feasible model, but I genuinely wanted to know more about each woman individually. I didn’t know that Eleanor Roosevelt’s husband, Franklin, put the first woman in his presidential cabinet thanks to his wife's insistence. I didn’t realize that Betty Ford pressed so hard among the wives of congressmen to espouse feminist ideals. I didn’t know that Michelle Obama wanted to have more of a hand in Obamacare, and convinced Barack to speak out on same-sex marriages. The actresses carry their roles so well that it would be easy for me to get invested in these stories playing out over a longer series just based on their portrayals alone. At the very least, Michelle Obama should have had her own series. She is still so recent, still so deeply embedded in the current national zeitgeist, that she could have carried her own show. It also feels awkward because Mrs. Obama feels like she exists in a different place in time as a more recent First Lady, and still a present national figure.
The First Lady is a fascinating series that does a great job at boiling down the important parts of three influential First Ladies and reintroducing them into the national dialogue (or, in the case of Michelle Obama, reminding us why we love her) — but I wanted more from each story overall. The first season of this purported anthology series manages to be perfectly emblematic of the saying that goes, “Always leave them wanting more.”
Rating: B+
The First Lady airs Sunday nights on Showtime beginning April 17.