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What To Watch On TV This Week
Commander in Chief: Pilot
I didn't get excited about this show until a few days ago when I saw an advertisement on ABC. Now? I'm beyond jazzed. The pilot even brought out my husband's latent feminism, and he was shushing his little brother so we could hear the dialogue. It takes situations that could be played for laughs and does them with a straight face... oh, I could have died over, "Hillary had 20. That didn't go over well." It has a great cast, the writing seems very tight and controlled, Geena Davis is perfect, and the scenario as it's displayed is not the least bit insulting to would-be powerful women like me. While there are a few no-duh lines by way of setup ("Mrs. Vice President, the 25th Amendment says that you take over the office if he dies!"), they're outshone by Davis' convincing characterization. This is my favorite new show of the season. Let's hope it doesn't disappoint.
The way the producers introduce us to the players and the setting is well-done. Everyone gets their own little subtitle, and we get a flashback to when the president (Teddy Roosevelt Bridges, cute) asks her to be his running mate. At first I thought that they were setting her up as a weakling who was asked to resign because of her femininity, but the scenario is way more interesting than that. She's an Independent, picked because of her brilliance and skills in diplomacy, and the president doesn't want her replacing him solely because of her politics.
It's interesting to see who rallies with the team and who quietly tells her to shove it... and vice versa. The scene between the new President Allen and the old president's secretary is brilliant, and I like how they've set up her daughter as the other end of the political spectrum from mom. It's a good move that her husband (who doesn't share her last name, which makes sense for a woman like Mackenzie Allen) was her chief of staff when she was vice president, but is quickly replaced by the former president's chief of staff, the so-far very good Harry Lennix.
The scenes between Allen and her husband (Kyle Secor, who's great), and those between the new first...um, man? and the Chief Protocol Officer are just great. I love them. If I watch this episode again, I'll be cracking up every time she tells Calloway that something Hillary did "didn't go over well." I'll be interested to see how the dynamic between Calloway and the President plays out as the series goes on.
All in all, a great pilot. I can't wait to see more of this show. I was trying to think up a comparison to West Wing (which is the obvious foil for Commander in Chief), but I just couldn't. It's really totally different. It's not moody, or self-conscious, or full of dialogue that you don't pick up on until days later. It's witty without using five-syllable words or complex plot devices, politically accurate without being obsessively so, and the cast is good and beautiful without being too Elizabethan about it. If I had to pick one thing that bugs me (so far), it's that other guy... the one I never saw an introduction for and isn't in the cast list on the web site. He's on the far left in the picture that accompanies this post. Who is he? Why is he so creepy looking? I bet he'll be replaced by someone more beautiful in no time.
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