I have been trying hard for the last month or so to get into ABC's latest hit "Commander In Chief." I really have. Each week I've tuned in waiting for Geena Davis to work some magic, and Donald Sutherland to play a devlish, Republican Speaker of the House. And with it all, I've wanted to experience the same kind of immersion and satisfaction I've gotten with "The West Wing."
It hasn't happened, and I've stopped waiting.
The main problem with the show isn't that Geena Davis is president, while still the mother of three kids still in school, whose loving husband used to be her chief of staff. Nor is it the far fetched pilot episode whereby she improbably defies both the dying President and his Party, ascending to the Presidency as an Independent when the President dies. It's also not the devilish Donald Sutherland, who in my mind is the best, and perhaps only, reason to watch the show.
No, the problem is the writing. The show seems a bit too concerned about being cute and about wrapping up all difficulties within the hour (excepting for the larger theme of getting everyone to Respect Geena and take her seriously). It also seems terribly concerned with making Geena Davis come off, not only as the perfect president, but also the perfect mother and spouse. At the same time the dialogue simply lacks credibility.
Whereas with the West Wing, for which it takes little to no effort to accept the characters, the conflicts, and the characters' reactions to the conflicts, as "authentic", with "Commander In Chief" I constantly find myself thinking "Yeah, Right" or "That's convenient" and "Absolutely no way." It shouldn't actually even be called "Commander In Chief," it should be called "The West Wing Made Cute" or "Disney's The West Wing."
So tonight I turned to ABC at 9pm to give the show one last chance, but couldn't even make it beyond the opening credits. As the show opened, the First Gentleman was seeing his three children off to school, one in her Halloween costume, as they pulled away in a limousine. Geena came running up behind, having just missed seeing them off. She then joked with the First Gentleman about blowing off an intelligence briefing to accompany her husband to the World Series and they exchanged loving jests. It was cute. It was cuddly. It was Disney. When the show then cut to Geena in the intelligence briefing as the all wise Independent, I knew that was the end. I just couldn't believe the show, and I no longer wanted to.
Anyway, I appear to be in the minority. Commander in Chief is the #1 show on Tuesdays. The West Wing, moved to Sunday (to Monday with the magic of DVR), has been slumping--and it seems like the show is trying to juggle too many stories at once. My only explanation for "Commander In Chief's" success is that people have been hoping for the same turnaround I have. Either that or they just happen to like a Disney-fied Presidency.
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