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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
4
Mixed:
16
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews
ColliderApr 13, 2022
Season 1 Review:
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.”
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Apr 14, 2022
Season 1 Review:
There are moments when “The First Lady” is inspirational and moving; how could you not tell these stories without hitting some high notes? Still, given the credentials and talents of the behind-the-scenes artists and the three leads, this feels mostly like a missed opportunity to do something special—something worthy of Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford and Michelle Obama, three truly great Americans.
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Apr 14, 2022
Season 1 Review:
So many individual scenes are engrossing and superbly acted, but they're often undercut by the time jumping and editing. There's never quite enough from any one first lady, which leaves a sense of disappointment. It's unfortunately a show that is lesser than the sum of its Emmy- and Oscar-winning parts.
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Apr 14, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Perhaps it’s because Betty Ford’s story is the least known among the three that her scenes are the most compelling. ... Obvious dental prosthetics and an unfortunately mannered turn by Anderson — though less strained than her effortful pantomime of Margaret Thatcher on “The Crown” — distract from a rewriting of Eleanor Roosevelt that’s fairly bold, at least for a mainstream TV series. ... Michelle Obama’s time in the White House simply needs more time for it to be satisfyingly narrativized; she has decades yet to finish her story.
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The PlaylistApr 7, 2022
Season 1 Review:
“The First Lady” fails because it’s telling us stories that we already know in a fairly surface-level fashion. While it’s certainly commendable that the show shines its light on the forgotten struggles of these three notable women, it’s almost a shame that the show chose to highlight first ladies whose stories have already been so vigorously told.
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The IndependentJun 22, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Ultimately, the Obama storyline is the toughest to give yourself over to. ... The Roosevelts, on the other extreme, feel ripped from a plodding historical drama. ... Pfeiffer’s Betty is the most relatable, stumbling over her words and struggling with indecision. Those may not be qualities America wants in a presidential spouse, but here they feel like the difference between humanising a first lady and simply mythologising the sense of duty and decorum it takes to be one.
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RogerEbert.comApr 15, 2022
Apr 14, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Stick[s] to the well-trod surface. Two of the three stars—Anderson as Roosevelt and Davis as Obama—are egregiously miscast. And series director Susanne Bier, an accomplished Danish filmmaker whose recent output ranges from the glossy fun of The Night Manager to the glossy meh of The Undoing to the sheer inanity of Bird Box, fails to salvage much worth watching. ... Pfeiffer’s Betty Ford is the only lead performance that feels like more than an impression.
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Apr 12, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Pfeiffer deserved better than for her performance to get chopped up into so many moving pieces, but it’s to her credit that she makes the most of what she gets. Otherwise, despite Laura Bush’s insistence that Michelle might find something in common with the women who came before her, “The First Lady” struggles to do the same for its three leads.
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Apr 6, 2022
Season 1 Review:
The First Lady dutifully runs through its checklist of important facts like there’s going to be a multiple choice quiz later, with little sense of the humanity underlying them. ... A few of the performances are strong enough to transcend these clunky choices. ... But too many of the cast fall back on physical mimicry rather than emotional embodiment, perhaps because, faced with such blandly written characters, the actors don’t have much else to go on.
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