The First Lady

The First lady is like a trio of fascinating biopics in one. [25 Apr - 8 May 2022, p.4]

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.

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.

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.

For those still binging West Wing seasons, The First Lady might scratch a Sorkinish itch for patriotic pomp and liberal sound bites, but it’s too diffuse and self-satisfied to really challenge a viewer.

A well-meaning but ponderous effort that wastes a trio of extraordinary actresses with its dull and cursory storytelling.

The First Lady seeks to do little but superficially celebrate its subjects. Consequently—and ironically—it undermines each woman’s individuality, muddying the role it set out to clarify and repeating the history it’s trying to correct.

The back-and-forth structure does tend to put the brakes on each story, which can make the series feel a little tedious after a while.

10 episodes in, you don’t come away feeling you know the stories of these women any better, any deeper, than you already did. The series ends on a rousing note, which gives it the feel of a vanity project rather than an interrogation of newsmakers.

The problem is many of the series’ themes are swathed in overt metaphors that have all the grace of a sledgehammer. There are no organic moments, everything connects back to an element from these women’s pasts.

“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.

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.

Glossy and celebratory yet, it pains me to say, inconsequential – a word that should never be associated with the women that inspired this show.

Each one of the women is basically reduced to her Wikipedia page, as we leap from one expected moment to another. It’s the worst kind of biopic behavior, times three.

It’s too content to tell us mostly what we already know about three of the most well-known first ladies in history—a better version would have tried to bring some less-recounted stories to life—even if the consistently strong performances keep it watchable.

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.

You will find no objections from me to giving each of these real women a chance to fill a whole series with their dualities, tensions, and complications. But there’s very little of that realness here.

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.

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.

An odd failure. It has a halting structure and a maudlin view of history that make the show feel dated.