bondgirl6781 Review of Commander in Chief

Commander in Chief (2005–2006)

Potential But Weak Story Lines and Underdeveloped Characters

[5/10 · 14 August 2006]

I started seeing the show out of curiosity and kept watching hoping that the stories will be more in depth, but alas the show was too weak. Here they had the most interesting and wonderful premise: a female president and the political conflicts involved, but weak story lines and two-dimensional characters. A lot of critics compared "Commander In Chief" with another great (and my favorite) political drama "The West Wing" and there are huge differences: the characters were not two-dimensional and were well-developed, the stories and plots of each episode are complex and very in depth to the political world, and smart dialogue. "Commander In Chief" has all of the potential and all of the great ideas, but the writing was weak. I especially didn't care too much for the children of President MacKenzie (Geena Davis) because I felt that they were so one-sided. Donald Sutherland who is always amazing is too underdeveloped and stereotyped as the conservative villain who plots to destroy the MacKenzie administration alongside with his gorgeous chief of staff played by Natasha Henstridge (who would have been a perfect Hitchcock Blonde). It doesn't surprise me that the show was cancelled and it wasn't from the idea of pitching a show about a female president, but it has weak writing. The stories make audiences fall asleep and become bored with it everyday. It's too bad. If only the creators of "The West Wing" were to have written the episodes then maybe the show would have had a chance.