The problem with Commander in Chief is that, whatever you may think of "The West Wing", it did set a certain standard. We have to blame the script for that, especially in the Sorkin years. Whatever the ups and downs of individual story lines, you did get a real impression of the West Wing's White House, also thanks to a brilliant production design and a very good cast indeed. We may have smiled (or yawned) with all those tracking 'walkabout' shots through endless corridors and rooms, but this was a White House stuffed to the gills with people. When Leo (or Sam or Josh or CJ) boasts of "nearly 1,100 people working for us" you're inclined to believe them. This was a beehive, an overcrowding mass of people "doing things". And it surely set the tone of a believable White House.
But what has the Commander in Chief to show for her people? An Oval Office, a Cabinet Room, a small and dark office for the chief of staff (one of the most powerful politicians in Washington? Go figure), and a couple of corridors which certainly looked more at home in "Good Housekeeping" than showing corridors of power. What about the Hill? It is almost exclusively represented by the Speaker and his chief of staff. You don't get any feeling of two powers - White House and Capitol - clashing with each other, but only about two people - a decent president (decently played by Geena Davis) and a totally over-the-top malevolent Speaker (hammed up by Donald Sutherland). While West Wing's Josh and Toby and Leo and C.J. were wheeling and dealing with a host of characters, this White House used the telephone (and lots of extra's working as messengers). The Speaker was almost entitled to a bedroom in the White House; he seemed to be shown more in the Oval Room than doing his job on the Hill. And the rest of the Senate and the House? Well, they must have elected to reside in Santa Barbara, for we don't see them at all.
In fact, the whole tone was already set and stamped with the first episode. We, gullible couch potatoes, are quite willing to set aside our unbelief and enjoy a good time. But even a dimwitted viewer would have asked himself if a vice-president in a foreign country doesn't have at least a core staff with her? That the White House - reputed to have the most sophisticated communication system in the world - needs to send people all the way to France to tell the VP that the president has had a stroke? That a president and a Speaker even consider to ask the VP to resign? You may use all the fantasy you can muster to conjure up a lot of improbable situations (and West Wing did exactly that), but there are lines you simply can't step over without falling into a science fiction scenario. There is a Constitution and a slew of Amendments, and when you play with those you're losing a lot of viewers. So, what about a VP - still not confirmed as the de facto president! - who commands carriers around as if they were shopping carts? Or showing the ambassador of a hostile nation the innards of the Temple of Secrets, the Situation Room? And finally, we really have to believe that a Republican president has gone for an independent VP? How gullible must we be?
I honestly think that "Commander-in-Chief" never recovered from that first episode. The new president was a fine lady, and Davis is a fine actress, but she simply couldn't fill the shoes of any president. Her press conferences and many of her talks with "important" people were devoid of any personal impact. Remember the first episode of West Wing, where Bartlet only had the last five minutes? But oh, what a minutes they were! You may or may not agree about that particular religious subject, but when he ripped apart the bigotry of the people involved you knew there was a president in the room.
President Allen's chief of staff Gardner also was too nice to believe in. You knew from the first episode onwards that, in spite of all those times he conferred with Evil Emperor Ming on the Hill, he would give his life and limbs for his president! And Donald Sutherland himself - a great and accomplished actor - killed the whole series almost singlehandedly by playing it up to the rafters. Yes, politics will always have its share of pettiness, but not on kindergarten level. Remember that episode that he was president for just a few hours? Gods, it was embarrassing - not only because they stole that plot line from the West Wing, but also because Sutherland looked every inch an emperor without any clothes. Remember that other Speaker, John Goodman, in the West Wing? Now THAT was threatening. Nuf said.
The reason why I'm climbing in my pen is that The West Wing, 24, Buffy, Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Wired and handful of other shows did let us, Europeans, believe that in the middle of so much mediocrity and downright awfulness there was still room for genuine original or professional TV-making. Ron Lurie had made an intriguing little movie about power play in the Capitol & White House - The Contender - so we did expect at least an intelligent approach to yet another White House drama. Unfortunately, this White House stood in Santa Barbara. And even the incumbent inhabitant of the real White House deserved a better series.
But what has the Commander in Chief to show for her people? An Oval Office, a Cabinet Room, a small and dark office for the chief of staff (one of the most powerful politicians in Washington? Go figure), and a couple of corridors which certainly looked more at home in "Good Housekeeping" than showing corridors of power. What about the Hill? It is almost exclusively represented by the Speaker and his chief of staff. You don't get any feeling of two powers - White House and Capitol - clashing with each other, but only about two people - a decent president (decently played by Geena Davis) and a totally over-the-top malevolent Speaker (hammed up by Donald Sutherland). While West Wing's Josh and Toby and Leo and C.J. were wheeling and dealing with a host of characters, this White House used the telephone (and lots of extra's working as messengers). The Speaker was almost entitled to a bedroom in the White House; he seemed to be shown more in the Oval Room than doing his job on the Hill. And the rest of the Senate and the House? Well, they must have elected to reside in Santa Barbara, for we don't see them at all.
In fact, the whole tone was already set and stamped with the first episode. We, gullible couch potatoes, are quite willing to set aside our unbelief and enjoy a good time. But even a dimwitted viewer would have asked himself if a vice-president in a foreign country doesn't have at least a core staff with her? That the White House - reputed to have the most sophisticated communication system in the world - needs to send people all the way to France to tell the VP that the president has had a stroke? That a president and a Speaker even consider to ask the VP to resign? You may use all the fantasy you can muster to conjure up a lot of improbable situations (and West Wing did exactly that), but there are lines you simply can't step over without falling into a science fiction scenario. There is a Constitution and a slew of Amendments, and when you play with those you're losing a lot of viewers. So, what about a VP - still not confirmed as the de facto president! - who commands carriers around as if they were shopping carts? Or showing the ambassador of a hostile nation the innards of the Temple of Secrets, the Situation Room? And finally, we really have to believe that a Republican president has gone for an independent VP? How gullible must we be?
I honestly think that "Commander-in-Chief" never recovered from that first episode. The new president was a fine lady, and Davis is a fine actress, but she simply couldn't fill the shoes of any president. Her press conferences and many of her talks with "important" people were devoid of any personal impact. Remember the first episode of West Wing, where Bartlet only had the last five minutes? But oh, what a minutes they were! You may or may not agree about that particular religious subject, but when he ripped apart the bigotry of the people involved you knew there was a president in the room.
President Allen's chief of staff Gardner also was too nice to believe in. You knew from the first episode onwards that, in spite of all those times he conferred with Evil Emperor Ming on the Hill, he would give his life and limbs for his president! And Donald Sutherland himself - a great and accomplished actor - killed the whole series almost singlehandedly by playing it up to the rafters. Yes, politics will always have its share of pettiness, but not on kindergarten level. Remember that episode that he was president for just a few hours? Gods, it was embarrassing - not only because they stole that plot line from the West Wing, but also because Sutherland looked every inch an emperor without any clothes. Remember that other Speaker, John Goodman, in the West Wing? Now THAT was threatening. Nuf said.
The reason why I'm climbing in my pen is that The West Wing, 24, Buffy, Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Wired and handful of other shows did let us, Europeans, believe that in the middle of so much mediocrity and downright awfulness there was still room for genuine original or professional TV-making. Ron Lurie had made an intriguing little movie about power play in the Capitol & White House - The Contender - so we did expect at least an intelligent approach to yet another White House drama. Unfortunately, this White House stood in Santa Barbara. And even the incumbent inhabitant of the real White House deserved a better series.