“That White House” is the title of the first chapter of the anthological series The First Lady, starring Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder), Michelle Pfeiffer (French Exit) and Gillian Anderson (Sex Education). These three actresses play the first ladies of the United States, Michelle Obama, Betty Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt, wives of Presidents Barack Obama, Gerald Ford and Franklin D. Roosevelt, played by OT Fagbenle (The Handmaid's Tale), Aaron Eckhart (Wander) and Kiefer Sutherland (24), respectively.
The series is directed by Danish director Susanne Bier, a great professional who has to her credit great fictions such as The Undoing (the HBO series starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant), The Night Manager (starring Hugh Laurie), and the super popular Netflix movie Bird Box, with Sandra Bullock.
The ten episodes that make up this first season of The First Lady (created by Aaron Cooley), will cover the lives of these women at different times in history in the United States, clearly focusing on their role as wives who accompanied their husbands in the years of their presidencies. Each of them had different challenges to face.
While Eleanor struggled with the obstacles that polio left for her husband Franklin, Betty tried to turn her life around beyond her addiction to alcohol and some drugs. On the other hand, Michelle got used to the idea of having a presiding husband. Each of them is reflected in the series from their daily life, in their homes, their jobs, with their children. Women who from one day to the next had to play a role that they did not choose, but who had to accept just because they were married.
Ford came to office after the scandal of President Richard Nixon broke out. Gerald was his vice president at the time and had to take over when Dick resigned. This news fell like a bucket of cold water to Betty and her daughters, who had to take on a role they had not prepared for and were not willing to take on.
Very interesting is the brushstroke given to Eleanor Roosevelt (played by Anderson who at times refers a lot to her character in The Crown, Margaret Thatcher), who shows herself as the architect of her husband's political career after poliomyelitis immobilized him in his legs leaving him paralyzed. His impetus and desire to improve himself are sustained by his wife, who does not doubt at any time that her husband can get where he wants.
And Michelle's portrait, the closest chronologically speaking, takes us squarely to the racism that still exists in the United States. His arrival at the White House - which runs through the hand of another first lady, Laura Bush - is a clear example of this. Each member of the service staff is African-American and the complicit looks with Michelle soon appear. Davis demonstrates once again that he can play any role that is put on the table with unique ductility.
It is also interesting that the presidents appear in very few scenes in the first episode. This is clearly a decision taken by Bier's management, expert in highlighting every single detail when placed behind the scenes. Because those who matter here are the women, these women who accompanied the presidents.
Who were these women, what did they want for them, and what role did they play in American society? These are the questions that The First Lady who started off on the right foot tries to answer.
The cast of The First Lady is completed by Dakota Fanning (The Alienist) as Susan Elizabeth Ford; Regina Taylor (I'll Fly Away) as Michelle Robinson Obama's mom, Marian Shields Robinson; Lily Rabe (American Horror Story) as Lorena Hick Hickok, the journalist and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, and Jayme Lawson (The Batman) as young Michelle Obama. Also added are Judy Greer (Kidding) as Nancy Howe, Ellen Burstyn (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore) as Franklin's mom, Sara Delano Roosevelt; Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) as Louis McHenry Howe, Maria Dizzia (Orange Is The New Black) as Franklin D. Roosevelt's mistress, Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd; and Kate Mulgrew (The Man Who Fell to Earth) as Susan Sher, Michelle Obama's chief of staff.
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