TV on DVD Buzz

This week’s TV on DVD Season I am going through and doing wrap ups of is the two part Season 1/Inagural Edition of the Commander in Chief series, which ended up canceled after the first season. Each part has two discs, so I will be posting about one disc each day until this Thursday. I really liked this series and enjoyed going back and rewatching it, as it only lasted long enough to see a few of the episodes more than once as repeats.

“Pilot” - The pilot begins with the Vice President Mackenzie Allen being pulled out of a school singing for her in France. She is then told that the President has a brain aneurysm and that he will no longer be able to fulfill the duties of President. They (including the President) want her to resign, as she is an Independent, and they want a Republican to keep the office. In particular they want the Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton to become President by her resigning. She ends up discussing whether to resign or not with her family (twin teenagers, a younger daughter, and her husband who is currently her chief of staff). Her teenage son thinks she should be President, but her teenage daughter shares the political views of the President and feels her mom should resign because her mom does not have the same ideals as the President. When the President comes out of surgery she meets with him and he personally asks her to resign saying he will not resign until she does. It is actually quite an interesting problem, as she was elected by the people as Vice President and there is always a possibility that the Vice President will become President, but at the same time it is not exactly the person and ideas that the people elected, as most voters probably only thought about the first person on the ticket. She is ready to resign, but of course that does not happen or the show would be finished before it even began. As she takes office she begins to take on opposition including resignations and the continuing plots of Templeton to undermine her authority. There is also some interesting scenes with her husband beginning to take on the First Gentleman roles including a lot about how Clinton did the First Lady role bad according to his new assistant. He also has trouble adjusting to his new role that is no longer quite as equal to his wife as before. She ends up addressing Congress near the end of the episode and her teenage daughter refuses to attend and her other daughter ends up spilling juice on her in the limo over to the Capital. During the address the teleprompter soon goes off (possibly caused by Templeton) and she has to recover and do the speech from memory/ad libbing.

“First Choice” - This episode begins with Templeton giving the eulogy at President Bridges funeral and at the same time implying that everything President Allen does will be part of Bridges legacy. She ends up with an issue with her press secretary not being for her and her Chief of Staff firing him without consulting her. The first family gets acquainted with the White House residence and how all their stuff was moved in during the funeral, except the teenage daughter is missing something, which we later learn is her diary that may have some damaging info in it. The main drama of this episode revolves around choosing a Vice President. Mackenzie wants General Keaton despite how much he has criticized her in the past. Templeton wants a guy named Baines and tries to get them to go with him or his approved list by releasing Baines name to the press as if it came from the White House. The diary incident is resolved with just some sibling fighting, as it ended up being in the younger daughter’s room and she read it when she found it. The Vice President situation sort of resolves with President Allen announcing that Baines was never under consideration by her and her choice is the General, who must still now face confirmation from Congress.

“First Strike” - In this episode the teenage kids (Rebecca and Horace are going to their public school for the first time since their mom became President. Her husband helps prep General Keaton for the Vice President confirmation hearings while the President deals with a situation of DEA agents being executed in a foreign country (San Pasqual, I think). Templeton approaches the President saying that some feathers in Washington have been ruffled by her quickly narrowing down the Vice President search. In a flashback it is shown that Templeton was offered the Vice Presidency when President Bridges tried to get Allen out by putting her on the Supreme Court, but Templeton refused to be part of that messy situation just because Allen was doing too much of her own agenda as Vice President. The press coverage gets crazy with the teenagers going to school and the President confronts the press directly about it telling them to not mess with her kids. The handling of the situation in San Pasqual escalates to being a sort of coup to put the democratically elected President of that country back in power. The younger daughter begins to realize she will no longer see her mom as much after a tip from President Bridges son about her age. General Keaton ends up impressed by how the President handles the San Pasqual incident and fully is ready to try to be confirmed.

“First Dance” - This episode begins with them getting ready for a summit with the Russian leader, but she is upset that the human rights issue of imprisoned journalists. The first gentleman ends up being tour guide to the visiting wife of the Russian leader and they get along more than expected considering she also gave up a career to be second to her husband. The National Security Adviser resigns at the urging of Templeton in turn for Templeton offering him the job when he is sure he will become President for 8 years with the next two elections. Rebecca ends up getting involved with one of the boys that hangs with Horace despite Horace’s warning. She ends up not wanting to go to the state dinner in order to instead hang out with the guy. As the summit starts to fail because she brought up the imprisoned journalist issue, Templeton orchestrates cabinets resignations and tries to get the Chief of Staff to resign in return for being Templeton’s Vice President. Things are smoothed over at the summit with her offering to help Russia in getting into the WTO and the episode ends with the state dinner. At the state dinner their is an interesting scene with the staff trying to get her to not accept the invitation to dance with the Russian leader because it just is not done (leaders dancing together) or at least they cannot decide if it is appropriate due to it being unprecedented, but she ends up doing it anyway as they stand around discussing the trivial issue.

“First…Do No Harm” - It is Halloween in this episode. It begins with the First Gentleman having issues with getting the younger daughter to wear a coat over her costume and the President just missing the kids as they leave for school. A terrorist is found trying to cross the Canadian border with explosives and with their being potential for other terrorists targeting schools on Halloween. Horace gets in trouble at school for fighting with some kids that are making fun of his dad and watching online videos that make fun of the First Gentleman. Templeton prepares to bring her down if one bomb goes off. The issue leaks out and people begin to decide to keep the kids home from school. The First Gentleman is offered the job of Commissioner of Baseball, but is hesitant to take it because of his obligation to his family and wife and perhaps also beginning to realize being First Gentleman really is a job with importance. The assistant press secretary gets upset with the current press secretary appointed over him by the President and she ends up firing him. The President ends up walking in on Rebecca kissing with a teenager guy named Mike. They end up getting the names of the co-conspirators and the kids are able to go trick or treating. Templeton awkwardly in the end tells the President that he was impressed and approved of how she handled the terrorist situation.