Commander in Chief ongoing thread (2 Viewers)

[Spero D]

I am really liking this show. Can't wait till the next one

 

[Don Black]

I liked the pilot better than EP2. TWW still trumps it though imho...

 

[pitchman]

I thought this episode was much better than the pilot. IMO, they jammed too much 'set up' into that first hour. I hope this second episode is more representative of the typical weekly flow. I especially enjoyed the acrimony between Sutherland and Davis. The 'chess game' they are playing seems like a good source for interesting storylines.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Glad the show did good in it's second outing. Enjoyed Sutherland yet he is turning out to be a black and white villian. Coyote was a good addition too.
I enjoyed this episode as well though the family stuff (Diary)rang rather false. I cant believe all the kids are that perfect.

I think they should sneak Michael Keaton in there as one of her staff. A sort of Bettlejuise reunion.

 

[Paul McElligott]

Also a reunion of Speechless, where they played two opposing political speechwriters in love with each other. Hmmm...

 

[Stephen Orr]

Bochco's onboard now Hollywood Reporter link

Let's see what happens with the show now.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Wow. Great news. Hopefully he can make the family portions of the show less Polyanna.

 

[Craig S]

Really interesting that Lurie was kicked off his own show only two weeks in, especially since it's a ratings success by any measure.

The word is that he just couldn't keep up with the demanding pace of being a show-runner, and the production schedule was beginning to lag.

Bochco will definitely bring a different sensibility to the show.

I'd be happy if he found a way to minimize the family stuff as much as possible. It's the one part of CiC that just isn't working at all right now. And that includes grumpy hubby.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Well I like the kid and am interesting to see what they do with him.
Wonder if Bochco was free because Over There probably wont be back.
So wonder if Luries name will be removed from the opening title care. It says: Commander in Chief and then his name right below that.

 

[paul_v]

The 10/11 episode was really good. I am starting to like this show.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

Yeah, I like how this show doesn't shove its politics down your throat like that other White House drama.

 

[Ken Chan]

It says Created by, and the show will always have been created by Lurie. I haven't watched That Other White House Drama in a while, but as I recall, Sorkin had the same credit, although not as conspicuous -- maybe someone knows if it's still there. Interesting that they had the same problem, falling behind schedule.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I really enjoyed the episode.
Looks like they are throwing in some soapy elements with the flashback that Sutherland's character and the President were going to try and get Geena's character out of the Vice Presidency.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I'd guess from the lack of activity on this thread that the show isn't popular, but I just read an article saying it gets twice the ratings that the WW is getting now.

We are watching this regularly, hoping it will get better. Two aspects to this show that I don't like are: 1) There's too much of a Snidely Whiplash element to Donald Sutherlands' character and 2) There's too much of the domestic family issues in this series. I know WW has some of that, but not to the extent this show is doing.

Some of the episode plot resolutions are just too hard to swallow. The muslim country just giving up the female prisoner, because we want her, that's not believable. The prez of the Russia changing his attitude becase our prez mentions his father, too hard to take.

Also, I don't ge the feeling of gravitas from the supporting players that I got from the WW (with the exception of her chief of staff).

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I don't watch either show, but I'd imagine that once the novelty of a female president wears off it will be just such a distinction that sets CiC apart from WW. Otherwise it's just the Oxygen version of WW, which is rather stale.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Dunno who Snidely Whiplash is, but I would agree with critique that Nathan Templeton has been portrayed as too much of a "villain". At least with Haffley in the WW universe, he was portrayed as simply holding a different ideology and which translated into political manuvering, not outright treachery.

I do think the family element is interesting, actually: the focus of this show, as contrasted to West Wing, was always supposed to be the President's family. As an aside, I note that some ep guides have I think goofed by referring to the First Gentleman as "Rod Allen" and the kids accordingly as Allens -- he's "Rod Calloway" and surely the kids are too. So why isn't the Prez "MacKenzie Allen Calloway"?

Will he take the baseball commissioner job? Not being an American, I don't appreciate the significance of the job -- could a baseball nut perhaps enlighten those of us who don't follow the game?

 

[Jason Seaver]

The baseball commissioner oversees the dealings between all teams in the major league(s), the players, the umpires, and the television networks. It's equivalent to being head of a very large corporation, but a very public one. Also, a large portion of the commissioner's job is dealing with public officials - especially Congress.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I'm not sure how familiar you are with American culture, but I'll admit the reference I made is a little dated. Snidely Whiplash was a trite, hackneyed, overblown villian from the silent movie era, I think.

He wore all black with a black cape and a long back mustache which the liked to twist as he contemplated his nefarious deeds. He was an exaggerated villian. When he came on screen (or stage) the audience would hiss and boo. Nuance, was not a mark of movies he appeared in. Hense my comparison of Donald Sutherland's character to Snidely. Obviously he's not as over the top at Snidely is, but he's too close to it for my taste.

I found it unrealistic the the Prez's husband could seriously consider the job of Baseball Commissioner. There's an obvious potential for conflict of interest. What about the Federal anti-trust provision baseball has? What if events caused congress to think about changing that. How could the Prez take a position in favor of baseball without having at least the appearance of a conflict of interest?

 

[pitchman]

I believe Snidely Whiplash was created by Jay Ward to be the primary archnemesis of Dudley Do-Right in the Sixties cartoon series. I think the character was an animated composite of the stereotypical silent movie villain, but AFAIK Snidely Whiplash was not an actual silent movie character or actor. Snidely Whiplash was wonderfully voiced by character actor, Hans Conried, who also starred in the classic Fifties film, "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T" and he also made regular appearances as Uncle Tonoose on the old Danny Thomas Show aka Make Room for Daddy.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Good to see people actually talking about this show. I like it but it does need work. Maybe Bochco and improve upon this. Though Sutherland is good, like the others have mentioned, he's too cartoon villian. Each week he tried to work against the President. That's getting old.
I'm loving Geena and Kyle Secor is hopefully going to get a story worthy of him soon.