Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Gillian Anderson can’t save Showtime’s ponderous political anthology.
“I’m good enough to get him here but not good enough to keep going.”
There are clumsy moments of epiphany: “I am a Roosevelt.
Daniel McFadden/SHOWTIME
I should use it to further the causes that I believe in,” muses Eleanor.
“NowIget to make a difference!”
announces Michelle to her Senator husband after landing a job at University of Chicago Hospitals.
Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford in The Firs.Murray Close/SHOWTIME
Then they both dance toMary J. Blige.
It’s a shame, because the cast is excellent.
(Seriously, how is this not its own show?)
But that doesn’t mean we have to like it.Grade: C+
The First Ladypremieres April 17 on Showtime.
