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Commander In Chief Part 2

The story behind the development of Commander in Chief is incredibly interesting. Perhaps more so than the show. The number one rated freshman series at the start of the last year ended as one of the biggest disappointments on television- both in ratings and quality. While the first eight episodes of the series were helmed by creator Rod Lurie, Touchstone Television and ABC did not agree with the direction of the series and removed Lurie from power, placing Steven Bochco in his place. Now, Bochco is an incredibly accomplished television creator, most notably with NYPD Blue, but removing a politically conscious creator (Lurie wrote and directed the acclaimed movie The Contender) and replacing him with a more traditional producer resulted in the removal of all of the show's interesting elements.

Much like what happened with The West Wing following Aaron Sorkin's exit before season five, Commander in Chief was transformed by a mass market producer into a politically palatable show that more or less focused on the week's stunt, rather than the substance.

Following the first ever woman President of the United States, Commander in Chief had the potential to ask important political questions and challenge the bureaucracy and politics of the nation. While the early episodes helmed by Lurie did such, the later half of the series, collected in Part II of this inaugural edition, feature Mackenzie Allen (a terrific Geena Davis) in crisis after crisis. While some are politically charged, (what does Allen do when a submarine crew is stuck behind the borders of North Korean water space with only a day of oxygen left?), others are incredibly over the top (a jilted veteran threatens to blow up Air Force One.)

Commander in Chief was a show with a lot of potential, and not a lot of follow through. Maybe it was the backstage and creative mayhem that plagued the show. Or perhaps it was the desperate stunts that network interference bought to the show. Regardless, it will go down as one of the biggest disappoints of recent years.

The show arrived with strong critical acclaim and high ratings because of the high quality of acting. Yet, what Touchstone television has released in Part II of this inaugural edition is merely the disappointing remains. The final eight episodes (11-18) are collected on two discs (labeled disc three & disc four) to join the previously released Part I as one of the most uneven seasons of television. The acting remained top notch, most notably the complex performance of Donald Sutherland as the morally questionable Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton. Sutherland provides the juice for each and every episode of this series, complicating things, and providing some sense of cohesion between Part I ("Rod Lurie Produced") and Part II ("Bochco Productions"). Not to discredit the

great work done by Harry Lennix as Allen's chief of staff, Kyle Secor as the first gentlemen and the Golden Globe winner Geena Davis, but Sutherland is the most important part to this show. He really holds it together and makes even the most over the top dialogue ring true with strong political relevancy.

While the situations Mackenzie Allen finds herself in may be a bit ridiculous, the most egregious elements to these final eight episodes are Allen's children. Although they have nice, very light stories in comparison to the world threats Allen faces, these stories are still pretty unbelievable. Would the children be allowed to have friends running rampant through the west wing? Wouldn't there be some staff working? Somewhere? And how could someone take a copy of the Declaration of Independence from a locked box. Is there no extra security but a key?

While these questionable story elements result in rather trite heart-to-heart moments, the core conflict between being a mother and a president is fairly interesting. The only problem is, like most aspects of the series, it is more interesting in theory than execution. Although Commander in Chief had a great deal of potential, these final eight episodes show what horrors an interfering network can have on a quality show.

Despite good performances, a strong premise, and initially strong writing, Commander in Chief shows that no show is safe from network interference. Falling from one of the highest rated shows to the lowest rated shows, Commander in Chief is an interesting case study for network television. Too bad the show's content isn't as interesting.

DVD and Special Features

The same can be said about the show's special features. Touchstone Home Entertainment seemed more concerned with releasing Commander in Chief than releasing it properly. Firstly, their decision to split the DVD release into two separate parts did little to spur interest in the dead series. Rather than promoting the fact that some of these episodes remain unaired, Touchstone just dumped the series into a fairly unimpressive release.

The DVD menus are not too appealing, featuring steady graphics and the show's theme song. Even the episode selection menu is trite, displaying a still image from the episode in an oval graphic.

The manner in which the features are selectable is also very awkward and a disservice to the material. Commentary is not selectable by the specific episode, and instead is only an option under the special features menu. Even more awkward is the presence of the commentary for the pilot on the "fourth disc" of the series release (or disc two of Part II). Why encode and represent the episode with commentary on a separate disc when it is already on the first disc of Part I?

Despite the awkward presentation, the audio and visual transfers of the episode are very nice. Presented in anamorphic widescreen, as presented on HDTV, the visuals

are nice and crisp, the colors vibrant and appealing. Although the series is not incredibly visual, and does not feature fantastic cinematography, it is always nice to watch a television show in higher definition than traditional broadcast. For some reason, it raises the quality of the piece.

While Part I of the "Inaugural Edition" of Commander in Chief features little special features, Part II basically completes the full season set, and includes a decent amount of features.

First up is a ten minute conversation with Geena Davis. Dubbed "A Conversation with Madam President," this is mainly an EPK style piece that features Davis discussing the project, her role and opinions on the show, and also some very brief anecdotes. Although nothing special, these are always nice for a complete package.

There are also a plethora of deleted scenes, scattered throughout the series and selectable either individually or in a play all feature. White House Humor is a blooper reel that is fairly uninteresting and basically has the actors flubbing their lines. Geena Davis is the most featured actor from the series, to no surprise there. While it is amusing to see the behind the scenes elements of the series, there are more effective ways to do so.

Finally, disc four features two audio commentaries. The first is for "The Pilot" and features series creator Rod Lurie. The second is for "The Elephant in the Room" with commentary by writer/producer Dee Johnson who was tapped to take over the series just before it was canceled. Both commentaries are a nice addition, but don't really add much to the overall turmoil that was going on behind the scenes. Still, commentaries are always great to have if you're interested in the material.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of Commander in Chief's DVD release is the packaging. Because of Touchstone's decision to release the series over two separate releases, the art is fairly similar and fairly plain. Instead of an appealing boxed set, the red color scheme of Part I is joined by a blue color scheme for Part II. The disc art may be nice and the same as part I, but the packaging and episode listing insert is disappointing. Rather than a nice, thematically driven boxed set, Commander in Chief part II is housed in a black amaray keep case that is not all that visually appealing.

Overall, Commander in Chief is a disappointing series with a fairly underwhelming DVD release. While Touchstone had the opportunity to nicely highlight the backstage turmoil, they shied away, and in doing so, created a fairly bland DVD for a fairly disappointing television series. Like the show, the DVD release is ultimately a product that represents failed opportunity and squandered potential.

Series Grade: B-

Part 2 Grade: C-

DVD Grade: C+

Overall Grade: C+