What I’m Watching: The First Lady

The First Lady: Season 1, Episode 8 “Punch Perfect” (B+)

This show certainly knows how to choose the powerful moments from these first ladies’ time in office where their husbands chose to take a particular position that wasn’t actually using their power to its utmost potential but instead making a calculation about what political risk was worthwhile in order to continue influencing policy. Eleanor’s may have been the most striking, since both she and Franklin were given the facts about what had happened previously when a ship carrying Jews from Europe was turned away and that it would almost certainly result in the same horrible fate. Having photos put on the plates at dinner was a bold move, one that didn’t sit well with him and which encountered expected pushback from the guests in attendance. It was definitely a shock to see that her most vocal supporter was her mother-in-law, something that hadn’t happened before, but that was still isolating and unproductive during an important era of history in which tragically little action was taken. Michelle being told by her college counselor that she wasn’t Princeton material was blunt and awful, and, years later, she used the platform she had to speak out against violence that was disproportionately affecting Black people. The quick end to her husband’s presidency didn’t diminish Betty’s cultural impact, but it’s understandable that she would feel lost within that, and we saw the beginnings of her struggles with addiction and trying to feel relevant and good without the same sense of purpose and clear influence on an entire generation.