Let’s call it Impersonation Television, in which the famous and rich have their lives filleted for dramatic purposes. It is a thriving business of real history-ish meets well-costumed make believe. The Queen, starring Helen Mirren, and The Crown are the gold standard, in which the actors kind of look and sound like the royals they portray. The significant gap in between — they are not them, and we know that — is not disqualifying. Something about the actors’ inhabitation of their characters, and Peter Morgan’s deft writing, ring true enough for us to buy it.
Showtime’s new 10-episode The First Lady, created by Aaron Cooley and directed by Susanne Bier, treads a similar tightrope. Now available in the UK on Paramount+, which launches today, it focuses on three former First Ladies — in historical order, Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson), Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Michelle Obama (Viola Davis) — and dovetails their experiences of being First Lady, showing what unites and separates them.
