The first lady of the US is a high-profile title, but it’s not a political one. There are no duties assigned to the post, which typically changes size to fit the ambitions of the woman who holds it. If the extremely dry new Paramount+ drama The First Lady illuminates anything, it’s how universally difficult it is for first ladies to navigate the role’s plasticity. Current Flotus Dr Jill Biden – who teaches community college – is the first presidential spouse to hold a job outside the White House, while Michelle Obama famously championed a campaign for ending childhood obesity, whereas her successor Melania Trump kept more private.
In The First Lady, this malleability works against our trio of leads more often than it works for them. Across 10 episodes from writer Aaron Cooley, stories of three first ladies are interwoven: Eleanor Roosevelt, whose husband took office in 1933; Betty Ford, whose unelected husband assumed the presidency after Richard Nixon’s ignominious resignation in 1974; and Michelle Obama, who became America’s first Black first lady in 2009.
