S01.E02: Voices Carry

[CheshireCat]

Quote

Eleanor presses Franklin to act more boldly against the Great Depression; after Nixon's resignation, Betty becomes first lady days before a scheduled state dinner; Michelle faces opposition from members of Barack's transition team.

Air date: April 24, 2022

[maggiemae]

Well, I watched. But I am so offended by "Michelle's" performance I don't think I will tune again. Perhaps...but ff through hers, and that is disappointing to me.

[Marley]

Viola is still doing the annoying mouth thing. It’s distracting and I still don’t buy her as Michelle Obama. I FF a lot of the Obama scenes. Viola would’ve worked better as Michelle’s mom honestly. Her and Barack have no chemistry on the show.

I enjoy the Roosevelt scenes. I’m finding Eleanor interesting. I’ll admit I only know the basics about her. I do like who is playing her. Those tall hats on men back then cracked me up.

I don’t like how they were treating Betty Ford. I felt bad for her. Michelle Pfeiffer is good in the role so that’s prob why I’m feeling for her.

The Obama scenes make the show screech to a halt. It’s mainly because Viola but they are almost ruining the show. Again it’s too bad because Viola is usually good.

 

[chocolatine]

Thank you, @maggiemae and @Marley, I was considering giving this show one more chance, but if Viola Davis is still doing that weird mouth thing, I'm out. It's inexcusable. Davis is an Oscar-winning actress, and there is plenty of easily accessible footage of Mrs. Obama to know that that is *not* how she talks. I know Davis is an executive producer, so I wonder what kind of environment she created that nobody dared tell her how ridiculous her acting was. Did she not watch dailies of herself as the show was shooting? Or, even worse, did she watch them and think she was doing a good job? 

[Ms Blue Jay]

The eyebrows continue to haunt me.

I did kind of like the episode though.  It was so much better than the pilot of "Gaslit" which i watched right before this.

Edited April 25, 2022 by Ms Blue Jay

[lurkerbee]

9 hours ago, Marley said:

I enjoy the Roosevelt scenes. I’m finding Eleanor interesting. I’ll admit I only know the basics about her. I do like who is playing her. Those tall hats on men back then cracked me 

If you ever get the chance, watch Ken Burns’ fascinating The Roosevelts documentary series. It was so good that I was sad when it ended. My quick research showed that it is available on Prime with a free 7-day trial of the PBS Documentaries channel (and $3.99/month after that).

[meep.meep]

I agree with everyone about Viola Davis's acting "choices" on this - the really odd thing is that Gillian Anderson is also doing a "mouth thing" because Eleanor had her uncle's (Teddy Rooseveldt's) mouth.

[ghertigirl]

Quote

I agree with everyone about Viola Davis's acting "choices" on this - the really odd thing is that Gillian Anderson is also doing a "mouth thing" because Eleanor had her uncle's (Teddy Rooseveldt's) mouth.

Viola doesn't bother me nearly as much as the guy who plays Barrack.  So annoying and such a doofus.  I thought he looked familiar and then realized he's from Handmaiden's Tale and I find him equally annoying there.

Gillian is doing fine, but there was one scene where she had to wrinkle her forehead, only it was clearly botoxed and so that took me out of it for a bit.  C'mon Gillian, when you know you are going to be playing a character from the 1930s (who wasn't particularly attractive), maybe skip that month's botox session.

Overall though I'm enjoying it, but I'm enjoying the Betty Ford storyline the most.  I would love it if they continued with this idea and next season, feature three different first lades.  I love their stories because they are so rarely told.

[marinw]

The casting of the Obamas is so off.

[LoveLeigh]

4 hours ago, marinw said:

The casting of the Obamas is so off.

I like it.... I think they are great. I don't think they have to be all serious, the humor is there and it is fun.

Edited April 26, 2022 by LoveLeigh

[howiveaddict]

On 4/25/2022 at 7:34 PM, marinw said:

The casting of the Obamas is so off.

It doesn't help though, that both Obamas have so much charisma in real life. Also, it's not that long since all these events happened.  

Betty Ford is my favorite character.  I want to like Eleanor Roosevelt, but there is something about the acting that takes me out of her scenes.

[marinw]

6 hours ago, howiveaddict said:

I want to like Eleanor Roosevelt, but there is something about the acting that takes me out of her scenes.

Gillian Anderson may be the first person in the history of television who's character survives being married to Kiefer.

In addition to people doing mouth things, Kiefer is doing a weird chin thing.

Edited April 27, 2022 by marinw

[AuntieMame]

Thank you everyone! I was wondering if I was off in not enjoying this. Michele Pfeiffer’s is the only performance with any humanity (I loved her dancing in her robe and mixing drinks in her first scene) but she can’t carry the other two segments. 
I normally like Gillian Anderson and Viola Davis but I feel like I’m watching them doing dramatized re-enactments in low budget true crime rather than playing people. Kudos to the poster above who termed the actor playing Obama a doofus; I couldn’t agree more. The casting and the performance are way off. Especially for a man whose defining personality traits are charisma, intellectual curiosity and self-containment sometimes to the point of coldness. The actor playing him didn’t read any of that and seemed too young besides. 

Its a disappointment because there is a lot of potential gold to mine here, not just the demands of the role of First Lady but the demands of being married to a man with the outsized ambition and personality to be president. Does the woman he marries have the big personality as well? Or does she at least appear to be the perfect helpmate?

E.G. Eleanor Roosevelt gave incredible service to the American people but in her own time she was arguably hated as much or more than Hillary Clinton. There are other parallels too. Roosevelt and Clinton were habitual philanderers and both women had whispers of lesbianism and criticism regarding inappropriate ambitions.
Ford found himself President rather than winning election, how does that change things?  The comparisons and contrasts in different personalities could be very interesting. How does all of this affect marriages? 

Instead there was nothing even remotely interesting and casting and acting ranging from the jarring to the just plain strange. The writing was Lifetime level too, worse Lifetime on a bad day. Again with the sole exception of Pfeiffer. Put the lime in the coconut girl and dance, dance dance. 
I’m pretty certain that I’m out. 

Edited May 1, 2022 by AuntieMame

[maggiemae]

Auntie - you need a link.

[andromeda331]

Michelle Pfeiffer continues to do a good job as Betty Ford. I liked her finding her voice against her secretary and deciding to do the dinner the way she wanted. And it was a success. 

I wish they picked better actors to play the Obamas and Roosevelts. They just don't feel like them which is too bad. They both had great stories.  Barack and Michelle had such great chemistry.  I do kind of wish we got to see Michelle punch Rahm. What an ass.

 

Edited May 7, 2022 by andromeda331

[Neiman]

On 4/25/2022 at 1:39 AM, Marley said:

Viola is still doing the annoying mouth thing. It’s distracting and I still don’t buy her as Michelle Obama. I FF a lot of the Obama scenes. Viola would’ve worked better as Michelle’s mom honestly. Her and Barack have no chemistry on the show.

I enjoy the Roosevelt scenes. I’m finding Eleanor interesting. I’ll admit I only know the basics about her. I do like who is playing her. Those tall hats on men back then cracked me up.

I don’t like how they were treating Betty Ford. I felt bad for her. Michelle Pfeiffer is good in the role so that’s prob why I’m feeling for her.

The Obama scenes make the show screech to a halt. It’s mainly because Viola but they are almost ruining the show. Again it’s too bad because Viola is usually good.

 

I think Viola is doing a great job as Michelle.  The "mouth thing" may be annoying, but it's true to character.  I've never observed much chemistry between the Obamas, so it makes sense that the actors don't have chemistry either.

Michelle Pfeiffer is doing an amazing job as Betty Ford. 

 

[luvthepros]

On 5/15/2022 at 9:58 PM, Neiman said:

I think Viola is doing a great job as Michelle.  The "mouth thing" may be annoying, but it's true to character.  I've never observed much chemistry between the Obamas, so it makes sense that the actors don't have chemistry either.

Michelle Pfeiffer is doing an amazing job as Betty Ford. 

I looked at several photos of Michele and sure as shootin', she does purse her lips quite a lot and that is just in the photos. Google search and you will see it. The lips thing is very Michele and I saw Michele in Viola because of the lips thing.

[Thumper]

This is really shallow, but I remember Betty Ford’s hair looking like it was hard as a rock!  lol. It must have been hairsprayed to the max.   The wig on Michelle Pfeiffer is way more loose and bouncy, noticed mostly in the dancing scene.