Geena Davis Movie:

		List Price: $29.99		Label: Buena Vista Home Entertainment Salesrank: 5781 Released: June 27, 2006
		Our Price: $11.50
		Used Price: $5.15
		MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
Geena Davis lights up the screen as President Mackenzie Allen earning a Golden Globe award for Best Actress in the show's inaugural season. Experience the first 10 thrilling episodes of the captivating drama starring Davis Emmy(R) Award winner Donald Sutherland and an acclaimed cast. When the President of the United States dies in office his independent Vice President ventures into territory no woman has ever entered before. Now the nation's first female Commander In Chief must balance the pressures of running the country and the responsibility of raising a family while facing a sustained torrent of underhanded attacks from the Speaker Of The House (Sutherland). It's an exhilarating blend of suspense and drama that O Oprah Magazine calls "realistic and riveting!"System Requirements:Running Time 769 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: TV-PG UPC: 786936704105 Manufacturer No: 05055500

Description of Commander In Chief - The Inaugural Edition, Part 1 (Episodes 1-10):
Geena Davis deserved the Golden Globe she won in her first season as the first female American President on Commander in Chief. Though best known for quirky or comedic roles in films like The Accidental Tourist or Thelma and Louise, Davis has summoned terrific gravitas, leavened by just enough wry humor, to be perfectly believable as President Mackenzie Allen, blazing political trails and trying to be present for her family--while never, ever letting down her guard. Her arch-nemesis is played with Snidely Whiplash devilishness by Donald Sutherland, the Speaker of the House with his own powerful, possibly destructive, agenda. Davis is by turns steely and contemplative, and self-possessed in a way none of her previous roles have shown her to be. "What a town," the President mutters during yet another political crisis. "You can't even trust the back-stabbers." But you can trust that Davis is simply smashing in the lead role and makes the series a must-watch for fans of political dramas and of series with great roles for women. This two-set disc includes the pilot and nine other episodes. --A.T. Hurley

Commander In Chief - The Inaugural Edition, Part 1 (Episodes 1-10) Reviews:
Worth watching
2007-11-16 - If you are expecting a realistic treatise on the job of the President of the United States of America, DO NOT watch this show. If you are looking for something refreshing, a good looking woman as President, and interesting enough (if not realistic enough) situations in foreign policy, diplomacy, politics and the day-to-day life of "the first family" then WATCH THIS SHOW. You will end up watching these episodes one after another because the storyline keeps you wanting more. There is adequate "hook" in each episode to make you want to watch the next one immediately. All in all, worth a watch.

Wish Fulfilment and Earnest Posturing!
2007-10-10 - Considering the exceptional cast Commander in Chief never really rises above gentle wish fulfilment and earnest posturing.

The problems are all due to the rather uninspired scripts. These people have spent their lives in politics, for God's sake, and then enter the White House behaving and acting like Saints. Does that ring true?

The First Lady gag involving the President's husband is very poorly delivered. The President's Husband is a very badly drawn character. The family are two-dimensional. The Production values look good and the Production Design is very well done.

With a wilder-than-fiction President already in Office in America it must be enormously hard to invent one and give it any sense of authenticity.

This FANTASTIC Show was CANCELED....
2007-07-29 - What WERE the network execs thinking of???! I have to admit that I seldom watch any series on television as I have such an erratic schedule, but this one was definitely a keeper. Ironically, I've had this set since March and just now watched it and afterwards - I couldn't believe that I had waited so long.

I LOVED this series. I've always thought that Gena Davis was a pretty good actress in various movies. After watching this series (for which she won a Golden Globe award) - I am AMAZED at her acting abilities. She managed to take lines that could have been delivered in such a trite manner and absolutely TRANSFORM them. The series was just brilliant. The cast (esp. Donald Sutherland) was magnificent as well.

You will NOT go wrong in ordering this series. I've already passed it along to several in my family....with the strict understanding that I want it returned. It is worth watching again and again. And to the network executives: You absolutely blew it with canceling this series. It was one of the best series that I've seen.

Commander In Chief - The Inaugural Edition, Part 1 (Episodes 1-10)
2007-06-08 - Received in good time and in good condition

If you liked "West Wing", you'll like this -- only not nearly as much.
2007-04-24 - It's hardly likely to elicit any argument if I note that "Commander in Chief was deliberately planted in ground already prepared by "West Wing". Unfortunately it was only a good show, not a great one. It was certainly better than to numerous dreary sitcoms infesting the small screen these days, not to mention the even drearier "reality" (there's a laugh!) shows, and the utterly drearier quiz and contest shows. In the end, however, even the considerable presence of Geena Davis and the brilliant (but challenged) malevolence of Donald Sutherland couldn't save the series. "Commander in Chief" disappeared in mid-1st season, after 18 episodes.

The premise of "Commander in Chief" is this: a Republican candidate for President chooses a progressive Independent woman (Mackenzie Allen) to be his Vice President - in order, as one character puts it, "to get the soccer mom vote". Vigorous and athletic, he gets his just desserts in the form of a massive heart attack. On his deathbed he orders her to resign so that the terminally ambitious Speaker of the House, Nathan Templeton. She agrees, but ultimately rejects this course and takes the oath of office. Allen and Templeton are of course Davis and Sutherland, and their struggle for power forms the core of the series. Although every episode or couple of episodes contain one or more subplots, everything relates to the Allen-Templeton feud - and this makes the series fundamentally a soap opera. It's a very high-tone soap opera, but still ... .

Allen brings into the Residence with her a husband, Rod Calloway, and 3 children: teenage fraternal twins (boy and girl) and a much younger daughter. They are played by decent, but not well-known, actors. She also inherits the former President's cabinet and staff. Among the latter is the Chief of Staff, Jim Gardner, played with effective gravitas by the very talented Harry Lennix.

The series proceeds with President Allen dealing doggedly with one crisis after another - international, domestic, administrative, whatever. Templeton (the name of the rat in "Charlotte's Web", by the way) is always lurking, trying to sabotage Allen's efforts, or to take advantage of her difficulties, or at the very least to gloat - and all this despite her repeated demonstrations of kindness and good will toward him (which seem to touch him at the time). In spite of seemingly intractable difficulties, Allen always seems to choose the road less traveled and wins through.

And that is the real difficulty of this fine but flawed series. Although the various crises differ in detail, the basic plot outlines are very much the same. She is such an honest, well-meaning goody-goody, so enthused about doing right, that the palm of victory seems virtually to drop in her lap, willy-nilly. We don't expect these astounding successes at the beginning, but after a half-dozen or so episodes we simply expect them.

Overall, "Commander in Chief" is an interesting diversion, and it's not half-bad - and, as I said, better than so much else. But alas, it's not a patch on the sophistication, complexity, and sheer brilliance of its inspiration, "West Wing".