Bearing up in the Oval Office

Geena Davis as MacKenzie Allen with Kyle Secor as First Gentleman Rod Calloway.

Geena Davis is no stranger to the frontiers of Hollywood feminist fantasy and in American presidential drama Commander in Chief (TV2, 8.30pm) the Thelma and Louise star takes the "you go girl" factor to new levels.

To those of us well used to living under oestrogen rule, it seems odd that the country which champions itself as the defender of tolerance and democracy in the world should choke on its Freedom Fries over the idea of being led by a woman. This is especially sobering when you consider the kinds of blokes the good citizens of the super power elect to high office.

For American audiences, Commander in Chief indeed strikes a blow for the feminist cause: if an Austrian body-builder or B-grade actor can turn all gubernatorial and presidential, then surely the nation can at least imagine a Hollywood actress, with such illustrious titles as Earth Girls Are Easy to her credit, taking over the Oval Office.

The show has been seen by some US critics as possibly paving the way for national acceptance for a female President. Others say reality comes first: without the likes of Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton, Commander in Chief could only be a sitcom.

But for non-Americans the gender issues can't hide that it's primarily just another twist on the most escapist of American telly genres, the wise-liberal-in-the-White-House drama.

Davis' character, MacKenzie Allen aka Mac, may be a political independent but the show is still 100 per cent proof, Democratic Hollywood escapism from the darkest hours of a paranoid, Conservative America.

Like The West Wing, Commander in Chief invents a leader of implacable moral rectitude, one whose social conscience can never be dimmed by politics, and whose foreign policy adventures earn the US the grateful respect of the rest of the world.

So far, though, Commander in Chief has nowhere near the political insider credibility or depth of cast of its forerunner. Viewers are asked to buy an even bigger package than Martin Sheen's shrewd yet saintly President Bartlet: a Madam President who skilfully juggles her busy agenda with being a wife and mother.

The storylines, too, are not so adroit and prone to cringe-causing lapses into sentimentality, such as last week's in which a sad, former first son told little Amy she'd never see her Mom now she was President. The script is heavy-handed Mac's predecessor supposedly died from an aneurism but more likely expired from the strain of speaking in nothing but the weightiest of sentences.

Davis has the power lipstick and the Helen Clark-like deep, authoritative tone, but projecting all that integrity, self-confidence and poise seems to be taking all her focus.

Of course, with a female in the office, the personal is political but striking the right balance between politics and Mac's gender and domestic issues is going to be a challenging double act.

So far the political part of the show suffers from Mac's chief enemy, Nathan Templeton (Donald Sutherland), being so obviously a rotter. And there's no sense yet of what must be the default presidential position of being stuck between a rock and a hard place. In last week's episode, Mac stuck it to a Latin American dictator and drug lord without getting a hair out of place.

The most interesting potential conflicts are domestic; hungry political insider husband Rod doesn't look like he's going to settle as the First Gentleman. And teenage daughter Rebecca is Republican purely out of spite - no, those teenage Earth girls are never easy.

Commanding drama it's not, and Mac still has some way to go to become more than a standard-bearer, but as watchable entertainment, Commander in Chief's attempt to turn the Oval into the Ovarian Office is worth a vote.