The First Lady Episode 5 Review: The First Ladies ensure to get their voices heard at the White House

Created by Aaron Cooley, the series also stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Gillian Anderson, O. T. Fagbenle, Aaron Eckhart, Dakota Fanning, Kiefer Sutherland, Jayme Lawson, Judy Greer, Rhys Wakefield, Regina Taylor and Lily Rabe.

The First Lady Episode 5/YouTube screengrab

The First Lady

Story:

The episode titled See Saw is about the First Ladies getting their voices heard at the White House. Eleanor Roosevelt holds the White House's first all-female press conference and Betty Ford publicly announces that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Michelle, on the other hand, starts her healthy school lunch programme.

Review:

The episode titled See Saw is quite inspiring as it chronicles the lives of the First Ladies taking a stand and raising their voice to be heard by the administration, dominated by the west side of the White House, which is an all-men's team.

Frustrated seeing that the media and politics are dominated by men, Eleanor calls for an all-female press conference for the first time at the White House. This could be in effect of her growing relationship with a particular journalist Lorena. She is seen growing closer to her.

The episode particularly has some good dialogues. Eleanor's sarcastic comments during the press conference are fun to watch and are sure to bring a smile to your face. She says as the topics of discussion, as told to her, need to be related to women, such as cooking, and doing the dishes, she'd like to share a simple recipe that working women can use for cooking for their families to save time. Her line, 'Sometimes, what one needs to say is too important to let get fear in the way' is quite powerful.

The story also explores Michelle starting an all-healthy lunch programme at schools to curb hunger and poverty. She is also seen being a support to her husband Barack when he loses in the mid-term polls. He and his other male colleagues in the administration admit that they should have listened and implemented a health plan, as suggested by Michelle. She is not seen chastising them but politely just nodding yes when they admit it to her. She comforts her husband and tries to cheer him up. The couple does set some relationship goals.

The highlight of the episode was Ford's struggle with breast cancer. She gets a mammogram done to support her friend and unfortunately, gets diagnosed with cancer. She gets a mastectomy and comes out stronger. Though her family is seen getting emotional, especially her daughter, she does not tremble. She is, on the other hand, seen consoling them. She is then seen interacting with the media and the public, telling that she is strong as ever. It was inspiring. The episode ends with Betty Ford looking at her scar. Though she appears to be strong from the outside, she is upset to have lost a body part. But her husband and president Gerald supports her and reassures her that she looks beautiful nonetheless. The scene was quite moving. However, though the scenes touch you, it does not let your emotions sink in, leaving you wanting for more.

Verdict:

The episode is inspiring, especially the stories of Betty's fight against breast cancer and Roosevelt finally holding the all-female press conference and being all sarcastic about it. However, only if the makers could have shown a few more bits so that the viewers could connect more.

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