Showtime has canceled “The First Lady,” an anthology series about three different first ladies, after one season.
The series was shot in and around metro Atlanta and featured three major award-winning actresses.
But it received mixed reviews with a score of 50/100 among 22 critics on Metacritic and never got a lot of buzz in a world where streaming shows are typically getting far more attention.
It featured interweaving stores of first ladies Michelle Obama (played by Viola Davis), Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson).
The blending of three stories, some critics thought, was problematic. Kelly Lawler of USA Today, for instance, called it “more historical whiplash than historical commentary,” noting while many “individual scenes are engrossing and superbly acted... they’re often undercut by the time jumping and editing.”
David Cote of AV Club wrote, “For those still binging ‘West Wing’ seasons, ‘The First Lady’ might scratch a Sorkinish itch for patriotic pomp and liberal sound bites, but it’s too diffuse and self-satisfied to really challenge a viewer.”
Executive producers Cathy Schulman and Susanne Bier in previous interviews had plans to do more seasons featuring other first ladies like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Hillary Clinton, Melania Trump and Dolly Madison.
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