Bland, impotent and full of jargon – much like Obama’s presidency: CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews last night’s TV

Like so much else about the presidency of America’s first black commander-in-chief, Inside Obama’s White House (BBC2) was a sad disappointment. For all its promises, the first half was dull fare and the second just seemed to fizzle out.

(Article by Christopher Stevens)

Even eight years on, an account of how former Chicago lawyer Barack Obama won the Democrat nomination and then the U.S. presidential election would make inspiring television.

On the stump, he was a mixture of soul singer and stand-up comedian, church preacher and car salesman – the most charismatic politician since John F. Kennedy.

But once inside the Oval Office he seemed impotent. ‘I’m President of the United States and I can’t make anything happen,’ he complained. It sounded less like frustration, more an excuse, as if underneath those rallying cries of ‘Yes we can!’ he had secretly been thinking: ‘No, I can’t really.’

Faced with this alarming under-achievement, producers Norma Percy and Paul Mitchell tried to generate insight with their trademark technique of interviewing first-hand witnesses. It fell flat, for two reasons.

There are only so many ways a talking head can say ‘being President is harder than it looks’ before the soundbites become anonymous.

And for British audiences, the congressmen and policy directors might as well have been actors. We don’t know their faces, their names are barely familiar. 

Be honest: David Axelrod? Nancy Pelosi? You’ve heard of them, but can you be sure they are politicos or rock musicians? Either way, we don’t want to listen to an hour of people like that blaming each other for what went wrong during Obama’s first 100 days in office.

Much of it was heavy economics talk crammed with American jargon, about how mortgage payers were ‘under water’ and Treasury analysts ‘had no playbook’.

What we did discover is why House Of Cards, the Netflix drama starring Kevin Spacey as corrupt President Frank Underwood, contains so many murders. Without them, Washington life is just an endless succession of meetings and negotiations, attended by people who come to primp each other’s egos and little else.

The one scene that did make good viewing was filmed at the climate change conference in Copenhagen in 2009. Waiting to meet Premier Wen Jiabao, Obama learned the Chinese leader was in secret talks with the heads of Brazil and South America.

Like an actor heading for the spotlight, Obama pushed through crowds of reporters and diplomats until he confronted security men at the doors of the meeting room.

‘Are you ready for me now?’ he demanded again and again, until the conspirators had no choice but to invite him to the table.

This was a scene worthy of Frank Underwood. It’s just a shame the rest of the show had no plot, no tension, no good lines, not even a House Of Cards moment when the President turns to the camera to confide his real thoughts.

First Dates (C4) is full of confessional asides. The hopeful lovers, sharing a meal at a London restaurant, can’t wait to dash to the loos or the diary room to spill their first impressions.

Trouble is, the encounters are so scripted that they could record their conclusions before the date has even begun.