Tune In Tonight

Commander in Chief is on ABC tonight at 9pm. Watch it. They have managed to pretty much write out the annoying little girl (I guess much of the audience shared the same annoyance as me), and Speaker Donald Sutherland is getting to a nice simmering evil point. Even Natasha Henstridge is doing well as his evil (but of course beautiful) henchman. Also, I think Geena Davis is really cast perfectly for this role - just fem enough to show you that you don't have to "be a man" to run the country, but strong enough to show that just cause you're a woman, you won't be run over, either. If you haven't been watching here's what's happened so far so that you can enjoy tonight's episode:

Mackensie "Mac" Allen: Was VP for a Republican President (she herself is actually Independant)... when the President realized he was dying, he told her to step down and let the Speaker take the Presidency. When he did die, she decided to go against his wishes and take the presidential oath, leaving the Republican Party seethingly vengeful. (The democrats don't like her much either.) Basically, everyone is out to get her. Oh and by the way - she has kept her maiden name.

Rod Calloway: Mac's husband, who used to be her chief of staff, until she arrived at the oval office. Mac said that she didn't want it to look like her husband was running the country, so she hired the ex-president's COS and he's been licking his wounds like a kicked puppy every since. For the past few episodes, we've seen him struggle to be the "First Gentleman", and now he's going to be the first "First Person" to ever have a real job outside the whitehouse, as the Commissioner of Baseball. Not very supportive of him! This is creating a lot of tension in their marriage, and I'm sure the media will be all over it.

Horrace, Rebecca & Amy Calloway: Mac's kids. Horrace & Rebecca are 16 year old twins; Horrace is the affable one, Rebecca is the moody one. Horrace supports his mother, Rebecca is Republican and told her mother to step aside for the Speaker to take charge. Right now, Horrace is inlove with the Press Secretary, and Rebecca is dating one of Horrace's friends - this does not make Horrace happy. Oh - and Rebecca just got her Secret Service detail, Joan, fired because she asked for some "private time" to make out with her boyfriend... and *now* feels guilty. Amy is an annoying little brat that I'm hoping they will write out of the script, or use her only as a prop or something.

Nathan Templeton: Evil Speaker of the House - always trying to bring Mac down. His COS is Jayne Murray - we don't know how evil she is yet, but so far, pretty much does whatever Templeton tells her to.

Jim Gardner: Mac's COS - struggles internally because he knows that the President asked Mac to step aside, but knows that she is an inherantly good person, so takes care of her. Templeton still tries to "use" him as one of his resources, but you can tell that he is straying from the party over to Mac's side.

Kelly Ludlow: Mac's old speech writer - now the White House press secretary (and courtesy of a great scene from 2 episodes ago, we know she's Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton). She's still finding her footing with this recent promotion, but she's somebody who is genuninely on Mac's team, and Mac knows its.

So that's the basic plot recap - no excuses - tune in.