‘The First Lady’ review: Famous actors take on roles of Michelle Obama, Betty Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt in a series that needs to dig deeper

Would Showtime’s “The First Lady” work better if it hadn’t cast such famously recognizable actors to play Michelle Obama, Betty Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt? Who’s to say, but I found it more difficult than usual to suspend my disbelief over the course of this 10-part series, which toggles between the three eras of each woman.

Projects like this need big names to get the green light, so here we are, with fully committed, if not always successful, performances from Viola Davis (as Michelle), Michelle Pfeiffer (as Betty) and Gillian Anderson (as Eleanor) in service of an approach that is more history class diorama than the stuff of riveting drama. Any one of these presidential first ladies could have — should have — been the subject of a stand-alone