Inside Obama's White House

From my perspective, the story of the most recent years in American politics have been extraordinary: an unusually intelligent, and moderately left-wing President, has been baulked and demonised by an opposition party whose positions on most issues lie well outside the norm for right-of-centre parties in other affluent democracies. The documentary tells the story of the Obama administration with extensive interviews with those involved, including the President himself. It's very interesting, but not perfect: it both gives you the impression that everything that happened inside the White House was driven by pure heart and common purpose, while (perhaps inevitably for a BBC documentary) not explicitly making the case quite how anomalous the Republican party has become by international standards, or exploring why it is that that party can still win sufficient Congressional seats to remain an effective political force. Compared with, say, the BBC's famous documentary series on Margaret Thatcher, there's much less of a sense conveyed of flawed human beings fighting over idealogical differences, and more one of a near-perfect leader grappling with inexplicable but honourable opponents. Still, I'm convinced that we'll miss Obama when he's gone; the insanity of the current race to replace him makes this point only too clearly.

Probably worth saying that, like many, I came to this series an admirer of Obama; not everything he has done of course, but his style and bravery in many ways are what makes him admirable and memorable. I say this because it is within this context that even I found this series to be disappointingly biased towards the Obama administration.

To be fair the title is 'inside' because this is where we find ourselves; the contributions are mostly from the inside team, and as such it is their views and feelings which come through. It is not that it is really 'biased' I guess, just that it allows the inside view to have the dominant voice – with very little from the other side. Of course, to a point this doesn't matter too much, since the Republicans did make it priority #1 to make Obama only have one term, and things like the House Majority Leader suggesting that the Bengazi hearings were really all about stopping Hilary's run for President; there are lots of politicking like this – and this is part of the series' point, so it is hard to call it 'bias' for documenting it.

This is not to say it doesn't feeling limited in not doing more to draw in more of a wider view; it does feel a bit too insular without it – even to provide balance and allow the viewer to reach the right conclusion themselves. The four hour running time does mean this would have been tough to do though – because it is delivered at a fair pace. It does cover a lot of ground, and even though it tries to theme each episode, it does feel like it is very superficial due to how much it tries to do in such a short time. Of course the one- sided position for the perspective also adds to this feeling.

Worth a look for the access and the potted summary of a turbulent two terms, but it is very much for the choir, and it is very limited in its value as a documentary.