Inside Obama's White House

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.