It’s now a tried and true concept: take the first name of a presenter who’s tired of the average house-garden format, add an “interesting” subject, and then have the presenter fly to another country to “make things to search’.
Dionne Stax says she has ‘a soft spot’ for women who occupy a fascinating position. Based on that interest, she previously made programs about Amalia, Máxima, and Princess Diana. In the four-part Dionne close to the First Ladies Stax travels to the United States to research ‘perhaps the most iconic women in the world’: the American first ladies. It therefore seems that Stax has a fascination for people about whom a lot seems to be known.
Nothing but respect, then, that Stax did cross the ocean to get the bottom stone out. In the program, Stax speaks with, among others, a former assistant to Michelle Obama, the former chief butler of Reagan, Bush and Clinton, and the Dutch American correspondent Michiel Vos. She also spoke with Melania Trump’s former best friend, who seemed especially angry about the lost friendship. It did not lead to revelations, but to much speculation.
In practice, therefore, the program mainly comes down to ‘Dionne Stax explaining the concept of ‘First Lady’. In that explanation, Stax constantly spoke in the you form, with sentences such as: “If your husband becomes president, you automatically become first lady.” Or, “You can now call the world-famous White House your home.” But who the hell was Stax talking to here? Aspiring First Ladies in Alblasserwaard or Haarlem who sit in front of the TV and think: that’s what I want later?
It turned out not to be the only ambiguity in a program in which everything remained far away, and nothing came close. Michelle Obama’s personal assistant didn’t get much further than the statement that “Obama had aroused her.” The chief butler’s most controversial revelation was that Nancy Reagan once accidentally pressed the emergency button in her bedroom. That lid Nancy always too! It got really exciting when we heard that the presidential families always have to pay for their food themselves. Almost all First Ladies thought the food was too expensive. Except Barbara Bush, who thought it was fine. This is where journalistic history was made fifty years after Watergate.
The purpose of the program was not made clear for a moment. Every celebrity is entitled to a fascination, but that does not mean that there is always a TV program in it. (It’s screaming in the desert, because of course it’s waiting for Philemons Finland† Matthijs’ Malta or Carrie’s Canada†
Looking ahead to next week, revelations were promised about how ‘the mothers of America’ take care of their offspring, the dog and Christmas. A clever lure of course, but by then the time had already come to leave this pricey void for what it is: nothing.