Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Obama: In Pursuit Of A More Perfect Union’ On HBO, Where The Former President’s Life And Quest For A More Inclusive Country Are Examined

Obama: In Pursuit Of A More Perfect Union, directed by Peter Kunhardt, is a 3-part docuseries that examines how, through Obama’s life and political career, he’s always sought to talk to a broad constituency, with the goal to unite the United States and make it a more inclusive society. Kunhardt does this via interviews Obama has done reaching back to the mid-’90s, before he ran for state senate in Illinois, speeches that go back to his college activism days in the early ’80s, and current interviews with journalists, friends from different eras of his life and allies like Valerie Jarrett, David Axelrod and Jeramiah Wright.

OBAMA: IN PURSUIT OF A MORE PERFECT UNION: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Barack Obama on an airplane, looking at some papers and marking them up. It’s likely a speech he made while running for President in 2008.

The Gist:  The first episode examines Obama’s life from childhood through his decision to run in the 2008 presidential election. Most of the big points are covered: His childhood in Hawaii, the son of a Kenyan father and a white woman from Kansas; Barack Sr. leaving the family when Barack Jr. was 2; spending time in Indonesia; his teenage years where he was one of the only Black people in his class.

Through the speeches and interviews he gives about that time, it speaks to his viewpoints about approaching a broad demographic; his life is an example of what an inclusive country could look like. As he goes through Occidental College and Columbia as an undergrad, then his years as a community organizer in Chicago, then to Harvard Law School, where he became the first Black editor of the Law Journal, Obama also starts to get a more solid foundation of faith to help his efforts and help him bond to the communities he serviced.

And through his successful state senate campaign, his failed bid to unseat House mainstay Bobby Rush, his rousing speech at the 2004 DNC and his election that year to the U.S. Senate, we see a confident Obama speak to larger and larger audiences, with the same appealing message of unity that won him the presidency in 2008.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Obama: In Pursuit Of A More Perfect Union is reminiscent of other about recent presidents, like Reagan on PBS, that are more reverent biography than unvarnished look into a notable life.

Our Take: Peter Kunhardt’s goal in Obama: In Pursuit Of A More Perfect Union isn’t really to get viewers to reconsider Obama’s life and presidency, one way or another. The series isn’t quite a straight biography, inasmuch as Obama’s life and career is couched in his quest for inclusiveness, but the biographical structure is there, examining the former president’s life in chronological order.

Your enjoyment of the series will come down to if you admire Obama or not. But even if you’re an ardent admirer, you might be surprised at the degree of reverence and lack of guile in the first episode. Perhaps as we get into the bruising 2008 primary season and the headwinds Obama ran into through most of his presidency, thanks to a Republican Senate unwilling to work with him, we’ll see more about Obama’s frustrations and the realities of how he had to modify his politics and expectations to get anything done.

What we hope to see in the other two episodes, but not necessarily expecting to see, are Obama’s “evolving” view on same-sex marriage, how tough the fight to get the Affordable Health Care act past, his use of executive orders to get around the Republican Senate, his growing distrust of the media, and more. But, if we’re adhering to the unity and inclusiveness theme, we’ll likely see none of that.

That’s the issue we have with this docuseries: It’s not really telling us anything about the former president that we don’t already know, including the source of his desire to bring people together in this country. And we’re wondering how much insight it’ll go into with regards to his campaigns, his presidency, and his post-presidency life so far.

Parting Shot: Axelrod talks about the day that Obama came to him and said he’s getting close to going for a presidential run. “My concern for you,” Axelrod says he told Obama, “Is not about ‘What if you lose,’ it’s ‘What if you win?'”

Sleeper Star: The interviews with Michelle Obama through the years show just how impressive of a person she is, and how fervently she believed in her husband, even in the face of criticisms that he “wasn’t Black enough” and other similar things.

Most Pilot-y Line: None.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While Obama: In Pursuit Of A More Perfect Union is likely more reverent than most people might like, it’s still an effective portrait of a president whose desire was to unite instead of divide.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Obama: In Pursuit Of A More Perfect Union On HBO Max