The Revolution

"The Revolution" is a 13 part series on the American Revolutionary War, with a focus on George Washington (which seems natural) but which also covers the activities of Benjamin Franklin, and Benedict Arnold as well as John Paul Jones, John Adams, the war with the Indians, etc. It is mostly a series about the War per se with very little about the politics, economics, or domestic life.

The episodes stick to the facts with few attempts to embellish. The maps and expert interviews are all adequate, although there is a tendency to overuse some of the footage and also to spend a little too much time summarizing. The reenactments are excellent for a docudrama

Personally I preferred the series "Sons of Liberty" (2015) as this series gave some fresh perspectives on the war. Other important TV series include "The Adams Chronicles" (1976), "Washington's Spies" (2014), and Ben Franklin (1974). But there is far too little about the American Revolution so this is a welcome addition.

A workmanlike treatment of the colonial war against England.

A nod is given to home grown terrorist groups such as the Sons of Liberty, where we see both their instigation of the incident in Boston Common, and their cynical manipulation to further their tax rebellion.

Footage is recycled a little to obviously.

One scene portraying Washington in a state of annoyance was used no less than three times in unrelated segments.

Episode 12 has no reason to exist, it's just a recap of the entire series, done in annoying and pointless flashbacks.

The writing is pretty bad in places. If you turn subtitles on, the bad textual choices are obvious enough to pause it ans ask yourself did-they-really-just-say-that?

It's a shame that they were able to get the facts basically correct, but could not make an entertaining story out of events so fraught with intrigue and drama.