The Seventies

If you're looking for a fact-filled, historical romp; this ain't it. The material is certainly interesting but the perspective is so drenched with agenda it leaves you sickened. There's no balance or even voices from the right end of the spectrum - unless there's mocking to be done. There's only enough present-day commentary to perpetuate a sad version of revisionist history. Progressives will love it. Unfortunately, there's a twisted and cynical perspective woven throughout. I thought my kids would enjoy learning a little about my younger years, but this documentary only glorified and legitimized the social decay that furthered its narrative. People were conspicuously misrepresented, events contextualized poorly, and uplifting stories completely omitted. I expect trash from CNN. I didn't know Tom Hanks was a trash peddler, too.

I wasn't alive during the '70s, and I think that that's important to point out; naturally, it'll affect my perception of a documentary on the topic. There's nothing wistful or nostalgic involved, just a history lesson.

In that sense, this is a polished and informative miniseries, focusing on a tumultuous period for the baby boomer generation. Again, I didn't live it, so I can't really speak to its accuracy (was it really that grim?); but it makes for solid television.

If I have one complaint, it's that they didn't cover cinema. There's more than enough material simply between New Hollywood and the industry-changing effects of "Star Wars" to fill an episode. And it would tie in nicely with the Watergate/Vietnam cynicism that seemed so alive and well during the time.

Regardless of this, I'd still recommend this to anyone as a dip in the pool of history.

7/10

This series was great at capturing not just the highlights of the seventies but the spirit of the decade. Of course, it was not as depressing as the 1930's, but turning 12 in January of 1970 and thus turning 22 as the 1980s began, watching these episodes just brought back how depressing the whole time period was. There was a feeling we were on a downhill slide, and this documentary reflects that sentiment and the reasons behind it. An American president resigned for what so far is the only time in history, Vietnam fell to the communists after Americans lost so many thousands of soldiers there over the previous decade, the decade opened with "Jesus Christ Super Star" bringing the rise of the "Jesus people", cults began to rise, and near the close of the decade Jim Jones organizes a mass suicide/homicide of just under one thousand of his followers. Suddenly cults were not cool anymore. And then Jimmy Carter dons a sweater, and from an armchair tells us all of this is our fault. The Iranians agreed.

Of course, not all of it is newsy and depressing. The series goes into television and how much it changed over the decade, with "All in the Family" leading the charge. It also talks about the music of the decade which wasn't so bad, even though the decade started with the break up of the Beatles. However, I am STILL trying to get over having listened to "You Can Ring My Bell" ad infinitum on the radio back in 1979.

I think that is one thing younger people just won't get. We all shared a common culture back then. There were three network channels, no cable, maybe a couple of UHF TV channels if you were in a larger city. Music played on wax discs or on the radio. There was not a constant flood of information coming from different sources trying to compete with each other employing the flashiest "journalists" or carving out a niche and just telling you what you want to hear.

I highly recommend this series. It strikes just the right balance between informing and entertaining. Highly recommended.

I'm impressed at how much key issues haven't changed in 40 years and this series demonstrates that with each episode.

Especially #5 The State of the Union is not good.

I guess it offers comfort in knowing that despite all the turmoil of the times we as a society continued on.

But of course it's also disappointing to note how much hasn't changed.

Regardless - this is a great series and worthy of anyone's time.

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Overall liked the series. Entertaining as well as educational. Plus brings back some good memories from the 70's.

It focuses on a lot of the key social and historical events of the period.

I particularly liked the segment on the old television shows. For people not around in that generation realize we (most people anyhow) watched a lot of TV. There was no internet so that really limited your options. No cell phones, tablets, and personal computers really didn't come on the scene until the early 80's. There was only three main TV networks and some times in the late 70's or early 80's there were a few UHF stations if you were lucky. So you might relax and unwind watching your favorite TV show: Mash, All in the Family, Carol Burnett show, etc.

Now, the same complaint with the Tom Hanks and crew produced "The Sixties" series. It's too negative. At least it was a little more positive maybe but still the focus seemed to be mainly on the worst of the 70's. The terrorist, political, etc., stuff.

They skipped the 1976 centennial, that the Hippy stuff was still live and well at least until the mid 70's, the Star Wars movie phenomena, and so on. You get the idea that this series was written by a TV news journalist looking for shock and scandal.

Not a bad series but for those that didn't live through the 70's..it really wasn't all that bad, we had a lot of great times as well.