Washington

Firstly why have non historians such as Bill Clinton and Colin Powell in this? Especially if they are going to make statements like Powell's: "He (Washington) could have been King." That is ludicrous. Worse yet I read an interview with one of the makers of the historians "advising" that this "contrasted" Washington with Trump. What? 1. The "refused to be king" nonsense has been as debunked as the Cherry Tree legend. 2. this points to a motive int eh glaring omission of any exposition at all on the power of the presidency at the time which was profoundly limited in nature literally almost that of simply a presiding officer at the time, when today when the US presidency in the 21st century is a profoundly more powerful office -- and one which arguably virtually the American colonial revolutionaries would consider tyrannical by its nature since FDR or earlier. Once you realize this is going on there is a bit of insidiousness and agenda to the selection of the short phrase sized quotes chosen by the makers.

As far as the military aspect, both the role of the militias, and the role of the French, is given very short shrift and it is made to seem the Continental Army was virtually the entire effort. Sadly one starts to wonder if this is agenda driven. Sure as cultural decedents of the British, we all like to hate on the French a bit. But at the time of the American Revolution they were a massive factor in Britain's inability to quash the revolution. The role of the militia was also key. The peer reviewed work looking at the writings of the British military leaders show this was more of a problem than the Continental forces. Yes, classically British military trained officers in the US continental Army downplayed the militia, did not like the militia tactic of attacking and fading/harassing, and irregular warfare. But the evidence is that this forced the British to constantly use resources, move men around, be unable to concentrate forces and eventually be beaten in a couple of key battles by the continental army. in this sense it is like the Viet Cong in Vietnam conflict. yes we beat the and NVA when they stood for fixed engagement, but they only made that mistake of participating in pitched battle a couple of times. The general effect of the Viet cong. and the US militia was to counter area denial, cause attrition of men, materiel and political will, to huge practical effect.

I give this four out of ten stars. See the HBO Adams series which is better acting and better history.

Why is everyone contrasting this against the John Adams mini-series? It's clearly a documentary done in documentary-style format with commentary from various historians. No matter what, it'll never be accurate enough for some people and the actors will never look enough like the real people, etc., but I enjoyed it for the simple fact that it was well-made and the actor playing Washington was engaging and did what I can only assume was a great job with his accent (he's Scottish and we really have no idea how "Americans" talked back then). One of the things that irked me was the filmmakers showing us how woke they were by pointing out how unwoke Washington was because he owned slaves and took pains to make sure they didn't win their freedom by a technicality. You know who else owned slaves? Literally most everybody else who could afford it back then. And I guarantee you they would have taken the same steps to safeguard against the loss of their property, too. We know he's human and has flaws and I think we already at least assumed he owned slaves, so this was unnecessary. So, does this mean the father of our country is cancelled now, or is it okay if we can at least appreciate the positive contributions he made?

Washington not looking like Washington is odd. He looks more like Jefferson. You would think they would have tried to cast someone that looks like the narrator. The strange casting is that of John Adams being played by a Dutch actor makes no sense at all. I mean he is a descent actor, but looks nothing like him and not sure he even speaks fluent English. Other than that an enjoyable documentary to watch, and excellent historians that I have seen before. Also, I had no issue with Clinton. I mean why doesn't it make sense to have a former president talk about the first president, my guess is the negative comments were more political.

Why is Bill Clinton one of the commenters? I never once heard he has any cred as a historian. Then there is the attempt to elevate Obama in stature by saying Washington, like Obama and Gerald Ford, was raised by a single mother. Nice try. Washington was raised by his widowed mother from age 11. Gerald Ford's parents split but at age 3 he had his stepfather in the home so he not only had a father but took his name. Obama was raised by a divorced mother because Obama rotten drunken bigamous father abandoned her and Barry when Barry was quite small. Then she married again but soon sent Barry to be raised by her parents. All very different. This series has a bias and agenda. Hate that.

No documentary can cover every point in the life of anyone, nor the events surrounding that life. Read books, lots of books, if you want that. But much is covered very well. Some bios make it sound like he was a poor-ish fortune hunter who married an old very wealthy widow for her money. No, it was a marriage of equals. She was only 2 years older at 28. His family was very well off and he continued to grow that fortune as well as his wife's fortune. He was a folk hero and a rock star socially and a good catch. It was a good match.

I liked best the presentation of the events that formed him as the force that would aggressively lead the country out of onerous submission to a violent England to be the nascent superpower of the world. THAT journey is the best part of this first third of the series which is all I've watched so far.

Before watching this I knew very little about George Washington or that era of American history so I certainly learned a great deal even if some of the actual facts are either omitted or not entirely accurate. I loved the portrayal of the main character by Nicholas Rowe who brought a very regal bearing and much screen presence to the part even if he doesn't resemble Washington. Only drawback imo was the 'fluff' added by Powell and Clinton who didn't really add anything constructive.