Forgive me, but when this was first shown on TV, the reaction from the public was with a collective yawn. American audiences just weren't ready for a TWELVE HOUR movie, and the Nielsen ratings for the series were embarrassingly low (If I remember correctly, they were the lowest for any mini-series). There was a paperback book tie-in with the mini-series, which was released several days before the TV show began (Can you say "give away the plot"?). What little I saw of AMERIKA when it was originally broadcast was as exciting as watching paint dry, and the series was savaged in the press as being the work of paranoid imaginations.
What I took as being very odd is that the patriotic hero was played by Kris Kristofferson, a man who has championed many liberal-to-left political causes that the most patriotic fans of this mini-series would oppose.
It's been said that a work of genius is never fully appreciated when first released to the public. It's also been said that people will read their own interpretations into the most innocuous of things. Patriotic epic or paranoid raving? Make your own decision about this mini-series.
