Washington

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?

Watched it twice. Loved the narration and actors. Learned a lot and God Bless America.

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.