History as Entertainment

(Source)

I just finished watching the final episode of Turn: Washington's Spies on Netflix. The series lasted four  seasons and is based on Alexander Rose's book, Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring. It was most excellent television, some of the best I've seen in the modern era (anything after about 1990).

While based upon the book very loosely in some areas, it evokes the period very well. I was enthralled by the settings for the show. The series was filmed in Virginia at Yorktown, Richmond, Petersburg, Tuckahoe, the campus of William & Mary, and Shirley, Berkeley, Westover, and Scotchtown plantations. Which gave it a really authentic feel in my opinion. I love a show which portrays an era so richly.

Costuming was excellent, military equipment looked very accurate (though I didn't delve too deeply into that aspect, which is odd for me and demonstrates just how immersed I was in this series).

Yes, liberties are taken with the historical record which I find frustrating as an amateur historian, but which didn't detract from the overall look and feel of the show. I loved the guys who played George Washington and John André, the former had a sort of intense gravitas which I had always assumed George Washington had. The latter made the person of Major John André come to life for me. I have written of Major André before in these spaces.

There were a couple of times they went pure Hollywood in the series (I won't mention those spots, if you watch, you'll see) but overall, very entertaining and very satisfying. The good guys and the bad guys are not always clear cut. There are characters you will learn to despise and those you will learn to love.

It's not all secret codes and skulking about counting cannons either, there are love interests and there are also some very intense scenes of combat. Grisly in spots, damned realistic for the most part.

Forty episodes over four seasons, but if you have even the slightest interest in the American Revolution, this is for you. It isn't as brainy or ethereal as the HBO series John Adams but neither is it as ridiculous as the Sons of Liberty miniseries which I attempted to watch but couldn't. It was unwatchable.

Turn, however, is very watchable. As the credits rolled on the last episode of the last season, I felt a sense of loss that it was over. But hey, I can watch it all again. And will.

Brilliant television isn't dead. AMC did well with this one.