The American Experiment is a five-part docuseries, directed by Brian Knappenberger (with Kappenberger, Tom Hanks, Sarah Huisenga and Gary Goetzman as EPs) that examines the American Revolution and how the “American experiment” in governing continues to be challenged and supported 250 years after the United States was created.
Opening Shot: Scenes of Washington, DC, as well as shots of the flag and other parts of the United States.
The Gist: The series starts with the events leading up to the first battles of the Revolutionary War, from the French and Indian War — and George Washington’s role in touching off that seven-year conflagration when he was a British army colonel — through the Battle of Bunker Hill. The series ends with the creation of the Constitution in 1789 and Washington becoming the first president.
Kappenberger speaks to a wide array of historians and politicians, including former Vice Presidents Al Gore, Kamala Harris, and Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, and members of the Senate and House like Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Nancy Pelosi, and Jamie Raskin.
The story of the Revolution is told via visuals that include drawings, newspsper clippings, and other printed material, as well as preserved writings from the Founding Fathers and others. Martin Sheen voices Washington’s writings, while other actors voice people like John Adams and King George III. There are also reenactments that show the big battles of the war and the Continental Congress meeting to create the structure of a new democracy.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The American Experiment will pretty much be compared to Ken Burns’ docuseries The American Revolution.
Our Take: Because The American Experiment came out after The American Revolution, it suffers in comparison to Burns’ contemplative examination of the revolution and the first years of the United States as the Founding Fathers figured out just how government by the people — at least certain people back then — could work.
It’s not that this docuseries doesn’t do some serious examination of how the seeds were sown in the decades before the first shots were fired in Lexington and Concord, or how people like Washington became revolutionaries via England’s consistent attempts to gain revenue from the American colonies via taxation. It’s just that the information we’re seeing in this series has all been examined before, and in more detail, in recent years.
Two things make The American Experiment fascinating, though: The hard connections Knappenberger makes between the experiment that began in 1776 and how fragile that experiment has been over the past 250 years — especially today. It’s shown not only in glimpses of protests from the civil rights movement through today’s marches for Black Lives Matter and other movements, but the parallels between the beefs the colonists had back then and what we deal with now.
The other fascinating aspect is the breadth of politicians that are interviewed, from both sides of the aisle. They all bring a level of knowledge about the Revolutionary era that is surprising in some cases, but how measured the observations that made the final cut end up being. It shows us that there still are people in both parties who understand what this experiment has been about and how remarkably resilliant it has been over the last two-and-a-half centuries.
Performance Worth Watching: We enjoyed the performance of Sheen as he read Washington’s writings.
Sex And Skin: None.
Parting Shot: “Do you want to be free? What does freedom mean to you? Those are the only questions that matter,” one of the experts says as we see a reenactment of Colonial soldiers preparing for battle.
Sleeper Star: John Adams’ writings are voiced by Peter Koebler, who sounds strangely like Zach Galifianakis. We didn’t hate it.
Most Pilot-y Line: Nothing we could find, but the level of detail that Knappenberger can get into given the running time isn’t all that satisfying.
Our Call: STREAM IT, but only if you haven’t seen The American Revolution. On its own, The American Experiment would be a good primer on the American Revolution and how the principles that the U.S. was built on 250 years ago are always being tested. But compared to some recent docuseries about the revolution, it just doesn’t go deep enough.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
