Kevin Costner’s The West, on History

Remember those commercials for the Time Life Old West books that hyped John Wesley Hardin shooting a man for snoring? So far, he has not appeared in this series. It is far more concerned with Manifest Destiny and the clash of cultures and civilizations than fun cowboy stuff. It is hosted by Kevin Costner, but he was obviously in a Dances with Wolves state of mind when he recorded his segments for the 8-part Kevin Costner’s The West, which premieres Monday on History Channel.

The intro to every episode starts with practically a land acknowledgement that the settlers were coming, but there were already people on the land they wanted. That is why the fourth episode (out of six provided for review), “Comancheria,” is rather refreshing, because it chronicles the rise of the Comanche Empire. They were not so peaceful either, considering they violently expelled the Navajo from their territory. From another perspective, it is also oddly satisfying to hear the Comanche recognized for their successful empire building.

Obviously, the events of Costner’s West occurred during the 19^th Century, a time when all great nations ruthlessly pursued their own interests. Just look at the wars that erupted throughout Europe. Of course, those worked to America’s advantage, because the need for quick funds prompted Napoleon Bonaparte’s sale of the Louisiana Territory to Pres. Jefferson.

Indeed, the series and its battery of commentators, including usual History Channel advisor and executive producer Doris Kearns Goodwin, do a nice job explaining the scale and the forbidding wildness of the frontier. The second episode, “Colter’s Run” conveys the boldness of the Lewis and Clark expedition, which was long feared lost. While the opening “Fallen Timbers” largely presents a narrative of American encroachment, it is refreshing to hear George Washington get credit for his tolerance and restraint with respect to the indigenous tribes. However, their alliances with the British ultimately forced him into a more “hawkish” posture.

The third offering, “Oregon Trails,” is probably harsher on missionaries than Book of Mormon. In contrast, episode five, a thorough exploration of Joaquin Murrieta’s romantic and ultimately macabre folk legend, makes “The Robin Hood of El Dorado” considerably more engaging.

Triumph: Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics, on History

The Olympics have a long, dark history of “sportswashing” its oppressive host countries. However, in the most classic example, the washing didn’t take. Jesse Owens was the main reason why Hitler’s 1936 Olympics turned into a propaganda misfire. It made Owens internationally famous, but his four gold medals were a tough act to follow. At a time when the world needs to reconsider how the Olympics (and other international sporting events) operate, viewers are invited to reconsider Owens’ life and legacy in Triumph: Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics, which premieres Wednesday on History Channel.

Owens was truly the son of a sharecropper, who was born into dire poverty. Yet, when his family moved to Cleveland as part of the Great Migration, he encountered two white coaches, Charles Riley at Fairmount Junior High and Larry Snyder at Ohio State, who actively encouraged Owens. Some viewers might be surprised to learn how nationally famous Owens was before the Olympics, when he was competing at the collegiate level. In fact, his hectic schedule of exhibition appearances nearly exhausted him before the Olympic trials.

Using on-camera expert Jeremy Schaap’s book as a guide, director Andre Gaines (an executive producer on the Children of the Corn reboot) and his talking heads clearly establish how much Hitler and the National Socialists had invested in the Games as a propaganda showcase for Aryan superiority and how much Owens and the other black American athletes ruined the plan. There has been revisionist chatter that Hitler was just feeling tired when he declined to congratulate Owens, or whatever, but Triumph will have none of that.

It also casts further shade on longtime American Olympic boss Avery Brundage, who successfully fought off proposed Olympic boycotts and did his best to avoid embarrassing Hitler during the Games. Perhaps the best sequence of the TV documentary covers Brundage’s disgraceful decision to replace Jewish athletes Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller with Owens and Ralph Metcalfe in the 4 x 100 relay, because losing to black athletes presumably would sting less for Hitler. Metcalfe’s son points out how angry his father looks flying down the track, because he was as furious as he appeared.

Brundage was a disgrace, but sadly, the entire International Olympic Committee is now made up of Brundages who had no problem with Beijing hosting the 2022 Winter Games, even though the CCP was committing genocide in Xinjiang and turning the free society of Hong Kong into a police state. Frankly, the 2022 Games were just like 1936, except there were no Jesse Owens or Ralph Metcalfe Uyghur- or Tibetan-equivalents in Beijing.

The Great War, on History Channel

World War One led to the rise of some of the most oppressive regimes of the 20^th Century, including the Bolsheviks in Russia and the National Socialists in Germany. Yet, it also established America as a global super-power and the leader of the free world, a role we have maintained to this day, despite the growing chorus of isolationist voices. Essentially rebuilding the American military from scratch was no easy task, which is why Gen. John J. Pershing emerges as such a significant and underappreciated figure in American history throughout The Great War, the two-part chronicle of American involvement in WWI, airing this coming Monday and Tuesday on History Channel.

There is some discussion of the causes and consequences of WWI, but director Mandla Dube and the expert commentators mostly concentrate on profiling American soldiers and explaining how the tides of war shifted. Like the Doris Kearns Godwin portraits of presidents in crisis (including FDR, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln) The Great War incorporates dramatic re-enactments with traditional talking head analysis. It also includes a lot of coverage of the Harlem Hellfighters, which is only fitting—and maybe convenient, since Dube probably already had a lot of good material, having also directed History Channel’s Harlem Hellfighters documentary special.

Archduke Ferdinand does not even get a shout-out and everyone lets Wilson off easy for campaigning on a promise to keep America out of the war and then changing his mind (and his virulent racism). However, they make a convincing case his appointment of Gen. Pershing was his best decision as president.

There is very little discussion of the War before America joined the fight, but it is made clear the Allies were on the ropes. England and France desperately wanted American reinforcements, but to his credit, Pershing refused to sacrifice his ill-trained men as mere cannon fodder. It is shocking how few American soldiers were serving in uniform at the time war was declared. That is why so many National Guardsman (like my great-grandfather) were deployed for overseas combat.

In the re-enactment sequences, Langley Kirkwood perfectly captures Pershing’s commanding presence and nicely conveys his empathy for his soldiers. The details of the General’s tragic personal life will probably be new information for many viewers. Gabriel Miya also cuts an impressive figure as artist and Harlem Hellfighter Horace Pippin. However, some of the battlefield re-enactments, including those of the all-white 1^st Infantry Division (the Big Red One) seem less grounded in history than those in History’s presidential predecessors. At times, the tone feels similar to Steven Luke’s fictionalized war movie also titled The Great War.

However, there are some top-notch experts providing insight and context, starting with General David Petraeus. There are further illuminating contributions from Col. Douglas Douds of the U.S. Army War College, Prof. Richard S. Faulkner of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and Col. Robert J. Dalessandro of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

The Harlem Hellfighters, on History Channel

James Reese Europe should be a household name for both his music and his military service. Before he shipped off to France with New York’s 15^th National Guard, he was one of the most famous bandleaders in America, both for fronting his own ensemble and backing Vernon and Irene Castle. Europe and his comrades in the 15^th fought like heck for America, even though the armed services were racially segregated during WWI. The 15^th gets the credit they were so often denied in the one-hour documentary special The Harlem Hellfighters (directed by Mandla Dube), which premieres tomorrow night on History Channel.

Europe is either one of the earliest jazz musicians or the last of ragtime. Regardless, he could have been as big as Basie or Goodman had he lived to see the era of big band jazz. At the height of his fame, Europe volunteered for the 15^th (which became the 369^th Infantry Regiment when they shipped out overseas), inspiring a wave of enlistments from within his band and throughout New York City. They were under-funded and under-trained, because the top military brass had no confidence in them. Yet, they quickly gained a reputation for battlefield tenacity (and their ferocious nickname) when they were finally deployed in combat roles.

Fittingly, Dube and most of the on-screen commentators focus on Europe and his fellow musicians, most notably including his songwriting partner, Noble Sissle, making the History doc of particular interest to jazz fans. Of course, appropriate time is also devoted to Henry Johnson, who became a media sensation for accounts of his heroism and eventually became a posthumous Medal of Honor recipient, eightysome years after his death.

As you would expect, the Hellfighters often endured disgraceful racism from their fellow American soldiers (and those who didn’t even have the decency to serve). However, it is “nice” to hear some of the white Northern soldiers nearly stormed the hotel where Sissle was attacked during their training in the segregated south. Early on, Woodrow Wilson faces some deserved criticism for his racism, but he probably gets off easy considering nobody was more responsible segregation as it was practiced in the early and mid-20^th Century.

The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd, on History Channel

There was a reason he played true-believing Ghostbuster Ray Stantz. Dan Aykroyd also previously waxed Fortean as the host of the ripped-from-the-tabloids drama PSI Factor, one of the few dramatic TV shows that addressed the Tiananmen Square Massacre, in the “Old Wounds” episode. His latest hosting gig could be considered “Aykroyd’s Believe it or Not.” With the help of open-minded historians and scientists, Aykroyd breezes through a number of thematically related weird happenings in showrunner John Brimhall’s The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd, which premieres Friday on History Channel.

Based on the first two episodes provided for review, it seems Aykroyd and company strive to deliver the kind of low-impact slightly weird diversion readers used to get from the Ripley comic strip. The opening “Strange Places” offers a rather enjoyable armchair tour of some rather bizarre tourist attractions, like Mexico City’s Island of the Dolls and Brazil’s Snake Island (Ilha da Queimada Grande), which are exactly what they sound like. Both have the advantage of being certifiably true and looking colorful on-screen. The latter is probably much more fun to visit via TV, for obvious reasons. Perhaps less interesting is the extended coverage of the “Lake Michigan Triangle,” which has the vibe of a mid-grade In Search of... imitator.

The second episode, “Bizarre Deaths” is a bit more humorous, but Aykroyd still largely plays it straight as the host and narrator. He chews the scenery, but never mocks any of the stories. (It would be amusing to watch someone like Dennis Miller host a show like this, undercutting all crazy talk, with his down-to-earth snark.)

Kennedy, on History Channel

He was a military veteran and a hawkish Cold Warrior. In his era, that was largely expected of presidential candidates from both major parties. John F. Kennedy continues to be a source of inspiration for Democratic Party members and those who remember the promise of his campaign, but could he still win a party primary? Tragically, we will never know how Kennedy might have guided his party and his nation as a respected elder statesman. For the 60^th anniversary of his assassination, writer-director Ashton Gleckman chronicles the President’s short but eventful life in the 8-part Kennedy, which premieres tomorrow on History Channel.

Gleckman and his on-screen commentators start at the beginning and work their way towards that fateful day in Dallas. Unlike the Doris Kearns-Goodwin and Malcolm Venville produced presidential docu-series (like FDR), Kennedy features no dramatic re-enactments, relying instead on archival news footage (and talking heads).

Not surprisingly, there is bias in JFK’s favor, but that would almost be required to invest sufficient time out of your life to produce an eight-hour docu-series. On the other hand, Joe Kennedy Sr. does not get the same treatment. In fact, most viewers should conclude his ambassadorship to the United Kingdom was a dangerously poor appointment at a particularly precarious moment.

On the other hand, it is interesting to learn JFK was a rather hawkish college student, who greatly admired Churchill. He even wrote a bestseller, Why England Slept that completely vindicated Churchill’s wilderness years. There are also some valuable lessons regarding retail politics to be gleaned from Kennedy’s primary campaign for his first congressional term. Out of the entire field, he was the only veteran.

Probably the best sections of Kennedy break down the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was even scarier than most people understand. The media also often overlooks the death of American U2 pilot Rudolf Anderson Jr., who was shot down by the Soviets during the standoff. In recent years, Khrushchev has gotten a lot of good posthumous press. However, Gleckman and company clearly portray the Soviet General Secretary as the escalator and Kennedy as the cooler head.

In a glaring omission, the term “missile gap” is never mentioned, even though it was one Kennedy’s major lines of attack against Nixon. It was also largely non-existent, as Kennedy knew, but Nixon was constrained in how he could respond. Perhaps the most conspicuous absence is that of Robert Kennedy Jr., who has had an interesting year, but he is still JFK’s nephew and the son of his closest confidant.

761st Tank Battalion, on History Channel

It is doubly tragic that Gen. George S. Patton succumbed to injuries from an untimely accident in 1945. Had he lived longer, he might have helped the men of the761st Tank Battalion get some of the recognition they deserved, but were long denied because of the color of their skin. Initially, Patton’s opinions on the fitness of black soldiers reflected those of his class and his fellow officers. However, Patton had praise for the 761th and signed-off on Presidential Unit Citation request that was nixed by top brass until 1978. Fittingly, Morgan Freeman, the star of Glory and the voice of God, helps tell their neglected story as host and executive producer of director Phil Bertelsen’s feature-length History Channel special, 761^st Tank Battalion: The Original Black Panthers, which premieres tomorrow.

Initially, the military did not want black soldiers in combat, reserving them for servile support duties instead. When the men of what would become the 761^st started armored training, their officers assumed they would fail, but they exceled instead, so they continued to train and train waiting to be sent into combat. As a result, they really knew their stuff, better than many of their white comrades, when they were finally shipped off to Europe to reinforce Patton’s army. He was skeptical, but he needed bodies desperately.

Bertelsen and his on-camera historians do a nice job explaining the 761th’s engagements under Patton’s command. Unfortunately, as a so-called “bastard brigade,” the 761th was not permanently attached to a brigade. Instead, they were dispatched wherever they were needed, sort of like a combat equivalent of substitute teachers. As a result, they were combat-deployed for a punishing 183 days straight. On the other hand, they had the advantage of being an armored unit, which camouflaged their skin color during battle conditions.

FDR, on History Channel

Franklin Delano Roosevelt should be studied for one thing above all: how to serve as commander-in-chief during wartimes. Throughout WWII, Roosevelt maintained a long-term strategic perspective. Today, if over 7,000 American service personnel were killed in a single battle, the press would probably call for the President to be impeached, but that is exactly what happened at Guadalcanal, relatively early in the war. Director Malcolm Venville and producer-chief talking head Doris Kearns Goodwin again use her book Leadership in Turbulent Times as a road-map for the three-part FDR, which starts tomorrow night on History Channel.

As in the previous Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, Venville incorporates dramatic interludes to illustrate episodes from Roosevelt life under discussion. In this case, the casting of Christian McKay (who was terrific playing Orson Welles in Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles) is the best of the History Channel hybrid docs, since Graham Sibley played Lincoln. With the help of some makeup, McKay convincingly portrays the young and dashing Roosevelt up through his tragic Yalta decline.

Kearns and her colleagues’ commentary on FDR’s early years is somewhat revealing. It probably is not well known how deliberately FDR patterned his political career on that of his fifth-cousin, Teddy Roosevelt (jumping from the state legislature, to assistant secretary of the Navy, and then to the governorship). In fact, Eleanor Roosevelt was more closely related to TR, since she was his niece. Kearns and company largely admire FDR’s politically astute tight-rope walking, when he served as a prominent surrogate for Woodrow Wilson’s presidential campaign, against TR. However, they never hold him to account for supporting Wilson, who did more than any other president to institutionalize racial segregation.

Unlike, Teddy Roosevelt, which includes ample criticism of TR, FDR features nothing but praise for its subject (except for maybe a few minutes on the Japanese-American internment). The lack of diverse perspectives is glaringly obvious during talk of the New Deal. Frankly, many of FDR’s policies prolonged rather than fixed the Great Depression. The timeliness of FDR’s court-packing debacle is also lost on the collected historians.

Yet, in terms of political biases, the worst over all three episodes is the selective editing that makes Wendell Wilkie, the 1940 GOP presidential candidate, look like an isolationist, when he was probably even more of an internationalist than FDR, at that time. Seriously, Goodwin should be embarrassed.

The Bermuda Triangle, on History Channel: The Challenger Discovery

When genre fans hear “Bermuda triangle,” we want to think ghost pirates. However, you have to treat the wrecks within that treacherous area of water with respect, because people died there, including U.S. military service personnel. The crew of History Channel’s new Bermuda Triangle expedition series made news before it aired with their discovery of a significant section of the Challenger space shuttle, the largest recovered since the mid-1990s. Logically, The Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters starts with that news-making find, when the first episode premieres tomorrow.

In terms of tone, Into Cursed Waters is less like In Search of… and more akin to the excellent documentary To What Remains. At the beginning of the episode, the team led by Mike Barnette is actually looking for the U.S. Navy’s Martin PBM Mariner rescue plane, which was lost on December 5, 1945, somewhere in the Bermuda triangle. Ironically, the Martin Mariner was searching for the five planes of “Flight 19,” a training mission that was also lost after flying in the Bermuda Triangle that fateful day.

Barnette’s investigators identify two potential sites for the team to dive. Technically, one is a bit outside the Triangle area. It turns out what they found there did not look like a traditional aircraft. Eventually, they take their findings directly to NASA, who immediately recognize the wreck for what it is.

The Center Seat: Lucy Loves Trek

The Desilu production studio founded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz holds several notable distinctions. It even won a Peabody Award for Orson Welles’ The Fountain of Youth, the only time an unsold pilot to have been so honored. However, they will always be best known for two series that became cash-cow franchises. Mission: Impossible was one. Star Trek was the other (and the more profitable, in the long run). By the time Desilu was producing both shows, it was entirely Lucille Ball’s company, so she gets well deserved credit for her support in “Lucy Loves Trek,” the first episode of History Channel’s 10-episode The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek, which premieres this Friday.

Ball and Arnaz were remarkably savvy and even prophetic with regards to the television business. They bought the old RKO studio for their own productions, but started making money by leasing space to other productions. They also understood and secured re-run rights before anyone else, including the networks. When Ball and Arnaz divorced, he also divorced himself from the studio, so it was Ball herself who greenlit Star Trek.

Trek fans know it still almost didn’t happen. The network rejected the original pilot, but took the unusual step of ordering a second one, with an entirely new cast. The rejected pilot, “The Cage,” is now quite well-known, since it incorporated into the two-parter “The Menagerie” and has since been restored and released in its own right.

“Lucy Loves Trek” does a nice job of chronicling Trek’s development at Desilu, but it then mostly glosses over the entire run of the original series, focusing on the letter-writing campaign that saved the show at the end of its second season, the final cancelation, and its surprising success in rerun syndication. Subsequent episodes will focus on the animated show, films, and successive series, which must surely be leaving a lot original series lore and history on the table. Sadly, many original cast/crew members are no longer with us, but we do hear from Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, and the late Leonard Nimoy (in archival video).

9/11: Four Flights

If you want to prevent something from happening again, you have to understand how it was allowed to happen the first time. That is as true for Covid-19, despite the CCP’s best cover-up and censorship efforts, as it was for the 9/11 hijackings. On a micro level, we clearly learned lessons from the terrorist hijackings. On a macro level, perhaps not so much—at least not anymore. It is important to remember what happened for many reasons, so History Channel’s special 9/11 twentieth anniversary programming is timely and useful. The fateful hijackings are chronicled and a number of brave passengers and crew are profiled in 9/11: Four Flights, which premieres Saturday (9/11) on History Channel.

It is hard to watch this special, because of the perverse cruelty of fate. There are scores of stories regarding passengers who decided at the last minute to take an earlier or later flight, with tragic consequences. It is important to keep in mind the fourth hijacked flight, United 93, took off just before the first, American Airlines 11, crashed into the World Trade Center. It was also the pre-smart-phone era, when flying necessarily implied disconnecting from media and communications.

As the on-camera experts explain, the airports security systems did not really fail. In fact, they duly flagged the terrorists for extra screening. The problem was nobody properly envisioned a kamikaze-style attack of such magnitude.

Hearing tapes of the air traffic controllers that awful day will give viewers an appreciation for their dedication and professionalism. The same is true of the Air National Guard pilots who were scrambled. It seems like a handful of passengers have received the majority of media attention. We do not begrudge them any posthumous tributes, but it is nice to hear more about some of their fellow passengers here.

Rise and Fall: The World Trade Center, on History Channel

It took New Yorkers several years to warm up to the Twin Towers, but when they were gone, we really missed them. The World Trade Center was an engineering feat and a symbol of Western commerce and industry that made them abhorred by the fanatics of social backwardness. The construction and horrifying destruction of the Twin Towers are chronicled in History Channel’s Rise and Fall: The World Trade Center, which premieres tomorrow.

Before he was selected to design the World Trade Center, Minoru Yamasaki’s tallest constructed building was a 20-some-story office complex. The Detroit-based architect never really knew why the Port Authority invited him to bid on the project, but when he submitted his plans, he wowed everyone. Subsequently, his designs changed a great deal, especially to meet the practical demands of building over the conventional 80-story limit.

In fact, some of the most revealing segments explain aspects of the innovative construction process. The truth is there was much to admire about the building’s engineering, which arguably saved a great many lives. Frankly, nobody bothers to address the skepticism of 9/11 conspiracy mongers, like Spike Lee, who fancy themselves armchair structural engineers, after majoring in post-structural literary theory. The idea that fire can twist and deform steel is painfully obvious to them, because they are trained in the science.

However, Rise and Fall raises one construction issue that should have been more widely aired. It turns out the substandard fire-proofing was subcontracted to a reputed John Gotti associate, who was wacked in the underground parking lot during construction.

History’s 9/11: The Final Minutes of Flight 93

It is a sad by-product of Xi’s virus coverup (and our own governments’ blundering responses) that 9/11 memorials have been curtailed or cancelled this year because of social distancing concerns. As a result, the annual ceremony at Ground Zero will be shorter, with fewer in attendance. While it has become an important way for families to reconnect and support each other, it also helped remind us of what happened. People are forgetting, in some cases willfully. Fortunately, History will premiere two in-depth chronicles of those fateful events tomorrow night, including 9/11: The Final Minutes of Flight 93 (which was the one available for press viewing).

The events of Flight 93 are relatively well established in the public consciousness, thanks to the Paul Greengrass Hollywood movie and excellent documentaries, like The Rugby Player, profiling Mark Bingham, one of the leaders of the passenger revolt. With the passage of time and further development of forensic audio technology, this History production can pinpoint who did what when with even greater accuracy.

Of course, the ultimate implications remain the same. It is still chilling to hear the audio recordings of air traffic control struggling with a horrific situation. Wisely though, it is family members who provide the primary voices, particularly those of Bingham’s mother, Alice Hoagland and Thomas Burnett’s wife, Deanna. They bring tremendous grace and dignity to the television report.

Frankly, a lot of the program’s emphasis on new material really isn’t that compelling, like when a voice expert analyzes voice-graphs of the terrorists in the cockpit. It is good that the evidence is still being closely examined, but most viewers will probably agree their time is better spent when the program lets family members tell us about the passengers and crew.

Sons of Liberty: From the Streets of Boston to 1776

It is always bad news for an oppressive government when the wealthy elites start making common cause with the drunken rabble. Such was the case at the Second Continental Congress. Bostonians Sam Adams and John Hancock had little in common, but they both loathed to pay British taxes. Together with their fellow Patriots, they changed history and ultimately founded our great nation. Their early skirmishes on the streets of Boston and the campaign to unify all thirteen colonies are dramatized in the History Channel’s three-night mini-series Sons of Liberty (promo here), which begins this Sunday.

Not surprisingly, Sam Adams was a terrible tax collector. When his leniency evolves into outright insurrection, Loyalist Governor Thomas Hutchinson calls for his head. For the sake of stability, the wealthy merchant John Hancock tries to play peacemaker, paying off Adams’ debts and convincing the future revolutionary leader to cool his rhetoric. However, Hutchinson soon radicalizes the moderate Hancock by clamping down on both his legitimate mercantile and smuggling operations (which were largely indistinguishable in duty-despising 1760s Massachusetts). Tensions build until blood is finally shed in 1770, concluding the first night with the Boston Massacre.

At this point Dr. Joseph Warren enters the story, not just to tend to the wounded, but also as a prominent patriot in his own right. Those who know their history will understand what lies in store for him, but at least he gets the mini’s only love scene with Margaret Kemble Gage, the New Jersey-born wife of the brutal new military governor, Gen. Thomas Gage. Their affair may or may not have been true, but there is enough historical speculation to justify its inclusion here.

Meanwhile, the reluctant Sam Adams accompanies Hancock and his brother to the First Continental Congress. Although it is not very productive from his standpoint, they meet two key allies, a lecherous old eccentric named Ben Franklin and the quietly commanding George Washington. Essentially, the second part of Sons sets the scene for Lexington and Concord, as well as the vote-counting at the Second Continental Congress, which will play out in the third climatic night.

By focusing on less celebrated Founding Fathers like Hancock and Warren, screenwriters Stephen David & David C. White help distinguish Sons from HBO’s John Adams and the old 1980s Barry Bostwick George Washington miniseries, its natural comparative titles. Frankly, the best part of Sons is the way it celebrates the idiosyncrasies and unruliness of the early Patriots. Was Franklin a bit of a hedonist? You bet—and a genius too. Clearly, they had to be wired slightly differently to challenge the mighty force of the British Empire, but they were also highly intelligent (both strategically and tactically), courageous to a fault, and indeed willing to sacrifice their lives, fortune, and sacred honor.

Ben Barnes is suitably intense either brooding or raging as the mercurial Sam Adams, whereas E.T.’s Henry Thomas is stuck playing the far less cool John Adams as a bit of a worrywart. Of course, nobody has more fun than Dean Norris, who gleefully captures Franklin’s sage insight and mischievous humor. Ryan Eggold also adds a nice bit of romantic dash as the good Dr. Warren. Yet, the biggest surprise is how well the historical Hancock holds up as a central figure and how convincingly Rafe Spall portrays the steady blossoming of his leadership and integrity.

As period productions go, Sons is okay, but not exactly sumptuously detailed. Nonetheless, Canadian director Kari Skogland keeps it moving along at a brisk trot. To their credit, she and the screenwriter tandem never water down the colonials’ complaints amount intrusive government and confiscatory taxation, making it rather timely for Twenty-First Century American viewers. Definitely recommended for those who enjoy historicals, especially those that come with a bit of ale-swigging, Sons of Liberty premieres this Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday evenings (1/25-1/27), on the History Channel.

Houdini, the Man, the Miniseries

He collaborated with H.P. Lovecraft and became the sworn enemy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the nearly eighty-eight years since his death, nobody has approached Harry Houdini’s fame and accomplishment as an illusionist and escape artist, while perhaps only the Amazing Randi has equaled him as a debunker of psychic phonies. Yet, despite some vintage stills and a brief flirtation with those new-fangled moving pictures, his live performances were almost solely the stuff of memory. Yet, the fascination with Houdini persists. The man in chains takes center stage once again when the two-night miniseries Houdini premieres this Labor Day on the History Channel (promo here).

As we meet young Erik Weisz (soon to be Ehrich Weiss and eventually Harry Houdini), it is clear he is a mother’s boy, with deep-seated father issues. These themes will constantly return over the two nights like swallows to San Juan Capistrano. Due to his youthful confidence, the future Houdini is convinced his facility for magic tricks will bear great fruit eventually. Naturally, he spends years scuffling, but at least he meets his future wife Bess through those down-market gigs. However, when Houdini’s handcuff escape starts generating buzz, he re-invents himself as an escape artist and his career ignites.

Screenwriter Nicholas Meyer (The Seven Percent Solution novel and screenplay) takes viewers on a mostly breezy jaunt through Houdini’s colorful life, largely sticking to the facts, or in the case of Houdini’s supposed work with the American and British Secret Services, well reported suppositions. Whether it is true or not, Tim Pigott-Smith looks like he is having a ball playing British spymaster William Melville, the original “M.” It is also allows for some entertaining intrigue, as when Houdini thoroughly befuddles the Czar and his fellow faker, Rasputin.

The second night is necessarily darker, progressing as it must towards the inevitable, with the bulk of the drama devoted to Houdini’s drive to debunk false mediums using parlor tricks to fleece the grieving. There is very little that could be considered truly genre-centric in the séance sessions, but the trappings will still have a bit of appeal to fans.

Although he is considerably taller than the spark-pluggish Houdini, Adrien Brody’s gaunt, sad-eyed persona fits the escape artist rather well. He also looks like he put in the time when it came to the crunch sit-ups. As Bess, Kristen Connolly’s earthy energy plays off him well, even if their chemistry is a little flat. While he has little dramatic heavy lifting to do, Evan Jones’s earnestness also wears well on Jim Collins, Houdini’s assistant and chief co-conspirator.

There are a lot of fun sequences in Houdini (the disappearing elephant is particularly well staged), but the visually stylized punch-to-gut symbolic motif is way over done and the effects look terrible on screen. Still, the mini addresses Houdini’s Jewish heritage in respectful, sympathetic terms, which must have been a strange change of pace for director Uli Edel, whose highly problematic terrorist apologia Baader Meinhof Complex suggests killing Jews is nothing to get upset about.

Fans with a checklist will be able to tick off just about all of the iconic escapes, from straightjackets to milk cans. Overall, it is a nice blend of fact-based fiction and somewhat more fanciful speculation. However, it feels slightly stretched to cover two nights. Recommended for admirers of Houdini the performer and scourge of spiritualists, Houdini the mini-series airs this Monday and Tuesday night (9/1 & 9/2) on the History Channel.

Reality with Skill: Top Shot

To their credit, the programmers at the History Channel have largely kept the network focused on history. That might sound like a no-brainer, but just look at Bravo, once the broadcast home of serious art films, now a slum of “reality TV” fare. True, there has been some reality programming at History Channel, but rather than appealing to baser interests, it arguably serves an educational purpose, as if to say: “study hard kids, or you too might have to work delivering nitro glycerin to Nome, Alaska by dog sled.” Still, the world hardly needs yet another competitive elimination reality contest, but for their first the History Channel includes three elements not often seen on television: history, skill, and guns (presented as legitimate and necessary tools for both sport and protection). Sixteen world class marksmen will compete in a series of historically inspired challenges for $100,000 and serious bragging rights in Top Shot, which debuts this coming Sunday night.

Unlike most reality shows, these contestants are responsible and accomplished. Most are former military, police officers, and professional shooters. There is also a Wild West entertainer, a vintage fire-arms collector, and Bill Carns, a talk radio host specializing in Second Amendment issues, who seems fairly conservative. In fact, though the marksmen (including Tara Poremba, the first woman to be “Top Gun” of her class at the Chicago Police Academy) are divided into red and blue teams, it seems likely most of the Top Shots would feel more affinity for the red.

Following the reality show template, the reds and the blues first compete in a team challenge, after which the losing team picks two members to face each other in an elimination challenge. Based on the first two episodes, the shooting contests appear quite well designed. In the series opener, the Top Shots compete with four rifles associated with various wars of the Twentieth Century: the Springfield from WWI, the SVT-40 from WWII, the Mosin-Nagant associated with the Korean War, and the M-14 representing Viet Nam. In episode two, the Top Shots on the bubble were actually kind of psyched by their elimination challenge: firing at targets while descending a mountain cliff on a zip-line. Future shows also promise crossbows, throwing knives, and vintage muskets.

It is always refreshing when television shows a healthy respect for the Second Amendment. However, the problem with Top Shot is that it adheres too closely to the reality formula. All the competitors stay together in a house and there are frequent attempts at the standard “dish on your teammates” interview segments, though the Top Shots do not have much heart for it. Indeed, competitors like Frank Campana, a SWAT veteran who served as a rescuer at Ground Zero, do not need added artificial drama to be interesting. Frankly, it would be more intriguing television to see them go back to their lives in between competitions, to get advice from their colleagues and teammates.

While Top Shot is overly conventional in terms of format, its shooting challenges are definitely cool. It also spares us most of the usual moments of reality show teeth grating annoyance, because by its very nature, it recruits a better class of competitors in those trained to handle firearms responsibly. One of the better conceived reality shows, Top Shot debuts this Sunday (6/6) on the History Channel.

WWII in HD on DVD

It was a different era, when the entire American media and political establishment recognized the fate of the world depended on an Allied victory. Thanks to advances in technology, WWII would also be the first war extensively documented on film. Even though color stock was available, most of the familiar video images of the war were recorded on cheaper black-and-white film, for newsreels and the like. However, a surprising amount of color stock was used by military cameramen, recording reels of archival footage that remained virtually unseen for decades. Scouring film vaults and military museums around the world, the History Channel tracked down a wealth of color film which they restored, preserved, and eventually assembled in a ten hour documentary special. Following its five night November premiere on the History Channel, WWII in HD (trailer here) is now available on DVD and Blue-Ray.

WWII in HD is billed as an effort to make the war more immediate and accessible to contemporary audiences through high definition color images. However, it is driven by compelling narratives that track the course of twelve diverse Americans through the war. Some are relatively well known like war correspondent Richard Tregaskis, whose Guadalcanal Diary is still recognized a classic of war reportage. Others are less celebrated but lived no less interesting lives, like infantryman Roscoe “Rockie” Blunt, an aspiring jazz drum that fought in the Battle of the Bulge and helped liberate a German concentration camp.

Although there is a surfeit of video footage for today’s wars (nearly all of which being in color), it is doubtful the same abundance of primary sources—diaries, memoirs, and original letters—will be available to future archivists, post-e-mail. It is a shame, because despite often coming from mean circumstances, each of the twelve profiled individuals are quite eloquent describing their war experiences in letters home, likely conscious these could be their final recorded words.

While WWII in HD covers both theaters, it might somewhat favor the Pacific, where color film was in greater use among military cameramen. Considering how much more attention has generally been given to the European front, particularly the D-Day invasion in films like Saving Private Ryan and The Longest Day, WWII in HD offers some valuable perspective, pointing out American losses were greater at Okinawa than Normandy. This is a case where color probably better captures the inhuman conditions endured by the American forces, while facing an enemy whose strategy was to inflict as much pain as they possibly could.

Though many of the interview subjects eschew the term “Greatest Generation,” WWII in HD generally supports that honorific. Each of the focal characters was fully committed to victory, including the journalists. Clearly emotionally invested in the men he covered, Time-Life war correspondent Robert Sherrod, as voiced by actor Rob Lowe, asserts: “these guys feel like family to me after what we went through on Tarawa.”

WWII in HD is very well put together, featuring some remarkable visuals, but especially sensitive viewers should be warned some scenes are notably graphic, including footage of liberated concentration camps and the mass suicides of Japanese civilians at Okinawa. Throughout, clearly rendered maps and Gary Sinise’s authoritative but sensitive voice give it all cohesion (and the actor also brings a great deal of credibility with military audiences, having often toured USOs with his Captain Dan Band and serving as executive producer of Brothers at War, a sympathetic portrait of soldiers in Iraq and their families at home).

Respectful and informative, WWII in HD will definitely give viewers a visceral sense of WWII fighting conditions, particularly in the Pacific. Effectively marrying words and images, it is also a frequently moving tribute to the Americans who served in harm’s way. Happily, cable-free households can now catch up with it on DVD.