Overview
- Six two-hour episodes roll out nightly starting Nov. 16 on PBS, with streaming on PBS.org and the PBS app.
- Co-directed with Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, the series is narrated by Peter Coyote and features voices including Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Samuel L. Jackson, Josh Brolin and Paul Giamatti.
- The documentary portrays the conflict as a civil war–like struggle and elevates the experiences of enslaved Black Americans, Indigenous peoples and women.
- A large roster of historians contributes analysis as the filmmakers employ reenactments, archival art, and detailed 2D/3D maps alongside first-person readings.
- George Washington is depicted as the indispensable leader whose achievements are examined alongside his slaveholding and other contradictions, in a project developed over roughly a decade.