Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Washington’ On History, A Docuseries/Drama Hybrid That Shows George Washington’s More Human Side

History’s new docuseries Washington tries to give some insight into George Washington’s life that goes beyond the historical picture we’re had drilled into our heads via history books, movies, cartoons, and even projects like the 1980s miniseries starring Barry Bostwick. You know the picture of Washington we all have: stoic, humble, always making the right decisions under immense pressure. He was the man the colonies turned to to lead their army against the British during the Revolutionary War, and he was the man who the new country turned to as its first president after it adopted the Constitution. But he was human, and without some luck and privilege he may have never been in the position to become the Father of the United States. Read on for more…

WASHINGTON: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: After a montage of scenes from the three-part docuseries, including clips from the various interviews and dramatic scenes of George Washington (Nicholas Rowe), we start with a quote: “Washington wasn’t born great; he took a journey to greatness.” We open on the woods of the Ohio Country in the Spring of 1754.

The Gist: The real Washington had human frailties just like everyone else, especially when he was a 22-year-old colonel in the British colonial army. The first of three parts of this docuseries, which is narrated by Jeff Daniels and counts historian Doris Kearns Goodwin as one of the executive producers, examines Washington as a young officer, making the mistakes that he would learn from in order to become a more effective leader, just when the colonies most needed him.

The recreations, combined with interviews with historians like Joseph J. Ellis and Annette Gordon-Reed, writers like Jon Meacham, and political luminaries like Bill Clinton and Colin Powell, show how a 22-year-old Washington led an attack on French troops in the Ohio Country, troops who claimed to be on a diplomatic mission. That battle helped spark the French and Indian War. Through some creative spinning in letters to the his superiors, though, he returned to Virginia a hero instead of facing the end of his military career.

What the episode reveals is that the young Washington could be arrogant, too confident in his own decision making without the benefit of experience. Unlike the cherry tree legend, Washington not only could tell a lie, but he did often, because he knew how to play the political game and cover his butt. He had no problem going over people’s heads and go to directly to British generals to tell them what they can do better, as he did when he was an aide de camp to the British general when faced with French forces and their Native American allies.

He was constantly in search of a British commission, and always chafed against the colonist’s second-class status. When he became the leader of the Virginia regiment, his sense of duty and intolerance of deserters made the ragtag group into extremely effective soldiers, and he tried to persuade the British commanders to invade Fort Duquesne directly, with his regiment leading the way.

But after he married his wife Martha (Nia Roberts), became a stepdad to her kids, and settled into life as a gentleman farmer at Mount Vernon (which included owning enslaved people), Washington matured. Ticked off that he was constantly in debt to companies that sold his tobacco overseas, he learned to rotate crops and became increasingly agitated at England’s tightening taxation noose around the colonies. There weren’t too many candidates to take command of colonial forces when the war began in 1775, and Washington was the only one who had experience and wasn’t out for his own glory.

Our Take: Like most docuseries of this type, Washington, directed by Roel Reiné (scripted scenes) and Matthew Ginsburg (documentary material), can be a bit jarring as you go from a fictionalized and scripted account of a section of George Washington’s life to real-life interviews. However, this series makes these transitions better than most, essentially using the dramatic recreations as a near-complete substitute for whatever archival material it would have needed otherwise.

You know what we mean by that: Lingering shots of old portraits (though there are some shots of those) or lingering shots of yellowed documents (though we do see a few of those). The scripted scenes bring Washington’s story to life, and the fact that they don’t have to be linked together by a made-up plot frees creator Matthew Ginsburg, showrunner Richard Lopez and their writers the freedom to just imagine what these vignettes in Washington’s life were like. It’s what distinguishes this from, say, that ’80s miniseries that had to come up with a plot to join all the vignettes together.

It was interesting to see Rowe playing a young Washington in the first episode. Not sure if the de-aging he was given was via makeup or CGI, but there was something about his manner that completely communicated Washington’s immaturity and overconfidence, as well as his ability to cover his own posterior. The rest of the actors around him are all perfectly serviceable. But Rowe cuts an imposing-enough figure to convey that Washington was often thought of as a “catch” in his young days, and considered a good leader simply because he was tall. But he used that to his advantage any time he could.

The interviews were all excellent, as you’d expect, and getting Clinton and Powell to speak was a coup for Goodwin. All bring insight into Washington that we may have heard before, but not in such a human and contemporary context.

Sex and Skin: Not that kind of show.

Parting Shot: As Washington surveys the colonial camp right at the beginning of the war, a voice says, “If you declare war on the Empire, you’d better win. Otherwise, what’s going to become of you?”

Sleeper Star: None.

Most Pilot-y Line: Not sure why Doris Kearns Goodwin isn’t also interviewed for the docuseries. Maybe she thinks the people she helped pick for interviews knew more about Washington than she did.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The first episode of Washington, despite being almost 90 minutes without commercials, moves along nicely, the battle scenes are done reasonably well and Rowe does a good job filling the shoes of the great George Washington.

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, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Washington On History.com