wesmartify

Overall a big incoherent potpourri:

Some half-assed love stories, some repetitions of material, choice of footage often questionable, lots seems staged footage, no real structure.

And unlike the superb "The World at War" they had to focus one just one single topic, how can you fail so miserably in telling this story and make it look like an occasional accident?

Had that been on Youtube, I probably would have stopped and switched - well, it was netflix and you keep hoping that it will get better. Alas, it didn't.

Still, the restoration is well done. As for the plot (sic!) you'd rather turn on the radio.

PS: Speaking of restoration , have a look, you'll find a lot of restorated and enhanced footage on youtube.

Wow to the pictures: Never seen so much sharp and colored footage!

Unfortunately it is accompanied by that insincere liberty dumbtalk of all and any enslaving colonial powers (bad cherry on top is lack of english subs, french only). As such it has also the mandatory stupid quotes of a certain First Lord of the Admiralty ;D

Or the heroic deeds of the french resistance, like manhandling the tondues.

Well, they also mention how allies slaughtered their own troops during Exercise Tiger (prepping for D-Day). That was new to me and quite stunning.

Still, the pictures alone are worth it! Would I watch I again? No.

Now that US is slowly slipping into civil war 2.0 I had to watch this, finally.

Was okay to watch but somehow it fails to provide a good, memorable overview. I just watch it over the past 2 weeks and hardly remember anything.

What I do remember is the impressive amount of senseless suffering due to the introduction of new weapons... and the disappointing "success" of the abolition. Oh well, industrialization usually comes at a price, eh?

Outright annoying is the omnipotent presence of Lincoln and, to lesser extent, of Lee. I wonder why people don't cringe over that, do they?

Still, it is watchable, even for europeans saturated with history lessons. It's kept pretty neutral and provides different POVs which I like.

Not a perfect 10, not at all... but it's a good start into this topic - I hope someone gets this act together and comes up with a newer, better version. One that I can actually remember ;D

PS: Shelby, often shunned in the reviews, is a good narrator - don't forget to watch his interviews! Too bad Barbara Fields didn't get more footage as well.