The American Revolution: Season 1

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Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews

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Season Details & Credits

PBS | Season Premiere Date: November 16, 2025

Summary: Ken Burns' six-part documentary about the American Revolution narrated by Peter Coyote features archival materials, including personal accounts read by such actors as Adam Arkin, Kenneth Branagh, Hope Davis, Morgan Freeman, Paul Giamatti, Domhnall Gleeson, Tom Hanks, Samuel L. Jackson, Damian Lewis, Laura Linney, Tobias Menzies, EdwardKen Burns' six-part documentary about the American Revolution narrated by Peter Coyote features archival materials, including personal accounts read by such actors as Adam Arkin, Kenneth Branagh, Hope Davis, Morgan Freeman, Paul Giamatti, Domhnall Gleeson, Tom Hanks, Samuel L. Jackson, Damian Lewis, Laura Linney, Tobias Menzies, Edward Norton, David Oyelowo, Mandy Patinkin, Wendell Pierce, Matthew Rhys, Liev Schreiber, and Meryl Streep.… Expand

Genre(s): Movie/Mini-Series, Documentary

Season 1 Episodes

No episode information is currently available for this season

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Critic Reviews

100

TV Insider Matt Roush

Nov 17, 2025

The American Revolution achieves that goal brilliantly, sidestepping romanticism of the period (see Outlander) and stripping away myth with a grounding in granular reality. While never losing focus on heroes like George Washington, whose triumphs and mistakes are scrutinized by a diverse faculty of scholars, the series brings history to life through the accounts of lesser-known participants. Read full review

100

Hunter Ingram

Nov 12, 2025

The filmmakers create a masterful narrative of the war’s tactical beats interwoven with the human touch and the necessary myth-busting about the cornerstones of our history. Read full review

100

G. Allen Johnson

Nov 14, 2025

Even history buffs can gain a deeper understanding of the country and its origins through this ambitious, epic docuseries that runs for six straight nights on PBS. Read full review

Robert Lloyd

Nov 14, 2025

Contemporary battlefield sketches, grand post-war history paintings, elegant portraits of the major military and political figures, along with watercolor illustrations and unobtrusive live-action recreations bring the tale to life. As in other Burns projects, the narrative is knit together out of many individual stories, but it’s Washington, the commander of the army, who stands out here. Read full review

James Poniewozik

Nov 14, 2025

The series makes its case the way Burns’s whole body of work has: by trying to tell a full story and trusting, maybe with quaint optimism, that all kinds of Americans will want to hear it. The series might well draw controversy pointing out the founders’ contradictions. But “The American Revolution” is also deeply patriotic. It gushes with love for America’s natural beauty, for its democracy and for its professed, if not always realized, ideals. Read full review

Chris Vognar

Nov 14, 2025

It is a dense, exhaustive, and, yes, highly rewarding march through a period of early American history that treats generalizations and cliches the way patriot mobs treated suspected loyalists. Read full review

John Anderson

Nov 13, 2025

Their sanctimonious approach to history becomes very tiresome very quickly. This is unfortunate, and not just because it affects the viewing experience, which is as numbing as a winter at Fort Ticonderoga. .... The Burns-Botstein-Schmidt review is certainly enlightening, at least about who did what and where and why—the military strategies can be fascinating, though. .... When the most energized aspect of a documentary series is the talking heads, it says something. Read full review

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Seasons & Episodes

80

Series Overview
Season 1

80
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: November 16, 2025
- No episode information is currently available for this season