The Sixties

:

Season 1
  • Network: CNN
  • Series Premiere Date: May 29, 2014
Metascore
64

Generally favorable reviews - based on 6 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6

Critic Reviews

  1. Uncle Barky
    Reviewed by: Ed Bark
    May 29, 2014
    75
    Hanks himself book-ends this serviceable, talking heads/illustrative clips treatise with a pair of all-encompassing quotes.
  2. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: David Hiltbrand
    May 29, 2014
    70
    This is a comfort-food smorgasbord for the Woodstock generation, a harking back to that vision of ourselves as a nation with shared ideals and values.
  3. Newsday
    Reviewed by: Verne Gay
    May 29, 2014
    67
    Respectable, incomplete survey (on TV) Thursday night, but future installments look better.
  5. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    May 29, 2014
    60
    At its best The Sixties is admirable, but to riff on an old promotional slogan, it isn’t all that it could be: Yes, it’s an exercise that might capture the magic of landing on the moon, but doesn’t take the extra step that would send viewers over it.
  6. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: David Hinckley
    May 29, 2014
    60
    Pperhaps as a result of that mission, The Sixties often feels like an academic project, something for a modern history class.
  7. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Robert Lloyd
    May 29, 2014
    50
    The historical documentaries are more successful than the cultural ones, for having a better story to tell, but all are made in a similar style, without written narration, driven by news clips and interviews (with scholars, participants and celebrity rememberers, Hanks naturally included).

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.3

Universal acclaim- based on 6 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. Ratchet
    Jul 5, 2014
    9
    Many will pan The Sixties for having no script and being a series entirely pushed along by clips of actual footage from the events presented.Many will pan The Sixties for having no script and being a series entirely pushed along by clips of actual footage from the events presented. I personally can't understand how that is a bad thing. As a twenty-year-old, I find the show exceptionally fascinating from beginning to end. Using actual video footage to show these events, as well as clips from various news programs, I find that the Sixties is more educational than any History Channel special. It sends us back in time. Tom Hanks has his celebrity friends and some scholars jump in to guide us on our journey through this turbulent time, but it otherwise is a time capsule.

    That said, the Kennedy episode was overlong and I felt that it focused too much on what-ifs and controversy. It was interesting, but I feel the Vietnam episode could have benefited more so from the two hour treatment.

    I think that as far as history programs go, it is as entertaining and fascinating as you can get. Recreations and narrations always pull me out but this show manages to be informative while also being vastly entertaining. Highly recommended.    … Full Review »
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