My wife and I find it hard to get into new series. With children who are getting to bed later and later (or waking up in the middle of the night) and with school first thing in the morning, we just don’t have a lot of time. We loved The Sopranos, The Wire, and currently Veep and Mad Men. Somewhere down the line we’ll start Breaking Bad. But over the weekend we discovered yet another series that, after a mere two episodes, we find ourselves committed to watching, compelled even. It’s called Turn on AMC.
The reason we tuned in isn’t just because of the intriguing storyline, about America’s first spies, taking place in the Revolutionary War in our old stomping grounds, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. Rather, it was because the series is based on a book by my friend Alexander Rose entitled Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring. It’s quite a remarkable feat to have your book not only optioned but actually made into a television show, let alone one that happens to be captivating, with rich historic details, and superbly cast. (My favorite is the mercenary Robert Rogers of the Queen’s Rangers, played by the hulking Angus MacFadyen—more of a man now, my wife says, than when he played Robert the Bruce in Braveheart.)
In any event, I highly recommend Turn. And congratulations to Alex Rose! (He has yet to make a cameo but I am holding out hope—perhaps as a tavern keeper? I don’t think he’s bulky enough to play a Hessian.)
Poster courtesy of AMC