Turn (2015) TV Review by: Money Train

Follows New York farmer, Abe Woodhull, who bands together with a group of childhood friends to form The Culper Ring, an unlikely group of spies who turn the tide in America’s fight for independence. – Written by AMC

AMC’s “TURN: Washington’s Spies” (2015) is one of my guilty pleasures that I love to watch. I call “TURN” my guilty pleasure because this is a period piece show about the colonial war and that fact alone might have the average TV viewer stumped why they should waste their precious Netflix time watching a lot of white guys wearing dusty wigs and speaking with British accents or broken English British accents debating and fighting over the future of America. You should watch “TURN” because the show will really turn anyone’s basic assumptions or misguided media assumptions about the early days of our massive revolution or cultural experiment we now call The United States. But what is really fascinating about “TURN: Washington’s Spies” is getting to sit back and imagine a time in the late 1700’s where it was not a guarantee by any stretch of the imagination that some poorly trained, outmanned, outgunned former farmers and shop keepers were going to be able to beat the British army–which was at the time was arguably the world’s best military organization. So what “TURN” shows brilliantly by its creator Craig Silverstein, Executive Producer Barry Josephson and its creative writers is that General Washington and his top colonial commanders knew almost at once that their only faint hope of winning against the British was to establish a system of local spies to monitor troop movements, ammunition locations, supply chains and other important tactical war advantages against the British.

Currently, I am several episodes into the second Season of “TURN” and the show’s main hero or most valuable of The Culper Ring spies is Abraham Woodhull played with a lot of zeal, humility and smarts by Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot and Fantastic Four). And it is kinda ironic that a solid upcoming British actor would play such a pivotal American role, but this was just more great casting of not only Abraham but also having other young, scrappy and personable characters like Abraham’s jealous and worrisome wife (Meegan Warner), loyal and fearless Patriot courier Caleb Brewster (Daniel Henshall), ambitious and driven Ben Tallmadge (Seth Numrich), the feisty and clever spy Anna Strong (Heather Lind) and the beautiful and seductive daughter of a prominent Tory family Peggy Shippen (Ksenia Solo).

Although, I know I am supposed to be cheering for Abraham and The Culper Ring spies to defeat the British, I still can’t help being greatly impressed with some of the antagonists of “TURN”. I like that the show’s writers have smarty given “TURN”’s viewers complex, powerful and well developed British characters that are the evil counterpart to the show’s heroes. For example, the smooth and analytical Major John Andre’ who is putting together his own British spy ring and trying to find disgruntled colonial soldiers and commanders like Benedict Arnold (Owain Yeoman) to flip or turn on the colonialists. Andre is just as serious and calculating as Tallmadge is to gain any advantage over his battlefield rivals. During “TURN”’s first season one could also take fiendish delight in admiring Robert Rogers, who is the gruff and hard-ass commander of The Queen’s Rangers who are deadly efficient mercenaries. Rogers was not only a thorn in the side of George Washington, but he also clashed with Tallmadge and other British commanders over the best war strategy to defeat the colonial army. And my favorite British soldier on “TURN” is the cold-hearted, sadistic and ruthless soldier John Graves Simcoe (Samuel Roukin). Simcoe got the British into tons of trouble with the colonists when he was stationed in Setauket, Long Island because he always thought the colonial army were vermin that needed to be eradicated at all costs or ethics. Simcoe’s bad attitude and reckless behavior got him transferred out of his Setauket post, but in Season 2 he is out of the dog house and is now given command of Roger’s Queen’s Rangers. When Simcoe arrives one of the mercenaries refuses to accept him as their new leader, so Simcoe drops his weapons and says kill me if you have the guts to do so. The mercenary tries to stab him and Simcoe easily disarms him and stabs him to death with his own blade. I actually love waiting to see Tallmadge, Rogers and Simcoe show up on “TURN” because they are always going to present credible and formidable challenges to The Culper Ring spies. I will say that a growth area for “TURN” are female villains or British loyalists like Peggy Shippen. There are strong female characters like Abraham’s wife and his real love in Anna, but we need to see more evil female Brits. And “TURN” has memorable veteran actors like Kevin McNally as Judge Richard Woodhull.

Stephen Root is Nathanial Sackett who is sort of the “Q” of The Culper Ring as he devises unconventional plans and devices to send and decode secret messages. Burn Gorman is Major Hewlett of the Setauket Garrison, who to me is the British’s Colonel Klink because of all the spy activity he misses under his nose. Hewlett is a bit more interesting in Season 2 because he is awkwardly trying to make romantic moves on widower Anna Strong. I was not that moved by Ian Kahn as a stoic George Washington in Season 1, but was impressed with seeing Ian’s emotional scene of Washington cussing out Tallmadge for going against his orders to expose colonial officers disloyal to Washington. The colonial army was broke and needed arms and support from France, but they might not get it if France thought the colonial army was untrustworthy. Washington ignored his haters to achieve a greater good.

AMC has fully embraced a fun and timely Millennial appealing marketing strategy for “TURN” by releasing a TURN: Rivals online comic book, “TURN” soundtrack on iTunes and an interactive map, ultimate fan game and even bonus material like a character letter from Edmund Hewlit to his mother. AMC is not settling for weekend colonial reenactment history buffs to see “TURN”. AMC seriously wants to make The Revolutionary War as interesting to watch and DVR for their young adult fan base of “The Walking Dead”. Or even for “Game of Thrones” fans who like multi-layered character episodic dramas. And since Jaime Bell will be in Fox’s F4 reboot AMC can appeal to comic book fanboys as well.

Lastly, there are two minorities in Season 2 of “TURN” who have significant recurring roles. Aldris Hodge (“Leverage”) is Jordan an ex-slave now mercenary. I am glad Simcoe promoted Jordan to his first officer in The Queen’s Rangers and gave him his freedom, too.  Idara Victor plays Abigail and does not get many speaking parts in “TURN”. But Abigail is an important spy in John Andre’s house as she sends secret messages back to Anna who watches over her son Cicero in Setauket. AMC should expand Jordan and Abigail’s roles in “TURN”’s Season 3 to target the same Black audiences that watched BET’s “The Book  Negroes” in large numbers. During the recent Baltimore Riots a young Black protestor told MSNBC’s Joy Reid on “The Rachel Maddow” show that “Brutality Breeds Resistance”. What he wisely said applies now and in 1776, so I give “TURN: Washington’s Spies” $$$$.

David L. $Money Train$ Watts  •  FuTurXTV  •  HHBMedia.com  •  [email protected]  •  www.hhbmedia.com  •  David Velo Stewart