I know I’m a little late on this review, but I finally finished History Chanel’s 3 part mini-series about Ulysses S. Grant. Also, think of this sort of like a Yelp review - even though I mostly enjoyed this series, this review is for me to vent about what was missing in my opinion. This my pretentious Karen moment, but every now and again you have to get it out of your system.
First, the good stuff.
1) They tried to downplay alcoholism as an actual issue and disease, not just a character flaw nor the reason for problems with his presidency.
2) Multiple historians were used instead if the same 4 white dudes who they use for all of the WWII stuff.
3) Fisher Stevens, Ron Chernow, and Leonardo DiCaprio were amongst the producers. I just think that’s cool.
4) It depicted Grant as a real person showing the good and the bad.
5) The focus on Grant’s changing views about African American rights and how complicated it was. His parents were abolitionists. His in-laws were slave owners. But he was one of the Union generals who actually pushed to let Black men join the army.
5) There was good use of Civil War re-enactments and virtual maps.
Stuff that bugged me.
1) Not enough about his relationships with his wife and kids. I know the focus was on his time in the war, but they managed to fit in plenty about how his dad picked on him and how his peers/buddies felt about him.
2) Where was his love of marbles? You think that’s not important. Then you don’t understand Grant’s marble and how he never lost them.
3) The fake beards were just…just awful. Lee’s and Lincoln’s were especially bad. The actors looked like they had carpet samples on their faces.
4) Now, the real thing that irked me- the lack of detail about Grant’s fight for Native American rights. One of my favorite Grant stories is how he became friends with a Seneca lawyer named Ely Parker when Parker came to his rescue in a bar fight! It’s a great story! Then, Parker wanted to join the army and was told by Secretary of State William Seward that the Civil War was a “white man’s war”, Grant went over Seward’s head and made Parker his military secretary. Parker wrote the surrender at Appomattox! He got respect from Lee! And when Grant was president, he and Parker tried (and failed) to give indigenous people more rights as U.S. citizens. But by all means, feel free to skip over most of that 4 hour documentary.
Parker, some other guy, and Grant at Appomattox. Okay, I was too busy ranting to find out who the middle dude is. Sorry.