Colonial Spies Return Tonight

Where by AMC else can you get American spies and Generals George Washington and Benefict Arnold together for a night on television? With tonight's return of the third season of Turn: Washington's Spies, we will look deeper at the divisions within and without Washington's camp. Add to that the ongoing trama of slavery, and you have an amazing window on a piece of America's history that is often glorified yet seldom understood.

Ian Kahn, who plays the role of General Washington, noted in a recent interview how he studied for the role to get it just right:

Lafayette wrote in his autobiography about it. Alexander Hamilton had an opinion about it. All of these different people, I'm getting all of this different information so that I can hopefully create a well-rounded figure of this man that can be entertaining for modern audiences but also that historians can look at and say, ‘Yeah, that's General Washington. That's the General Washington that I studied’. That's very important to me.

Mr. Kahn also notes in the interview how he went so far as to abandon his dental care to better understand George Washington's struggle with his own teeth. Of course, he had mints near by (Ian that is, since I cannot speak for George).

As with HBO's superb colonial story John Adams, I am glad this story will be part of our historical record for years to come as young and old strive to learn more about this great country's original struggle.