In the Wild: Netflix’s American Experiment
Netflix got a head start on celebrating America’s 250th anniversary with a screening at the U.S. Navy Memorial in D.C. for its upcoming historical docuseries “The American Experiment.”
Produced by studios Luminant and Tom Hanks’ Playtone, the five-part series covers the American Revolution through the drafting of the Constitution and the first American presidency. Along the way, politicians—from Mike Pence and Ted Cruz to Hillary Clinton and Al Gore—along with historians share their perspectives on American democracy. Woven throughout the series is the title question of whether it will continue.
“It’s tough to look at the front page of the New York Times and not see the words ‘constitutional crisis.’ But one of the things that I started feeling when we were doing all of these interviews was an emotion I hadn’t identified for a long time, which was frankly optimism,” Director Brian Knappenberger said during a panel discussion at the event. “We’ve been through some of these challenges before. Our country has been through some really, really difficult moments, and somehow we’ve always… been able to use this mechanism that was created in order to come out of it.”
The American Experiment covers some familiar ground, but brings the fresh perspective of the founders’ humanity while addressing the paradox of slavery and liberty, integrating Native American perspectives throughout. At its core is the radical idea that the people are king.
“We’ve been forged by those ideals in an era where it’s so easy to focus on what divides us. We were excited to show what unites us—and I’m not going to lie, it’s good television,” said Sara Edelson, Director of Original Documentary Series at Netflix. “There are battles, betrayals, debates, hardship, life and death stakes that all lead to the question that is as true now as it was then. Can this experiment endure?”
The American Experiment premieres on Netflix on June 24.