A grand historical thriller is an unlikely addition to the drama slate of AMC, a US cable channel hitherto known for the gritty masterpiece Breaking Bad, the sumptuous and stylish Mad Men and the eyeballs-and-spleen-fest zombie drama The Walking Dead. And yet here is Turn, a somewhat muddy thriller about spies during America's Revolutionary War.
Unusually, it takes a moment to find itself but when it does it turns fairly quickly into a ripper of a story. It is, essentially, the story of America's first intelligence organisation, the so-called Culper Ring, a group of spies organised on the order of George Washington during the British occupation of New York City in 1776. (To put some Australian context to that, we're talking six years after Captain Cook landed in Australia, and 11 years before the arrival of the First Fleet.)
At the heart of this spy ring, however, is no James Bond. Rather, cabbage farmer Abe Woodhull (Jamie Bell, who many would recall as the kid from Billy Elliot, albeit all grown up) becomes America's first spy, tasked with using some very rudimentary tools, such as primitive codes and invisible inks, to send messages to his superiors.
Of course, this being television, you can expect things to compress a little, as the series amps up. That said, the first episode does take a moment to fire up, soaked with the promise of what's to come.
Perhaps the really big challenge for the series is the fact that in pop culture terms the Revolutionary War has never quite claimed the sexiness of America's Civil War. The latter has been given every conceivable treatment, but for television most notably the iconic 1980s miniseries North & South. Though largely a soap opera, albeit one with its origins in literature (the John Jakes bestseller), it remains a rock solid war drama.
It does come with a great cast, notably Bell and Seth Numrich playing Abe's spy contact Benjamin Tallmadge. For an Australian network it even comes with two Australian cast members: Meegan Warner as Abe's wife Mary and Daniel Henshall as Abe's friend, and fellow spy, Caleb Brewster.
In channel terms, it ultimately belongs on cable or either the ABC or SBS; Showcase, perhaps. But ideally on SBS, alongside the brilliant Fargo and a suite of the great European and American cable dramas.
Turn airs in the US on AMC. It has not yet sold to an Australian broadcaster.
