This follow-up to "The Bastard" has Philip Kent ("Andrew Stevens") deeply involved in the American Revolutionary War.
This installment of John Jakes best-selling novels about the Kent family diverges from the source novel.
It's also not as rollicking as "The Bastard." While part of the fun of "The Bastard" was watching big TV stars playing historical figures, "The Rebels" has less of that. In the expedition on Fort Ticonderoga neither Ethan Allen nor Benedict Arnold are depicted. Peter Graves makes a George Washington with gravitas, but Robert Vaughn handles the period dialogue better. William Daniels, who played a great Sam Adams in "The Bastard" here gets to be Sam's brother John, a role he played on stage and in the movies in "1776."
One surprise is singer Tanya Tucker, who acquits herself well.
It still might be useful as a crash course in understanding the creation of the United States, in this day of worful ignorance of the US and its founding, though "The Bastard" did the more important job of showing why a colonized people fought for its separation from Great Britain. It's also increasingly soap operaish.
Philip Kent still sleeps with every pretty woman who crosses his path. They throw themselves at him. Nice work if you can get it.
BTW, what happened to Philip Kent's French accent?
