I just got around to watching the Shay's Rebellion episode of "10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America" (Link) from the History Channel.
It was a good episode. I give the producer credit for using animation instead of the typical small-scale 10 or 15 person reenactments that they typically use. I tend to get annoyed when watching the History Channel and I see what is supposed to battle but it looks like a small skirmish. I hope they go with more of this style of shows in the future to mix up the presentation.
I think that the subject matter was a good choice as well. Shay's Rebellion, an act of men in Western Massachusetts in the that period of time when we were ruled by the Articles of Confederation, discussed how a group of poor farmers and family men rose up to protest the seizing of land by courts and the jailing of debtors in debtors prisons. I think that the History Channel gave a fair presentation of the issues and was surprisingly forgiving of the rebellion against the government of the time. I typically find that large channels mock those who oppose the government and want to portray them as dangerous men or wrong-headed idealogues. This was neither.
The downsides were I think that it felt like it ran a little long. It seemed like they couldn't quite figure out how to make the material fill a whole hour, so they stretched it out and repeated themselves a few times. Perhaps if they were pressed for filler, they could have discussed the Johnathan Fries Rebellion, which was another early American rebellion, this time over taxes, occurring during the presidency of John Adams. Also, while I did enjoy the use of animation as something different, once in a while it felt like I was back in high school watching a movie in history class. Maybe that's what they wanted.
I say 4 out of 5 stars.
More about Shay's Rebellion can be found here.
A famous letter Thomas Jefferson wrote about Shays Rebellion can be read here.
