As far as the year a television series is set in, 1963 would be a pretty good choice. If you've read "1963: The Year Kennedy Was Shot" like I did, you can see how fascinating that year in America was, what with the 1950s values threatened by race conflict, changes in social contexts, poverty, violence, and of course the murder of young, idealized President Kennedy. The advertising of the show has trumpeted NBC's intelligence by placing the show in the "Time of Innocence" Kennedy years, which would infer that the show is set in that era before assassination and upheaval of the later 60s. And why not? After all, NBC already put out "The 60's" so why be redundant? I looked forward to this show because of the good reviews I initially read and the concept of a family growing up in the ill-fated Camelot years. So what happens in the very first episode? Kennedy gets killed. Now, it's not like I didn't know that was going to happen, but why waste one of the most dramatic, tragic events in American history by plopping it in the first episode. I just mention this simply because it left a bad taste in my mouth after all the glittering publicity. There really is no reason to watch this show. It says nothing that hasn't been said in the superior (and much better acted)"60's" mini-series. The acting is bottom of the barrel, as is the writing, cliched, awkward, and worst of all, boring. It's like sitting in an avalanche of stereotypes for an hour, and that's too much valuable time to waste when you could just watch "American Graffiti" for a much more entertaining look at the early 60s, or even "Animal House" which at least used stereotypes humorously rather than seriously. Watch "The Sopranos" on your Sunday nights, because "Dreams" is a sleepy waste of time.
Review of American Dreams
