“The Vietnam War” -- The Top 25 Programs of 2017, No. 5

Every couple of years Ken Burns delivers an expansive multi-part documentary on yet another subject that matters (or should) to the American people.  Tellingly, most of them are masterworks and almost every one of them would stand as the career best of a lesser talent.  It seems like only yesterday when critics were saying that about The Civil War, or The War, or The Roosevelts.  This year we are unanimous in our praise of The Vietnam War, which like so many of Burns’ projects proved instantly essential to our understanding of what we were, who we are and who we may be going forward.