Critic Reviews

Abraham Lincoln is a bit more ambitious and bigger in scope than recent Lincoln-centric docuseries, but it treats its audience with respect, both via well-done reenactments and fantastic interviews.

Reenactments in projects like these still have a bad reputation owing to years of the channel's over-utilization of the tool in its quest to give its subjects a populist gloss. But neither Sibley nor his co-stars, including Oluwasanya Adegbola as Douglass, overplay their hand. ... "Abraham Lincoln" is more courageous and comprehensive in this respect, settling the shoddy textbook question as to whether the Civil War was about slavery. The short version is yes.