I remember when this dreadful mini-series first played. There was tons of controversy over it which immediately disappeared after the series aired (people saw how boring and pointless it was). The premise is a good one (Russia taking over America) but this was basically boring! It moved at a snails pace. I watched the whole thing hoping it would get better but it never did. The script and characters were hopeless--nonstop clichés that I've seen hundreds of times before. They had some great actors in this (like Christine Lahti) giving their worst performances. It's not available in any format for a good reason--who would buy it? Maybe the 16 or so people here who are giving it a good rating would purchase it but nobody else. This mini deserves the obscurity it has. A 1 all the way.

I can imagine President George IV sr sitting with his advisors following the colossal defeat in the 1992 election pleading with them to tell him one major accomplishment of the first bush regime. A timorous lackey stammered: in the Bush regime the US became the world's leading super-power. And what did I do to cause that? asks Bush the elder. Nothing came the reply; the USSR went bankrupt.By the time of the first Gulf War, the US and USSR were like two drunks staggering home from a bar after a night of carousing. It was only a question of which would stumble first.Amerika tells the story of the alternative history. What if it had been the other way around? There's a picture of much of the debasement and exploitation that accompanies subjugation. Good leaders end up in jail; adventurous people strike out and make a go at it elsewhere; the conquerer has no want of quislings willing to debase themselves at a price.Amerika is the story of two families: the Bradfords and the Milfords. The Milfords for the most part oppose the occupation. Kris Kristofferson plays Devin Milford the figure around which the opposition rallies. As the story opens he is being released from jail. While his wife has sold out to the occupier, his father and his boys are active in the resistance. The backdrop of the story is well constructed. The secret path by which the resistance moves people around is called THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD; they've adopted much of the counter-culture music of the 60s as songs of rebellion.In the quisling corner is Robert Urich as Peter Bradford an amiable sort trying to persuade himself that he is following the right course in building the quisling state of HEARTLAND out of the central midwestern states.Strangely the film did accurately predict what happened to our enemy inside the Soviet union when the Communists fell. It is worth revisiting.

What a great relic of the Cold-War era! An excellent piece for classroom discussions of the American mentality during this period of recent history. If only it were more easily available at a more affordable price. It seems this set is not selling at the Wal-Mart bin-price for a mini-series that has received such poor reviews from the kind visitors of IMDb. Like "Red Dawn," "1984" and other "paranoia" films of the 1980s, this one lives up to its name. Yes, it's slow, but it wasn't supposed to be a Rambo-type flick. Try to appreciate it for what it represented when it came out. A very courageous project for its time, IMHO. I think that it's time for a re-make with a "different" kind of "scary" foreign-occupier (can you guess what I'm thinking?) It could easily be titled, "Ameriqa."

We (my Dad and I) taped the AMERIKA miniseries on its premiere air dates and I'm so glad we did. I've read a couple reviews here at IMdB that claim this milestone is boring. I believe they are misinterpreting the decided communist slant of this production. The production seems off-kilter because of it is presented through "a weary and wintry Russian eye", which might be compared to the powerless angst of the Russian characters of the Dr. Zhivago film. The characters are all doomed to communism and it's fascinating to view their ways of coping. Kristofferson and Urich are both powerhouses in this vein. My favorite theme is the outlawing of sentimental media, my favorite scene when Mariel Hemingway attends the illegal performance of "The Fantasticks". Shades of George Orwell's "1984", about a communist state where things that are illegal for the masses are allowed (but not admittedly) for the elite party members. So I say "God Bless AMERIKA". I think I'll watch it again next week.