John Adams

I'd heard that the John Adams miniseries from HBO was pretty good. Heck, it won an Emmy after all. But goodness, I didn't expect it to be this degree of excellent. Laura Linney steals almost every scene she's in as John's wife, Abigail Adams. She is excellent. Paul Giamatti is great as John Adams, although I confess to seeing him as Paul Giamatti in most scenes simply because nobody else looks quite like Paul Giamatti. Tom Wilkinson is brilliant as Ben Franklin.

The first two episodes were wholly engrossing. They quite reminded me of that other great HBO series, Rome, except there wasn't any sex, scant nudity and a dearth of violence and gore. Other than that it was incredibly well written and produced. The third episode, where an ill-suited Adams is sent to France and clashes with Ben Franklin and insults pretty much everyone in Paris was less engaging. Adams was a boorish ass that made pretty much every stupid mistake he could... which it the point, I take it. Historically, his time in France wasn't a great success, but thematically, it's his separation from Abigail that is his undoing--she tempers his passions, and he is a bigger man due to her influence. That said, I'm ready for episode 4 to get back to Adams cutting a great swath through history and not falling on his face so much.

Highly recommended at any rate. One of the best colonial/Revolutionary War/early American dramas ever made.

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