And they said the mini-series was dead! Not so!
John Adams (2008), the spectacular mini-series from HBO states pure and clear that the mini-series is alive and not only well, but thriving. The 7-part historical drama, based on David McCullough's biography of our second president, brings history to life, and names and dates become secondary, as the people, the personalities, that shaped the founding of our country take the forefront.
And John Adams was in the lead for the founding of these United States, have no doubt. I have read another (fictional) book about Adams, Irving Stone's "Those Who Love." And the man was not particularly lovable, except to his wife Abigail, and even then not ALL the time. He was vain, jealous and curmudgeonly, and ill-tempered and impatient. He was also driven to make our country great, brilliant and put this country above himself.
This show, with brilliant production values shows Mr. Adams from his first ideas about breaking with Great Britain, to his dying days. It is a political tale, a tale of courage and dedication, and a tale of personal faults and amazing redeeming qualities. We hear of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Ben Franklin all the time, but John Adams ranks with them, or above them in the annals of the founding of our country.
Paul Giamatti is expertly cast as John Adams, and plays the role better than you can imagine anyone playing it. It is like it is created for him to play. Laura Linney, who I love, matches him step for step as his long-suffering wife Abigail, who he relies on so heavily, and yet, ill-uses so much it seems.
The supporting cast all are amazing, without exception. The relationships they show of our forefathers, show they were not gods, but men doing heroic things. These men, if they lost this endevour would have been hung as traitors to a legitmate government. The were truly revolutionaries, throwing off the yoke of a king, and they did not agree on how to do that. It was all new to them.
Amazing amazing amazing! This is how history should be portrayed.
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