John Adams miniseries review?
Just wondering if Jim or Aron would ever consider doing a podcast on the HBO miniseries “John Adams” starring Paul Giamatti? I’ve started rewatching it and find it to be very inspirational during this time of political tumult. Plus Giamatti absolutely kills it in his role as John Adams winning him an Emmy for the performance. I looked around for reviews of the series and they’re pretty slim and not great. Anyways just a request from a long time fan and club member!!
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Gotta say the first time I saw Washington on screen it gave me goosebumps! David Morse, with very little dialog, manages to convey this humble integrity and leadership.
I really appreciate how we see all of these men with huge egos and rigid ideologies overcome their own shortcomings and work together to build a new form of government of not men but laws. Gives me hope for our country in this dark time. We fought the Revolution while the plague was raging and we overcame our differences to secure a hopeful future. We’re capable of doing it again with the right leadership.
coverage would definitely be an unexpected treat!
And yeah, if the guys want to take the time to watch it and do a podcast during quarantine, that would be great. Maybe they could do special podcast on the Hamilton musical and follow it up with the Adams miniseries. Tie it in to current events.
I finished “John Adams” yesterday and while I found the later episodes to be less interesting (obviously less action and drama after the Revolution), it was nonetheless inspiring to see how Adams and Jefferson’s relationship evolved. Even after bitter rivalry, they managed to speak again and rekindle a great friendship because of their ability to accept that even though they disagreed mightily with each other, they recognized the other had love for our country and wants what is best for us all.
One of my favorite clips is Ben Franklin and John Adams discussing “The Art of Communication”. I think Franklin’s advice is particularly prescient in the age of social media lol!
https://youtu.be/_I7f4ALqojg
As for Adams, it's a truly great show but it ignores some really ugly but defining character traits that Adams had. He was an elitist in the truest sense of the word, he thought that he and his class were above everyone else. He wanted the President to be a King that was named by his fellow elites, he had Thomas Jefferson's cousin (who was a reporter) beaten on the floor of Congress for writing a critical article.
A few years ago I read a book called "A Confederacy of Letters" and it was a compilation of every letter that Jefferson and Adams wrote to each other. It's an amazing book because it gives us a tremendous amount of insight into what each of them actually believed. Jefferson comes off as a true genius who genuinely believes in people and democracy whereas Adams very clearly has an 'old-world' snobby view who believes that wealthy people are morally superior etc.