Yeah, I Get It, John Adams Was Old

FINALLY. It's over. The John Adams mini-series on HBO has completed its run. There are no more. There is only peace on Sundays where once a mini-series tread. Peace... and quiet.

The last installment of the John Adams mini-series condensed twenty-five years into its running time. So not only does it feel rushed, but it also feels slow. Also, there are a handful of "fast-forward" moments. 

While Adams time post-presidency is one of the most interesting of his life, it's all glossed over in the mini-series. They couldn't figure out what to make the driving story of his post-presidency years, so they just kind of throw the balls into the air and see what sticks.

We spend an awful lot of time with the Adams' daughter, Nabby, who discovers she has a cancerous tumor in her breast. Then we get a horrific surgery scene, then we get more moping with her as she recovers, then we get her telling her mother Abigail that the cancer has come back and she's not going to go under the knife again. Then she's dead and her parents are sad. You just spent twenty minutes watching this (or perhaps fast-forwarding through the surgery as I don't like watching gratuitous stick-biting and breast-cutting), but guess what -- That's only part of the story!

If you're looking for a plot in this last episode of John Adams, stop. Because you're not going to find it.

We're then treated to more aged musings between John and Abigail as they grow older. Then Abigail dies and John is sad. He's really, really sad. So sad that he ends up holding her body and wailing for a few minutes as his family watches. I fast forwarded through this part too. It was too rough to watch.

Then John Adams is even older, and you can tell, because his makeup keeps getting thicker and thicker, so you think, wow, as John Adams ages the make up he gets keeps getting more and more obvious.

His son, JQA, as I like to call him, but John Quincy Adams to everyone else, is elected President. A touching scene where John the Elder tells his son, the President, that he is the proudest father in the country. Then Elder John is old some more.

We're treated to a few minutes of voice-over letter-writing between Adams and Jefferson, which is perhaps the greatest thing Adams accomplished -- accumulating all these letters discussing the successes and failures of the early republic. It's glossed over. There's no conflict. It's lame.

Then we're treated to a montage of Jefferson and Adams dying. Jefferson is waited on by the tearful Sally Hemings, and Adams is looked over by his family. Jefferson dies early in the day (the 50th Anniversary on the Fourth of July), and then Adams looks to his son, says "Jefferson survives," and dies that evening. Oh, get it? Jefferson had died earlier that day! Oh, the tragedy! The irony! The poeticism!

Wahhhh. 

But rejoice, children, for John Adams is over. Neither great nor terrible, it was an interesting misadventure through American history. The attention to detail was to be admired. But it was a pity they picked a story as unfocused as the life of a man who missed the war, served as president before official parties, and died when he was ninety years old.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that, someday, somehow, we get Burr & Hamilton. 

Then, my friends, there will be fireworks.

-RoboNixon

Needs More Cowbell*

*cowbell = action and drama

John Adams on HBO is an unfortunate product: high budget, great cast, in-depth, but plodding and dull. It is an unfortunate world where one of the most intriguing Presidents -- an incredibly flawed egomaniac with a penchant for fit-throwing and wig-stomping, as well as incredible self-sacrifice in service to his country, and an extended letter-writing correspondence with Jefferson that provides amazing insight into the minds of the Founding Fathers -- is reduced to a mumbling, emo-parody of the real man.

I think Adams is also one of the less cinematic of the Founding Fathers. My preference is Alexander Hamilton, whose rise and fall was much more dramatic. But even Adams, though less cinematic, has a great story. An incredible character as flawed as great. But HBO doesn't do any of that. No. Not at all.

Rather it's a stoic and grim version of history, showing us every little detail and remaining as utterly "true to history" as possible. But playing history out as it happened is often not dramatic enough -- even the Cuban Missile Crisis happened over thirteen days, and while a great movie has been made about it, it condenses 312 hours into 2 and a half. And it has action sequences. 

But the founding of the country is a great setting for Drama. The Founding Fathers are perhaps the most interesting of American politicians because they were regular men [of the times: rich, white, protestant] who happened to do great things, warts and all. And seeing a 7 part mini-series on these men fighting amongst each other with no less than the fate of their country at stake should be riveting.

But Adams fumbles. Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney are miscast as John and Abigail. 

Not that I'm whining simply because they aren't the greatest facsimiles of the real people.

Laura Linney plays Abigail as wounded, hurt by Adams long absences, and seemingly incapable of existing without him. She snaps at her children when he's gone, and eagerly anticipates his letters. While this isn't necessarily far from the truth, the element that distinguishes the Adams so much from the regular people of the day was their incredible pride. Abigail was hyper intelligent, and even in John's absence she would have been headstrong and active -- in fact, Abigail Adams reminds me a lot of this woman.

And, then there's Paul Giamatti. Poor Paul Giamatti. I don't know whether by his choice or the director's, but the most interesting aspect of his personality -- his ginormous ego and incredible inferiority complex -- are only hinted at. We have yet to see Adams go on a long, shouted rant. We don't see him yell and scream at his opponents, and have only glimpsed snippets of his cruel wit at cutting down those who disagree with him. When he bitches to Abigail about how his accomplishments are snubbed and diminished, he's whining. John Adams, the real person, would shout and stomp. And Abigail would shout. There's none of the interesting dynamic that makes John Adams so compelling. In real life he was incredibly flawed. In the mini-series, he's super sympathetic. 

And then there's the plotting. I know it may seem like John Adams haggling for loans in Europe might not be the most lively event to cover, but the drama in it, the stakes in it, are so high that the miniseries often forgets them -- if John Adams couldn't secure a loan for his country, the very existence would be threatened. If John Adams couldn't secure the loans, there very well may not have been a United States of America. 

As a positive, I think the portrayal of the non-Adams characters, specifically Jefferson and Franklin, are spot on and fun to watch. Jefferson is the emo-radical with the holier-than-thou attitude to cover his amazing lack of ethics. Franklin is a horny old coot who knows he's smarter than anyone in the room. And the brief glimpses of Hamilton (A-Ham, as I refer to him in my constant ramblings) -- a great political wheeler-dealer at a time when politics as we know them were just revving up -- are entertaining.

To end this, my biggest gripe is that the really interesting aspects of history are glossed over. The show avoids showing us how truly new this whole notion was, how the stakes were so high, and the characters so interesting.

There are two episodes left. Let's hope they're better than the previous five.