[koop21]

I have heard good things about the HBO show “John Adams”. I am interested in watching it, but was wondering if anyone had already seen it and could attest to its accuracy, at least in its portrayal of the major characters. I understand that there is going to be some bit of “creative licensing”, but I wasn’t sure how true to history it really is. I would think that making John Adams the centerpiece of a miniseries would tend to portray him as a hero and protagonist.

Any thoughts on the series?

[Brion McClanahan]

I found the series to be entertaining. There are some times that I found the series to be a bit off (the portrayal of John Dickinson, the Alien and Sedition episode, Sally Hemings at Jefferson’s bedside when he died), but they did a good job with other events (battle of Lexington and Concord, mood at the voting on the Declaration). I would watch it again.

[joshua]

I really enjoyed it. As Dr. McClanahan said, there are a few things that aren’t quite so, but i thought that the emotion that surely was felt during this time, realizing that these people were rejecting their king, was portrayed very well at times.
I will probably buy the series.

[gutzmank]

I too quite enjoyed it. Yes, there was some taking liberties with facts, but that was done in quest of conveying the truth, it seems to me. (Thomas Jefferson actually respected that distinction, as is developed in Spahn’s brilliant new book on Jefferson and history.) My favorite parts were Adams’s audience with George III and Adams’s defense of the soldiers tried for their roles in the Boston Massacre.

[msickmeier]

I’m glad you asked this Koop. I actually posted it on one of the last Live events. I really enjoyed it as well. I like how the detail got down to Adam’s dental problems and each episode had them getting worse. There was a medical term for this, but at the moment, it escapes me. Paul Giamatti is just a wonderful actor through and through. Can’t go wrong with him at lead.

[gutzmank]

The chief problem is that the movie has Adams doing everything, Jefferson as a bit of a twit, Washington as a marble man, etc. Unavoidable in a movie, I guess, that the central character will be puffed up.

[Author]

Posts