The Political Inquirer

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Parts 3 and 4)

I had time to catch up on HBO’s John Adams miniseries with episodes 3 and 4 the past few days and I wanted to share my thoughts on them. These episodes are again very well done but seem a little lacking after the profound speeches and gathering of intelligent minds we saw in the Continental Congress that formed the Declaration of Independence in episode 2. I think the producers were struggling to create a movie at this point because much of what happens in Adams’ trips to France, Holland, and England is detailed in his letters only. The emotional frame of mind John Adams had during this period is hard to take to the camera, and that counts for some of the disappointment in these two episodes.

There are some some small factual errors made in the movie, but they are mainly small and insignificant, plus it would be hard to explain them in the amount of time alloted for the television broadcast.

While the third episode follows Adams and his trials in France with Dr. Franklin and his tribulation in Holland, the fourth episode is far better. It expands upon the relationship John and Abigail have as well as reunites the entire family by the end. My favorite part of this episode, though, is everything involving Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson is an enigma who we just don’t know enough about, but we as Americans love him anyway. He is intellectually deep yet very quiet and reserved–the movie portrays this in a manner I would have expected Thomas Jefferson to really be like. Jefferson is a close friend of both John and Abigail, a friendship that lasts until Alexander Hamilton’s party faction love causes a rift between the families during Adams’ presidency.

The third and fourth episodes were interesting and good, but not as monumental as the second episode by any means. My advice is to watch them, but I would read the biography by David McCullough first to really get a grasp of what was going on at that time, otherwise the story might feel a little confusing.