[7.2/10] I don’t feel like John Adams has a consistent take, or at least not a cohesive one, on its title character. In this episode, he is an ardent pacifist, eschewing the prospect of nationwide affection and his chances for reelection to keep the country out of war at any cost. In the prior episode, he was sanguine about the prospect of interjecting the United States into the war between Britain and France, but definitely seemed to aspire to the halls of power and was not above intimating that he wanted nothing more than to sit in the President’s chair,despite protests to the contrary, and enjoy the power and adulation that comes with it. In prior episodes, he lobbied his fellow men for the raising of an army to fight in the Revolutionary War, with no sign of his later pacifism.
Can all of those things coexist? Absolutely. They did in real life, obviously. We all contain multitudes, and the mini-series takes place over the course of years and decades, leaving plenty of time for John to grow and change. The problem is that we never really get enough connective tissue or signs of evolution to make these feel like different sides of the same person. It’s just “John the admirer of the Law” and “John the Revolutionary spokesman” and “John the hapless diplomat” and “John the power-hungry politician” and finally “John the peace-maker, no matter the personal cost.” All of these are interesting ideas to explore, but the show rarely makes them feel like part of the same story, let alone the same man.
This is also an episode where Paul Giamatti does a lot of Capital-A Acting. Far be it from me to look askance at such a decorated actor, but there’s a lot of big, almost exaggerated, performances from him in this one, mannered speeches and indicating in his gestures. It’s a more emotions-on-the-surface era for the character, so some of that is understandable. Much of the costuming and make-up suggests a man who is growing older, less stable, and maybe even less sane, so some of it’s understandable. But some of it plays as overly theatrical, especially with Hooper’s preference for close-ups making even small expressions and utterance seem all the larger, and veers into cheese and unbelievability in places.
That’s contrast with Laura Linney, who continues to knock it out of the park with a more restrained take. This gives her all the more emoting to do, in caring for and eventually losing her dying son, Charles, but you buy her pain and distress and mourning of the loss every step of the way, with a much more human performance. The same goes for the understated performance Stephen Dillane gives as Thomas Jefferson, feeling his friendship and connection with John deteriorate as their political fortunes diverge. Even as Giamatti turns up the volume, his colleagues still seem to be modulating in the right way.
This is also another Daddy Issues episode, with Charles’s estrangement from his father providing the other biggest storyline beyond the prospect of war with France and the Election of 1800. I might have cared more if the kids had seemed like anything other than props up til now, but that’s kind of the point. John neglected his kids, and fails to support his son-in-law because of his damned principles of independence and self-reliance, and so disowns Charles and refuses to take any responsibility for how he turned out. It’s kind of sad, but it’s not like we’ve spent that much time on Charles’s fortunes or his relationship with his dad, so it feels mostly like a one-episode wonder.
Maybe that’s the thread you can use to tie this whole thing together. At heart, Adams is just fiercely independent, even within his own family. I don’t know if that accounts for much of the variations in the miniseries’s presentation of him, but it at least accounts for some of his bet lines here. (“A mob is no less a mob because they’re with you.”) There’s the sense that Adams doesn’t trust or respect anyone who he doesn’t view as on his intellectual/personal level, whether it’s a theater full of cheering supporters or his own son.
My favorite part of the episode, though, is the visual acumen on display once the Adamses move into the still-being-built White House. Abigail’s line puts too fine a point on it, but there’s something stark about watching the President and First Lady wander into this half built, inchoate tribute to presidential opulence, while “half-fed slaves” labor all around them. The show’s mostly left discussions of slavery and its injustices to the background, by the scenes Hooper and company show manage to convey the sense without the characters vocalizing it.
The visuals also help the episode show Adams as slowly seeming more and more alone as his term wears on. He fires his cabinet. Abigail leave after Charles dies. Even old friends like Thomas only poke their heads in for a brief moment. Increasingly, we just get scenes of a more and more-deranged and addled seeming John wandering around an empty, even cavernous White House, with some interesting lighting and color-grading choices in particular helping to communicate the loneliness of the place.
As an aside, in a post-Hamilton word, it’s interesting to see Hooper, Ellis, and Sewell’s take on the man here. For one thing, the episode doesn’t skimp on his, shall we say, colorful insults toward John Adams. But for another, it paints him as an imperial warmonger, which is a far cry from the musical. I’m not informed enough to know which is more accurate (though I suspect this series is more on point there), but it’s just funny seeing the differences in depiction when Hamilton’s the antagonist rather than the protagonist. Also, as my wife noted, there’s certain parallels in the “friends become enemies” department with Hamilton and Burr in the musical versus Adams and Jefferson here.
On the whole, this episode didn’t do too much for me. There’s a good story to be told about John Adams holding firm on not going to war with France, despite pressure from a political rival, public demand for it, and the opportunity to improve his reelection chances. It just plays as out of step with much of what we’ve seen to this point. That said, the visuals in the White House alone almost make this one worth it.
In the end, John Adams pretends he can leave this behind and be a private citizen again, dismissed and left behind by family and country. That’s an interesting note to end on, but a less-than-convincing path to get there.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-07-08T17:33:31Z
[7.2/10] I don’t feel like John Adams has a consistent take, or at least not a cohesive one, on its title character. In this episode, he is an ardent pacifist, eschewing the prospect of nationwide affection and his chances for reelection to keep the country out of war at any cost. In the prior episode, he was sanguine about the prospect of interjecting the United States into the war between Britain and France, but definitely seemed to aspire to the halls of power and was not above intimating that he wanted nothing more than to sit in the President’s chair,despite protests to the contrary, and enjoy the power and adulation that comes with it. In prior episodes, he lobbied his fellow men for the raising of an army to fight in the Revolutionary War, with no sign of his later pacifism.
Can all of those things coexist? Absolutely. They did in real life, obviously. We all contain multitudes, and the mini-series takes place over the course of years and decades, leaving plenty of time for John to grow and change. The problem is that we never really get enough connective tissue or signs of evolution to make these feel like different sides of the same person. It’s just “John the admirer of the Law” and “John the Revolutionary spokesman” and “John the hapless diplomat” and “John the power-hungry politician” and finally “John the peace-maker, no matter the personal cost.” All of these are interesting ideas to explore, but the show rarely makes them feel like part of the same story, let alone the same man.
This is also an episode where Paul Giamatti does a lot of Capital-A Acting. Far be it from me to look askance at such a decorated actor, but there’s a lot of big, almost exaggerated, performances from him in this one, mannered speeches and indicating in his gestures. It’s a more emotions-on-the-surface era for the character, so some of that is understandable. Much of the costuming and make-up suggests a man who is growing older, less stable, and maybe even less sane, so some of it’s understandable. But some of it plays as overly theatrical, especially with Hooper’s preference for close-ups making even small expressions and utterance seem all the larger, and veers into cheese and unbelievability in places.
That’s contrast with Laura Linney, who continues to knock it out of the park with a more restrained take. This gives her all the more emoting to do, in caring for and eventually losing her dying son, Charles, but you buy her pain and distress and mourning of the loss every step of the way, with a much more human performance. The same goes for the understated performance Stephen Dillane gives as Thomas Jefferson, feeling his friendship and connection with John deteriorate as their political fortunes diverge. Even as Giamatti turns up the volume, his colleagues still seem to be modulating in the right way.
This is also another Daddy Issues episode, with Charles’s estrangement from his father providing the other biggest storyline beyond the prospect of war with France and the Election of 1800. I might have cared more if the kids had seemed like anything other than props up til now, but that’s kind of the point. John neglected his kids, and fails to support his son-in-law because of his damned principles of independence and self-reliance, and so disowns Charles and refuses to take any responsibility for how he turned out. It’s kind of sad, but it’s not like we’ve spent that much time on Charles’s fortunes or his relationship with his dad, so it feels mostly like a one-episode wonder.
Maybe that’s the thread you can use to tie this whole thing together. At heart, Adams is just fiercely independent, even within his own family. I don’t know if that accounts for much of the variations in the miniseries’s presentation of him, but it at least accounts for some of his bet lines here. (“A mob is no less a mob because they’re with you.”) There’s the sense that Adams doesn’t trust or respect anyone who he doesn’t view as on his intellectual/personal level, whether it’s a theater full of cheering supporters or his own son.
My favorite part of the episode, though, is the visual acumen on display once the Adamses move into the still-being-built White House. Abigail’s line puts too fine a point on it, but there’s something stark about watching the President and First Lady wander into this half built, inchoate tribute to presidential opulence, while “half-fed slaves” labor all around them. The show’s mostly left discussions of slavery and its injustices to the background, by the scenes Hooper and company show manage to convey the sense without the characters vocalizing it.
The visuals also help the episode show Adams as slowly seeming more and more alone as his term wears on. He fires his cabinet. Abigail leave after Charles dies. Even old friends like Thomas only poke their heads in for a brief moment. Increasingly, we just get scenes of a more and more-deranged and addled seeming John wandering around an empty, even cavernous White House, with some interesting lighting and color-grading choices in particular helping to communicate the loneliness of the place.
As an aside, in a post-Hamilton word, it’s interesting to see Hooper, Ellis, and Sewell’s take on the man here. For one thing, the episode doesn’t skimp on his, shall we say, colorful insults toward John Adams. But for another, it paints him as an imperial warmonger, which is a far cry from the musical. I’m not informed enough to know which is more accurate (though I suspect this series is more on point there), but it’s just funny seeing the differences in depiction when Hamilton’s the antagonist rather than the protagonist. Also, as my wife noted, there’s certain parallels in the “friends become enemies” department with Hamilton and Burr in the musical versus Adams and Jefferson here.
On the whole, this episode didn’t do too much for me. There’s a good story to be told about John Adams holding firm on not going to war with France, despite pressure from a political rival, public demand for it, and the opportunity to improve his reelection chances. It just plays as out of step with much of what we’ve seen to this point. That said, the visuals in the White House alone almost make this one worth it.
In the end, John Adams pretends he can leave this behind and be a private citizen again, dismissed and left behind by family and country. That’s an interesting note to end on, but a less-than-convincing path to get there.