Jen here...
It's a charming, exciting and mostly historically accurate portrayl of Adams' role in the formation of what I still sometimes call this great country. Amazingly non-schmaltzy. Laura Linney rules. Based on the depiction of Adams found in David McCullough's book, which I listened to during a long road trip to Berkeley in 2005 and found to be quite engaging.
Normally, I don't encourage people to watch HBO. Its programming is the television equivalent to heroin. But I'll make an exception in this case because the series is worth your time. Indulge responsibly. Those folks make too many fun things to ignore your problems with.
6 comments:
Thanks. Basic cable (Time-Warner) is incl. in my rent, but HBO is extra, which I don't pay for or steal b/c I could be evicted (the connection box for these 4 units is unlocked, but looks locked, and the block barrel is easily removed). With the $ I 'saved' this month I bought No Country for Old Men (book & DVD) and 2 pre-viewed movies (Black Book and Elizabeth: The Golden Age b/c they were 2fer$20 or $15 each, though I only wanted Black Book).
Do you think John Adams or Ben Franklin was the most intelligent Founding Father?
Ah, AitchD. I was going to attach an addendum to my post about how I sympathize with those for whom HBO and other luxuries are totally unaffordable because I knew someone would inevitably hit me with some variant of "I can't pay for food let alone good cable, you elitist git!" Then I decided to save it for another entry about the difficulties in remaining truly informed as a liberal nowadays, because of the Depression and other factors (if I can find a way to do it that doesn't retread the ground Joe has already covered there).
J., I think the most intelligent Founder overall was Thomas Jefferson. But if it's a choice between Adams and Franklin—there are different kinds of intelligence. Adams outshone Franklin in terms of political and strategic thinking, but Franklin beat the pants off Adams in emotional intelligence and the diplomatic arts.
My beloved George Washington was no slouch in the intelligence department, either. In my opinion, John Adams succeeds in portraying that part of Washington accurately.
Thomas Jefferson? No way! He was overrated as an intellect, which is why I left him out of the equation.
Washington was a true leader, a natural king, and the office of the presidency was based on him, but he was not the most intelligent.
My question addressed sheer intellectual brainpower, not emotional intelligence.
My own candidate would be Franklin.
"Benjamin Franklin was, without a doubt, the greatest scientist of his age. Although he receives almost no credit for it today, Franklin's theory of electricity lies at the heart of modern electrostatics."
Link:http://www.americanscientist.org/template/BookReviewTypeDetail/assetid/29778;jsessionid=baa6j368Xu2ELf
Jen, I can afford HBO. A few years ago Time-Warner here ran a weekend promo and unblocked the HBO feed, but forgot to block it again, so it was free for some 3 years, but I still didn't watch it except for the rare (but damn-panned-and scanned) worthwhile movie, plus Angels in America.
You wouldn't remember, but when HBO started, a lot of kids were made to feel deprived and poor b/c their home didn't have HBO, and often enough, any 'cable' TV. For a while, many comedy club comics made fun of 'basic cable' folks (who also shopped at K-Mart, they would point out). I knew a lot of very bitter kids.
A niche market of poor people made the FOX 'network' possible - FOX began its programming on UHF channels or non-network channels in large markets. FOX's demographics were the economic LCD's; its programming embraced vulgarity; its faithful audience today are latch-key grown-ups.
Tom Paine was a pretty smart fellow (who coined the name 'United States of America'), but - according to IMDB's list of credits for "John Adams" - he's considered an undocumented founder.
Speaking of patriots and being informed ... the lym, whom I will confess now I greatly admire from my now advancing age, have published in PDF form, a great series on our early patriots. The titles and links to download each pdf (great illustrations by the way) are at this page:
http://www.larouchepac.com/
packages/2007/10/18/
image-american-patriot.html
(re-assemble the link with no spaces)
Gary McGowan
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