Pity the poor screenwriter, saddled with the necessary nonsense of extensive historical “situating.” Lines like “We have just had 400 pounds of tea dumped in Boston Harbor, by vandals dressed as Indians!” The sort of stuff which would be a drag on even the sleekest, most energetic of historical dramas.
And John Adams moves more like a dirigible. Often pretty, but ponderous, gassy, its movements slow and wholly predictable. I keep hoping it’ll bust into flames, and go down in a blaze of destructive insanity. Maybe Paul Giamatti will go a little Harvey Pekar or (even better) Pig Vomit, kick the hammy Danny Huston (Sam Adams! That crazy!) in the codpiece. But I fear it will not come to pass.
This miniseries is lavishly produced, and shot quite beautifully by Tak Fujimoto. And I’m only one episode (of six total) in, so this isn’t fair, but…. Harrumph harrumph.
it didn’t take giamatti long to go into “paul giamatti as paul giamatti” mode, did it?
I watched the whole series on HBO and found it really pretty bad. The politics is caricatured and trivialized, the acting is labored (poor old Laura Linney gets to look pained and martyred for eight hours straight), and the soundtrack is horribly intrusive (so little are events or actors trusted to bring out the drama that we get swells of music as cues that we should care). The little touches of modern sensibility — oh right, slaves built the White House, Abigail was a feminist — are heavy-handed. What a waste.
I didn’t think it was all that bad but I too was disappointed. I thought the tar-and-feather sequence in the first episode had some real power. I hoped aloud that the series could sustain and even heighten that power. But no. Still, it held my attention. So I guess I liked it better than everyone else.
When I say Lakers you say no. Lakers. No.
I’m with John (and the Celtics). I liked the series well enough. Adams is rendered as little more than what we theatre folks call a “stage yankee” (the first truly colonial American character not modeled after British and/or French types). I do agree it could have benefited from some judicious editing, but I give it three stars and a solid B.