skywaterblue: (shakespeare)
skywaterblue ([personal profile] skywaterblue) wrote2008-10-04 12:44 am

John Adams: all the rest

It was great. I especially liked Episode Five, in which Jefferson becomes the Jefferson everyone remembers from school: bitchslappin' a fool for lack of foresight, and lovin' on the French.

Not to mention! Alexander Hamilton is a white dude! Granted, sneaky bastard is where Rufus Sewell butters his bread, and Hamilton was a big douche, but aw. And we don't even see him eat a bullet.

You know what else was beautiful? The recreation of Abigail Adams's Greek democracy inspired clothing and hairstyles.

Also, Episode Six COMPLETELY SKIPS the Midnight Judges and Marbury v. Madison, as if that Alien and Sedition Act was just one inconsequential bad piece of judgment on Adams' part. Whatever, hagiography. It's really too bad because Paul Giamatti is best in the scenes in which Adams is a snarky miserable bitch.

Well, those and the scenes where he's utterly in love with everything Abigail says. It's an uncommon portrait of a man -- anywhere, to see a guy so in love with his wife. Aw. Loved it. They were both such snarky people, especially loved the bit where they cracked wise about Washington's teeth.

Episode Seven was a little scant on actual material, given that Episode Six is like an hour and twenty minutes long (but you gotta give the Adams/Jefferson bitchfest to the end. I mean. The ending is TOO GOOD TO BE REAL.) I like that they managed to fit Sally in at the very end. In fact, I came so around on the Jefferson in this film that I wish there was a whole 'nother miniseries devoted to his crazy misadventures.

Watching the making of now, then bed.

[identity profile] kiss-me-cassie.livejournal.com 2008-10-04 02:06 pm (UTC)(link)
You are a serious crack dealer, as I am now moving this to the top of netflix.

[identity profile] skywaterblue.livejournal.com 2008-10-04 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Just make sure you brush up on the Revolution really quick before you do, because the movie has a habit of skimming over important dates and people, and then only later mentioning it like you were supposed to know what happened.

[identity profile] dianora2.livejournal.com 2008-10-04 02:17 pm (UTC)(link)
I really do need to watch this at some point. Or read the frickin' book, which I think I have buried in my office.

[identity profile] skywaterblue.livejournal.com 2008-10-04 03:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Watch the movie. It's only seven HBO-length episodes. I polished it off in three days and that was being extra lazy and also watching the debates and several hours of Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann.

[identity profile] fashionbeast.livejournal.com 2008-10-04 09:49 pm (UTC)(link)
In fact, I came so around on the Jefferson in this film that I wish there was a whole 'nother miniseries devoted to his crazy misadventures.

What, like a spinoff where Jefferson leads a band of founding fathers who work out of a secret facility in Cambridge, Mass. to protect people from Royalist conspirators from an alternate timeline where the revolution failed?

...Wait, that could work.

[identity profile] skywaterblue.livejournal.com 2008-10-05 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
... yeah, it's a whole crossover with 'The Two Georges', but in this one Jefferson and Franklin were kept alive in a secret facility in Cambridge because in the final act of the war they invented the aetheric bomb and the British must have the secret.

The narrator, by the way, is Sally Hemmings, double-agent.

[identity profile] rosmar.livejournal.com 2008-10-05 06:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Wait, Rufus Sewell is in it?

*moves it up in the queue*

[identity profile] rosmar.livejournal.com 2008-10-06 03:39 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, my. My duelling-Federalist crush meets my Sewell crush. I can't take it!