16 March will be the debut on US TV of the HBO mini-series "John Adams" based on David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize winning book by the same name.

As Tom Hanks (the executive producer) says, "If I had been told this ((fact)) at any time in my educational career, it would have blown my little skull." I'm pretty sure I know what fact would have "blown his little skull", but to US folk (and history buffs in general) brought up on Jefferson, Washington and Franklin, this one fact will be truly stunning to them I'm sure and so I'll leave it undisclosed until the series reveals it (to those who don't know).

The great hero of the American Revolution (in many ways) was John Adams, not those other fellows. Because he was an irascible, difficult, very vocal person (think House with more of a social conscience), he had very few friends, but the friends he did have respected him deeply. His role in the Revolution has been heavily scaled back in history books and we don't see him as the seminal figure he truly was. He was Enemy #1 to King George. Had the red coats (by the way, we were all British back then ... in fact, some of us still are ... so it's incorrect to say the "British were coming") arrived in Philadelphia, John Adams would have been executed immediately. Everything he owned and loved would have been burned to the ground.

One thing I love about the mini-series (I saw it sneaked) is that it very accurately depicts the mood of the time. Even 1776 (which I love dearly) gives the illusion that the Revolution was some big party. It was a deeply frightening, heartbreaking time that was emotionally analogous to "a child watching his abusive parents sail away forever into mist" as British historian Micah Todd has said. No one wanted this -- John Adams went outside after the Declaration was signed and "wept as I had never before". To Adams, in the minds of some historians anyway, his wasn't a refusal of that era's Great Britain (which was his mother country) so much as it was a preservation of what he saw as the essence of the spirit of Magna Carta.

It also doesn't airbrush John into deification. The Aliens and Seditions Act (one of the single dumbest, most fascist things any President has ever attempted -- easily on a par with Bush's idiocy) was John Adams' love child. But during this time, John was suffering from some heavy duty paranoia, caused in part by being callously betrayed by one of his closest allies, Thomas Jefferson. Adams was a flawed human being, but then these people were all flawed human beings.

My German friend Wolfie likes to make fun of Americans' religious veneration of our Founding Fathers. But as this country is nothing but a nation of ideas, the Founders were the idea people. They are all we have -- they are our heritage. To deny that is to not understand what being American is like.

Had we listened more to Adams, we'd have had slavery emancipation with the Declaration of Independence. He also believed absolutely in the intellectual equality of women (Abigal Adams was not only his wife but also his best friend and chief advisor). He was an avowed agnostic who would speak back unflinchingly on the "idiocy of Christianity". He would walk up to Congressmen who were wearing silk clothes made by slaves and point out their moral turpitude ("How many better men this hour toil so that you might clad yourself in pretended earnestness?"). He was a kickass human being in many ways and as George Washington said, regarding the primary reason he continued fighting on despite mind-numbing odds:
"I am here as I have John Adams' faith, as he has mine."

I loved the visual artistry of the films. The accuracy is stunning -- I have been to Adams' farm and most of the places depicted, and I can tell you it would be easy to believe (had it not been for the National Parks Service driving them away with machetes) that they'd actually filmed it on location and heroically masked out the surrounding city as it now exists.

I had a couple of problems with Paul Giamatti's portrayal of John (but then every historian would see him differently) and a few more with Laura Linney's Abigal, but for the most part, it's an amazing piece. It could have used a stronger edit I think. I loved David Morse (yup, Tritter) as Washington, too, by the way. The focus was less on Washington, though, so it was easier for Giamatti to get lost in the role. I don't feel Giamatti *in* the character sometimes and that tends to give it a sharp turn when authenticity is so necessary.

Here are a couple of trailers about the HBO film for my fellow Adams buffs. The trailers make it look like more of a flag-waving thing than it is, but such is TV life.





If you'd like more info on the second US President, you might check out my Adams website: http://johnadamsweb.com


I should also do my occasional promotion of the great work of United First Parish Church in Quincy, Mass. Their work (in the footsteps of this great man ... actually, over the very body of this great man since John and Abigail are buried in the church's crypt cellar) for gender equality, the right of all people (including gay people, of course) to marry and enjoy the rights afforded all others, the establishment of the bedrock of science and reason in our schools, and so much more is carried on there. To find out about them: http://www.ufpc.org/

The House/Wilson novel is wrapping up ... *sniff*. I don't want to see it end. I'm having a great time with it. It has had bumps in the roads, as all novels do, but it has been mainly fun. I know I owe everyone email -- it's on its way shortly.