John Adams Running Thread

I understand why you would ask.

Let me just say that I took an English class in college on Science Fiction and LOTR made up the second half of the class assigned reading. So I'm going to say that it is science fiction. However, that sort of definition would also make Beowulf sci-fi as well and that just doesn't seem right.

 

Final episode tonight, suffused with the ennui of which Adams himself complains. There was really no way around this; once Adams left the White House, basically his public career was over.

Most of the episode is devoted to Adams' dithering about his place in history. The deaths of Nabby and Abigail also burn up a lot of screen time; other than that, a lot of Adams walking around the Peacefield farm and grumbling.

The split from Jefferson comes and goes; the last 20 minutes of the show basically a dialogue in their letters. A little foreshadowing of how John Quincy was going to go wrong as President; mainly, by repeating his father's mistake of retaining a disloyal cabinet.

Overall, I'd give the series about a B. It could have been way better, but it could have been way worse.

 

This post is to good to go without a huzzah.
Huzzah,
I liked how Sally H was at Jefferson's bedside at the end.

 

I agree with Starman's analysis, but I would have given the series a B+/A-.

Yes, it could have been better, but great miniseries about U.S. history are so rare that I couldn't give it lower than a B+/A-. I enjoyed the series a whole lot and made sure I got home in time to watch it each week. Definitely worth the HBO subscription.

As a side note, I'm excited about watching "Recount" too. Looks fantastic.

 

Spacey. Denis Leary. How can it miss?
It will, however, occasion serious flame wars on this board.
Call me Kreskin.

 

When is that coming on? I was thinking about having HBO turned off.

 

May 25th. Looks really, really great.

 

LOTR would be considered "fantasy" which is considered a subset of sci-fi or at least read/watched by the same species of nerd.

 

According to one class I took, it was mythology.

It's a bit of a tweener.

 

Am just watching the last episode for the first time. Abigail's teeth are green...

 

Wow, for once in my life I was right.