Tuesday, April 22, 2008

John Adams Series Is A Must See

Fire of Liberty

For the past six weekends I've been tuning into HBO at 9:00 to watch the wonderful series John Adams. Throughout this wonderful film adaptation of David McCullough wonderful biography of our second president, one becomes immediately transported to colonial America in 1770 and begin a wonderful journey that follows a 34 year old lawyer/farmer of Braintree, MA from a case defending the British soldiers of the renowned "Boston Massacre," to the hallowed halls of the Continental Congress, to the diplomatic gamesmanship in France, Holland, and London, to the highest reaches of power in the office of Vice-President and President, to his subsequent retirement and death at 91 some fifty years since the the journey began in 1770. All in all, the production surpasses my earlier prediction in my February 27, 2008 post John Adams-HBO-March 16-April 20. I loved the series so much that I started reading David McCullough's book John Adams around the fifth episode. Now while the series has progressed quicker than my reading(I'm on chapter 5, page 287), I have to say that the series follows the book almost to the t( give or take some minute changes for dramatic effect). One thing I can say is that the series teamed with the book draws you in so much with the constant letters and interplay between Abigail and John so that I actually felt I knew this couple that I took it a little hard when President Adams lost his wife of 54 years of marriage. In fact I like the series so much that I'll be placing several orders of the series and urge others to do the same(or at least urge them to rent it or tune into HBO for several encores) for the mere entertainment and to learn a little history. I'd also suggest that you also pick up a copy of David McCullough's wonderful book John Adams if you're a reader.

*Based on early interviews with Mr. McCullough, it looks like HBO is working to bring his book 1776 to the TV screen in the future. I can assure this will be just as great as "John Adams."

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