Customer Rating:  
Summary: Don't Blame the Material!
Comment: Let's call a spade a spade--this was just not very good movie making. I forced myself to watch every episode but the finale (my dedication has limits). Each time I wanted the show to do well, but each time it left me oddly unengaged, as if I were getting the story second-hand from a disinterested correspondent. Is it the curse of the American revolution, whose story can't seem to be made into an entertaining movie?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Roll Over Jefferson And Tell Franklin The News
Comment: There is much to argue with in HBO's interpretation of David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize winning masterwork - timelines, cinematography and perhaps some casting choices. However, these "technical" issues are really beside the point and do little to undermine the overall power and scope of the entire series. Whatever we think we know of these events through the idealized rote of history, McCullough's baseline brilliantly illuminates the struggle of imperfect men attempting to create "perfect" government. Throughout the series I was constantly reminded of the old admonition about the grotesque similarities between the making of sausage and legislation.
The core cast (Paul Giammati, Laura Linney, Tom Dellane) is spectacular. Linney in particular powerfully makes the case that without the emotional intelligence of Abigail Adams as counterbalance to her husband's overflowing intensities our history might have been very different. John Adams is time well spent and highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Simply Fantastic
Comment: I am so impressed with this series. If anyone like American history in the slightest, they will enjoy this series.
The acting is outstanding. The protrayal of characters, including the costuming, make-up and dialects, is extremely good. I particularly enjoyed (in addition to John and Abigail Adams) George Washington and John Quincy Adams.
Parts 2 and 4 are exceptional -- The series gets a little slow in 5 and 6 but are paramount in supporting the remarkable concluding part 7.
Is this a perfect series? No, but it is the best portrayal of John Adams that I have ever seen.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Poignant and educational
Comment: Everyone should be made to watch this in school. John Adams introduces us to the fundamental conflict underneath the Amercian reality; are we revolutionaries, or monarchists? The course that America took during George Washington's presidency is the reason why we are where we are today. John Adams is the man portrayed as the Founder caught in between Jefferson and Hamilton, the two poles of thinking as to who America should side with and invest in. Ultimately we sided with the monarchists, and it should surprise no one that we have ended up with a unitary executive like George Bush, a monarch in all but title.
Had Jefferson not left America and taken over from Washington, we could have supported the French, because they were our true ideological allies. Plus, we owed them. But America has a knack for siding with the morally wrong side of politics, and this trait has persisted thru the centuries. Looking at our present thru the lens of the past is crucial, and this mini series spells it out. A masterpiece and a triumph. Recently I heard a political scientist say that they will never be able to think of John Adams without thinking of Paul Giamatti. It's that good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: History can be Interesting!
Comment: I loved this HBO Miniseries. I am already a great history buff and
a lover of the US Constitution and our founding fathers wisdom.
So many people don't care about history which I find disturbing because
there is so much too learn from it. These men and women were all
too human and desired then what most of us take for granted now.
I am buying the DVD set to share with family and friends who dont have HBO.
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