You have no idea how much I want to like this John Adams show. I was in a production of in 1776 high school. I read this great book Miracle in Philadelphia in high school about the writing of the constitution (which admittedly did not involve John Adams), it was one of those books where you supposed to read it over the summer, but who does that? I did, because I love American history. I even bought this fucking book that's the basis for this show for my father for Christmas one year, although I'll admit I didn't read it.
So it is with a heavy heart, brothers, that I tell you this show sucks dick. Like, why is every shot a fucking canted angle? Is this Battlefield Earth? Lighting sucks as well. "Visually hateful" would be the words I'd use. And why is it that the big, dramatic scenes have overly modern-sounding dialogue that is not very carefully written, while the small, intimate scenes have overly clunky revolutionary times talk? That's backwards! Write the small scenes so they'll have believable emotional impact and fill those big scenes with as much purple prose as you possibly can. I suspect that they lifted a lot of the dialogue between John and Abigail from the letters they wrote each other, but that shit sounds a little silly whispered into someone's ear. "John - I do entreat you to comport yourself with the utmost care!" is not sexy bedroom talk. This one is up there with The Alien and Sedition acts for well-meaning but horrendous mistakes involving John Adams.
