They aired parts 1 and 2 tonight. I thought they were both fantastic---much better than I even hoped.
Cam, I understand your fears but this series is based on the
book by
David McCullough (historian, writer, and narrator of Ken Burns' baseball and Seabuscuit, among others
) which won a
Pulitzer.
Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, Grammys-----all are popularity contests. But the Pulitzer, like the Nobel prizes, is based on peer-review of the highest order.
Columbia U. isn't the type to put their reputation on BS.
I read the book on Friday (never heard of it until this series was advertised) and it was quite frank about the humanness of the subjects. Gene, there is nothing glossy here. It's a warts-and-all type thing.
A few things I never knew about Adams that I learned from the book and that were explored in the first 2 parts of the series:
- He was the defense attorney/barrister for the English soldiers that were involved in the Boston Massacre and won their acquittal.
- He was the only "founding father" that never owned slaves because he considered the practice "abhorrent" and a "sin."
- He hand-picked Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence because he admired Jefferson's "art with the pen." Before then, Jefferson, a delegate from Virginia, had very little say in the Continental Congress because of his admitted "lack of oratory skills". It wasn't until a chance encounter outside the building in Philly that Adams recognized Jefferson's shared hatred of the British Crown. Because of the wealth of that colony, Adams thought that having a delegate from Virginia write the Declaration would help the idea's popularity.
- He nominated George Washington to lead the "Continental Army" that would reinforce the Massachusetts militia after Lexington and Concord. Washington accepted Adams' nomination.
- Even when the colonies had finally come to a 9-4 affirmative vote to end their allegiance to Britain, Adams, who had been pushing for independence from the outset of the Cont. Congress, maintained that the colonies would have to vote unanimously, either way, so as not to divide themselves.
Before the book, I knew the guy as the 2nd president, the father of
John Q, and a separatist. I never knew just how much Jefferson, Franklin, Pierce, Washington--indeed the country-to-be, were affected by the guy. As a delegate of Massachusetts, which was under British siege long before the war, he brought the colonies together to engage in a revolution that they all felt would be lost, but that should be fought on the principle that human rights are inherent in being human. They couldn't be granted nor suspended by a Monarch.
Laura Linney is in it too. She's older now, but I still think she's hot.
Edited by banj0, 17 March 2008 - 06:41 AM.