Sacramento Republicrat

Oh, how John Adams would have loved that out of all his fellow Founding Fathers, he’s the first to get the deluxe HBO miniseries treatment. Not Franklin, Jefferson or Washington — but a squat man of towering temper, possessing an ambition and ego as grand as his visionary intellect and a revolutionary passion for liberty.

John Adams, based on David McCullough’s acclaimed biography, is as sumptuous and satisfying as TV gets: gorgeously produced, marvelously acted and written with a sense of high drama amid generous displays of wit.

Befitting such an enduring love story, Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney are splendid as America’s second First Couple. At home, when John sheds his wig and attitude, they’re equals: “You do not need to quote great men to show you are one,” Abigail chides him, all the while acknowledging her husband’s indisputable greatness.

As his ardent champion and best and most loving critic, she truly does complete him. They ache for each other’s company and counsel during his long absences as he tends to history and she minds the family and farm.

Linney’s wry warmth meshes with Giamatti’s restless bluster, rendering Adams admirable even when unlikable. He’s combative and impatient, whether debating independence in Congress or awkwardly practicing diplomacy in Europe. He bristles with envy when upstaged by his more admired peers, each sharply played: Tom Wilkinson as the witty Franklin, Stephen Dillane as the urbane Jefferson and David Morse as a Washington of quiet dignity.

“You are not meant to sit in the shade of life,” a colleague assures him. Indeed, John Adams emerges from the pages of history as a dynamic hero of ideas in this dazzling TV event.

I wish we could just re-construct the Government in the design of the Framers.

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