Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Two for Tuesday - John Adams

This is the best television I have seen in, maybe, forever. Now granted, I am a history nerd who's tastes run to History International, (I made my daughter watch a show about the Hitler Diary Frauds last weekend - no wonder she actually wants to grow up). Anyway, this is an Oulsham Movie Review, so stop distracting me.

The HBO mini-series "John Adams" is everything television could be but is too lazy to acheive. The writing, cinematography and set designs are all spectacular. Tom Hanks produced it and he should be given a great deal of praise. It jumps through David McCullough's book a little making it hard to follow on occasion, but the good far outweighs this minor bad.

In particular, Paul Giamatti is brilliant, believable and empathetic as John Adams, and Laura Linney is amazing as Abigail - a true American hero who gets too little respect.

The miniseries ends this Sunday and I will surely miss it when it's gone. If you haven't seen it yet, HBO is running all the episodes back-to-back on Sunday - I heartily recommend it.

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