Series Review: John Adams on HBO

John Adams, a seven-part series which originally aired on Home Box Office (HBO) in 2008, a historic year of America’s economic crash and the election of Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency, denigrates America. This eminently regarded and numerously awarded television series, produced by Tom Hanks by his Playtone company, is not a total disaster. John Adams, by depicting one of America’s founding fathers—a great man and patriot who created the nation based on individual rights—is relatively distinct in today’s anti-American culture.

The series, like the Broadway musical and movie 1776, damns Americanism with deviation, error and muted praise. Written by Kirk Ellis, directed by Tom Hooper and led by Paul Giamatti in the title role, John Adams amounts to a maudlin melodrama which at times is barely coherent. It’s sprinkled with fragmented quotations of noble ideas from great men. This last part includes the ideas of Adams, whose role in history is only partly known to this writer. But in …