John Adams Episode 6

This was another flash of an episode. Time moved so quickly that really important moments were dealt with in an extremely cursory fashion. While the war with France (that never was) was the subject of this episode I felt like the background as to why it was happening was not sufficiently explained. The problem in this instance and with this series has finally become clear to me, which is terrific because I have not been able to put my finger on it till now.

A story about the time of the founding of the United States of America is extremely incomplete if you focus on a single founder. John Adams was an integral part of the creation of the USA, however, he was no more essential than Jefferson, Hamilton, Washington, Franklin, or countless other founders. Therefore, much of the picture remains cloudy to anyone who is not a student an adept student of US history.

I know this is an odd complaint coming from a history teacher but the show is asking it audience to skip some of the most interesting parts of the story. They ask this of us in exchange for a character study of one founder. Though even the character study is imperfect because we are rushing so quickly through his life that I feel we are cheated valuable insight into this mans mind.

Finally I have a major complaint with this particular episode. The way the creative forces of this series pinned one of our early governments greatest tactical mistakes (The Alien and Sedition Acts) on Abigail was extremely frustrating. Abigail up to this point has been depicted as a moderating force on her husband. To have her willingly through the Constitution of the United States out the window because some people wrote nasty things about her husband seemed out of character and inconsistent (though it did make for some humor in an otherwise very humorless series).